when we are informed that He will ransom His
people from the power of the grave? Shortly it will be all over with you
in your pilgrimage journey. Watch and wait, therefore, for the coming of
the King.

On earth, here and now, those who die in the Lord have attentively
listened to His kind remonstrances, concerning reconciliation and
entire renunciation of every false hope of heaven only through faith in
the name of Jesus. They realize that God's methods of mercy are
peculiarly calculated to impart peace in the hour of sickness and
death. They see the city which hath foundations whose builder and maker
is God, where the inhabitants say, "I am sick, I am weary no more."
They know that their Redeemer liveth, and though worms may destroy the
body, yet in their flesh they shall see God. They know there are realms
where

The voices of song never cease 'neath a burden of tears,
And the music falls sweet from those radiant spheres.

God's children on earth are remarkable for their love to Christ and His
Church, and delight to meditate on the glories of heaven. Hence when
death comes they are prepared to enter upon their purchased
possessions, for which they habitually awaited with bright
anticipations, knowing full well that He that had promised is able also
to perform.

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven, but He that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven." "For to be carnally minded is death (death eternal), but to be
spiritually minded is life and peace."

Henry says, "The _Providence_ that removes God's saints has a loved
voice which crieth in the city to the survivors. The death of the saints
speaketh the evil of sin." It is owing to that they die, for "the body
is dead because of sin." It speaks the vanities of life, and of all its
delights and enjoyments; for if the favorites of heaven are dying daily,
and going out of this world it is a sign that the things of this world
are not the best things, else those whom God loves best would not be
taken soonest from them. It speaks that all things come alike to all,
and that one event happeneth to the righteous and to the wicked, "so
that none knows love or hatred by all that is before him in this world."
But he that would know it must look before him into the invisible world.
Lay your ears this day to the coffins and graves of departed saints, who
though they do not pray for us, yet preach to us in the wo