said he) any
of you were making money at the rate of fifty dollars an hour,--(I dare
say you do so sometimes, reflected I, when you get a good price for
your "niggers,")--how rich you would soon be! and how anxious that not
a single hour should be lost! But the child of God is laying up
treasure at a faster rate than this. Every time he works for God, he is
laying it up. The Christian's treasure is also of the right kind, and
laid up in the right place. If any of you were going to emigrate to
another country, you would be anxious to know what sort of money was
current in that country, and to get yours changed into it. The
Christian's treasure is the current coin of eternity. It is also in the
right place. Where would you like to have your treasure? Why, at home.
The Christian's treasure is at home--in his Father's house. Life is his
also, because during it he fights the battles of the Lord. Here the
preacher made an approving reference to the war against the Mexicans;
and I strongly suspect that this view of the Christian's inheritance
was dragged in for the very purpose. We fight (said he) under the eye
of the General. We fight with a certainty of victory. Death too was, in
the fourth place, a portion of the Christian's inheritance. To the
people of God curses are made blessings, and to those who are not his
people blessings are made curses. So sickness, persecution, and death
are made blessings to the saints. Death to the Christian is like an
honourable discharge to the soldier after the toil and the danger of
the field of strife. But that illustration (said he) is too feeble: I
will give you another. Imagine, on a bleak and dreary mountain, the
humble dwelling of two old people. They are bending under the weight of
years. Amidst destitution and want, they are tottering on the verge of
the grave. A messenger comes, and tells them of a relative who has
died, and left them a large inheritance,--one by which every want will
be supplied, and every desire realized,--one that will, the moment they
touch it with the soles of their feet, make them young again: he
points, moreover, to the very chariot that is to convey them thither.
Would this be bad news to those old people? Now, such is death to the
child of God. The cord is cut, and the spirit takes its flight to the
abodes of the blest. Or take another illustration. A stage-coach was
once upset. Many of the passengers were in great danger. One man
snatched a little babe fro