1793] ^^'^" WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 387 



dust ! Proud towers and pyramids, the wonders of the world and the 

 pride of ages, are overthrown and trampled under foot ! Holy temples 

 and altars, and those also who have ministered before them, have shared 

 the general doom ! And this great fabric of the world itself, the sun, 

 the moon and the stars, shall submit to death, or a change similar to 

 death; yet, like the body of man, peradventure, to be renewed again, 

 and kindled up into fresh and everlasting lustre ! 



Since, then, the most solid and sumptuous works of man, and even 

 this glorious creation, the work of God himself, are doomed to changes, 

 to decay and to death, what are we, poor earthlings and creatures of a 

 day, to hope for an everlasting continuance amidst this transient and 

 perishable scene ? Or why should we be afraid when our change draws 

 near? 



The true reason is, "Our want of faith in God and union with Christ 

 Jesus, through the grace of his divine spirit." We do not imitate those 

 blessed saints and first followers of Christ, who are described in our 

 text, by striving to disentangle our souls and thoughts from this world, 

 and to send them forward in earnest longings after heaven and immor- 

 tality. We do not seat ourselves by faith in the company of angels and 

 archangels ; nor seek to anticipate the joys of the life to come. Our 

 conversation is not in heaven, nor are we looking to our Redeemer 

 from thence ; nor do our souls thirst nor our flesh long after the living 

 God. 



But, on the contrary, like unweaned babes, we hang upon the breasts 

 of this earth. We suck poison out of it to our very souls; we cleave to 

 it — we walk — nay, we grovel upon our bellies here, as unclean beasts, 

 instead of lifting our eyes to heaven with the holy pride and ambition 

 of angels ! 



Hence, then, comes our fear of death, because we seek to have our 

 portion in this world, and not in the world to come, never considering 

 what comfortable words Christ tells us, that " if any man keep his say- 

 ings he shall never see death;" for Christ hath slain death, and 

 ''brought life and immortality to light by the gospel." 



The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the grave ; but 

 our union with Christ gives us the victory. If we die in the faith of 

 Jesus, death is only a sleep in his bosom, and the grave is only the 

 vestry-room, where we enter (as we said before) to put off the old rags 

 of our mortality, to be clothed upon anew, and to come forth, fresh and 

 refulgent, in the rich dress and embroidery of heaven. 



It shall be my endeavor (ye mournful brethren and sisters), in my 

 subsequent occasional discourses before you, from this luminous text, to 

 examine and weigh, in the scales of Religion, Reason and Philosophy, 

 those good things, commonly so-called, by which too many are drawn 

 (as already expressed) to "hang upon the breasts of this world, and to 

 suck poison from them to their very souls." I shall further strive to 



