206 THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST, 



how infinitely more horrible for the sinner to find him- 

 self suddenly grasped by the terrors of the Almighty, 

 with despair, his only portion, and that night of eternal 

 anguish about to close upon him which will know 

 no morning. While the guilty soul thus stands 

 shivering on the brink of the eternal gulph, who can 

 paint its agonies ? In comparison of banishment from 

 the presence of God, and from the light of his coun- 

 tenance, what are all the horrors of winter ? In com- 

 parison of the tempest of his wrath, what is the dead- 

 liest blast which freezes up the current of blood in the 

 veins of the traveller, shuts up sense, — 



* And o'er Lis inmost vitals creeping cold, 

 Lays him along the snows, a stiflFen'd corse.* 



Melancholy as these reflections are, they cannot but be 

 salutary, if they lead us to " Seek the Lord while he 

 may yet be found, to call upon him while he is near." 

 As a topic of true consolation and rejoicing, let 

 us remember that it was in the midst of a moral as 

 well as natural winter that Jesus Christ appeared to 

 give light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow 

 of death. At the present season, therefore, when the 

 event of His coming in great humility is every where 

 commemorated, surely it must be the especial duty 



