rible. I thought how hard it was for those young as Jerry and I
were, to be summoned to leave the beautiful world which we expected to
enjoy so much. I forgot that numbers young as ourselves had been called
away.

"It is a fact we should all of us attempt to realise," continued Silas.
"We must be judged. Have we gone to the Fountain which washes away all
sins, to be cleansed from our iniquities? Do you trust on Christ, and
Christ alone, as our Saviour, who will acknowledge us as his disciples--
who will present us purified from our sins for acceptance by the Father?
My dear friends, I put before you these great truths, because our
happiness or our misery for that eternity which we are now approaching
depends on them. On what do you trust? Oh, be able to give a
satisfactory answer before it is too late." I will not give the
conversation which followed. It was very brief. The result was, that
each of us turned ourselves to prayer, and prayed as we had never prayed
before. Had we even been more disposed to levity than we were, we could
not but have felt the earnestness of the appeal made to us--the
importance of the subject--the awful truths uttered by our companion.
Darker grew the night--the sea-birds screamed above us--the distant
cliffs grew dimmer, their outline less distinct--the rushing tide earned
us rapidly onwards--the cold wind pierced through our wet clothes, and
sent the spray dashing over us. Shivering, benumbed, hungry and faint,
I felt as if I could no longer retain my hold. Death--death, I thought,
was truly approaching. Still, notwithstanding all Cousin Silas had
said, I did not so much picture the future; I did not even dread it as I
mourned for what I was leaving--the distant home I loved so well, and
all those who so dearly loved me. I thought of the anxiety the
uncertainty of my fate would occasion, the grief when they learned the
truth; and bitter tears burst from my eyes, not for myself, but for them
I loved. I mention the state of my mind and feelings on this awful
occasion for a very important object. It agrees with my own experience,
and all I have heard from others placed in similar situations;--a person
who has been living unprepared for death, for eternity, cannot on a
sudden change the whole current of his thoughts, and fix them on the
awful state into which he is hurrying. If he has not before found peace
with God, there is little hope that he will seek it then. Oh no! the