Besides, the more lovely and engaging the object removed, the more signal and amiable will be your submission, if you cheerfully resign it. Had it been a thousand times more sweet and engaging, it would not have been too good to give to your God. Now, then, let it be seen that your obedience to his will can conquer the strongest of natural affections; and that you consider patience and resignation as more desirable than the sweetest of earthly enjoyments. If, like Abraham, you can give up a child inexpressibly beloved, to God incomparably more beloved, you will have a comfortable evidence of your sincerity.

Plea 3. "Had I enjoyed my child longer, I could. more easily have resigned it. But death nipped it in the bud; and my expectations were raised only to be disappointed."

Sin

Answer. If it died in Christ, its life was sufficiently protracted. The conflict is long enough, if the victory be secured. The shorter the life of your child, the less sin was committed, and the less sorrow endured. and sorrow fill the world. A quick passage through such a world is a special privilege. That parting would have been easier after a longer enjoyment is a mistake. The reverse is true. A tender plant may be easily plucked up; but let it spread and fasten its roots for years, and how hard to remove it! Such are our affections to children and friends. Above all, this thought should tranquillize your mind: your child was removed in God's time; and that time is always fittest and best.

Plea 4. "In losing one, I have lost all. Had I other children, this privation had been less afflictive. But now it is insupportable."

Answer. Religion does not permit us to say of our deceased friends, that they are lost. They are only gone before. Nor can a Christian say he has lost all in one, except that one be Christ; and him he can never lose. Doubtless you mean that you are deprived of all your comfort of this kind. And what if you are? Do there not still remain to you multitudes of comforts,

more precious, more excellent, more durable? Is your portion in this life? Have you not a God who can more than supply the loss of the most beloved of. creatures?

! Plea 5. "I am not only stripped, but have no hope of seeing another child. My comfort in children is gone for ever."

Answer. Bless God that you have better mercies, and higher hopes, than children. Peruse the promise, Isa. lvi. 4, 5. And further, if God denies you comfort from children, resolve to draw your comfort more entirely from himself. You will be no loser by the exchange. In one hour's communion with God, you will find an enjoyment which the happiest of parents never found in children.

Plea 6. 66

My bereavement was sudden and unexpected. My beloved relative was taken without the least warning."

Answer. You could not be ignorant that your relatives were frail dying creatures. And it was your duty to live in habitual expectation of the parting stroke. You likewise saw other parents, husbands, and wives conveying their dead to their long home: and what were these but warnings to you'

Further; what you consider the sting of your affliction others would have regarded as a favour. They have witnessed with agony the gradual and most distressing approaches of death to their sick friends. Some of the tenderest of parents and friends have even been compelled to implore, upon their knees, that the parting moment might be hastened, and an end put to pains and sufferings more terrible than death.

Plea 7. "I neglected the proper means and precautions for preserving life. I have reason to apprehend that, but for this negligence and inconsideration, my relative might have been living; and this is inexpressibly grievous."

Answer.

It is wrong to neglect means; and it is wrong to ascribe too much to them. The best of them are utterly fruitless without God's blessing. When his

`appointed time was come, this blessing was withheld; and that it had come in the present case is manifest from the event. This consideration should quiet your mind, now the event is known; though, while it was uncertain, it should not have prevented any exertions.

But do you not charge yourself. unjustly? It may be you doubted what course to pursue. Having observed many to die under the hands of physicians, and many to recover without them; or not thinking the present case hazardous, you omitted to call them. Or among various courses prescribed, you preferred that which you now think the least proper. Yet you followed the best light you had. In either case, you have no reason for severe reflections on yourself. Because the event is unfavourable, to be vexed that you pursued the dictates of your judgment is to be vexed that you are not omniscient. For none but the omniscient can

foresee future events.

Again; seasons of affliction are apt to be seasons of temptation. The adversary then frequently charges us with sins of which we are not guilty; and frequently magnifies our mistakes into sins. Indeed, had yours been a voluntary neglect,-had you preferred hazarding the life of your friend to parting with a little money, you would have much reason to reproach yourself; for great would have been your guilt. But probably this was not the case; and if so, your vexation is unreasonable and wrong.

Plea 8. "Were I assured that the deceased friend, or child, is with Christ, I should be quiet. But alas! I fear the contrary; and the very thought is overwhelming."

Answer.

Admit that you have real ground of fear. It is a distressing case indeed; and to a pious heart almost overwhelming. Still, you can have no reason to murmur against the dispensations of God. Consider his adorable sovereignty over the souls which he has made. Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God? What if the Lord does not see fit to bestow his special mercies on those most dear to us? Is there

Aaron had the un,

Yet

any wrong done to them, or to us? utterable distress to see his two sons cut off by God's immediate hand, and in the very act of sin. Aaron held his peace. God plainly signified to Abraham that the covenant should not be established with Ishmael, for whom he so earnestly prayed. And though he probably concluded that there was no salvation out of the covenant, yet he piously acquiesced.

.Consider, further, God's distinguishing love and mercy to you. What thanks do you owe that root and branch have not been cast together into the fire? What thanks that the Lord has given you good hope, through grace, that it shall be well with you to eternity. Let the thought fill you with grateful astonishment, and awe you into a holy, trembling submission to the inscrutable decree of Heaven.

But further; examine the ground of your fear. There may be less reason for it than you apprehend. Perhaps your child died in infancy. As to infants at large, we may safely leave them in the hands of a Being infinite in justice, infinite in mercy.

Perhaps your child had passed infancy; but did not exhibit, in life or death, that decisive evidence of grace which you wished. Yet if his mind was tender, and his deportment exemplary,—if he escaped the pollutions of the world, and made conscience of sin and duty, you have reason to be thankful. There may have been found in him, as in young Abijah, some good thing towards the Lord. A natural modesty and reserve may have led him to conceal from you some things which, had they been known, would have convinced you of his piety. If there was the faintest spark of grace in his bosom, it was not overlooked by him who despiseth not the day of small things.

But however this may be, he is now beyond your reach. He is gone to an omniscient, righteous, and merciful Judge. Your duty lies, not in indulging curious or anxious inquiries respecting his state, but in improving the bereavement to the glory of God, and your own spiritual good.

Plea 9. "I fear this visitation is a special punishment for my sin, in idolizing the object withdrawn; at least, in not loving it so spiritually as I ought."

Answer. If your love was not spiritual and pure (a sin too common, even among Christians), you have reason for humiliation, but not for despondence. Perhaps, your conscience, now particularly tender, paints your guilt in its strongest colours. But admit what you apprehend, that God has afflicted you for your sin, and removed the comfort because it was idolized; you have no reason to sink under the affliction. This may be in love to your soul. "As many as I love," says he, "I rebuke and chasten." How much better, that God should remove your idolized enjoyment, than that he should say of you, as of Ephraim, "He is joined to idols: let him alone." How much better to be chastened than to be cast off for ever.

Plea 10. 66 "I hoped to have left to my beloved children the fruits of my cares and toils. But I am disappointed and all my worldly possessions can afford me no comfort."

Answer. Many of your acquaintance are destitute both of children and wealth. If, though deprived of one, you are indulged the other, you have far greater reason for gratitude than for discontent. Consider, too, though you have no children, God has many children in the world, whom your wealth may comfort and refresh. And doubtless your charity to them will turn to greater account, than leaving a great estate to your posterity. Surely we were not sent into this world to amass great estates for our children. If you have too eagerly pursued this object your folly is justly 'rebuked. Bless God that you have yet an opportunity to honour him eminently with your substance. And since other executors are denied, let your own hands distribute to the necessities of the saints. So shall the blessing of those who are ready to perish come upon you.

Plea 11. "The pleasant words and actions of my departed child are constantly recurring to memory, and wounding my heart anew."