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the countenance and bidding us pass from Earth to the Spirit Land ! but 

 when these trials shall reach us : — when we shall each in our lot go down 

 before the puissant arm of him, who breaks the sword of valor, and 

 takes the diadem from the brow of kings — when the veil shall part before 

 jour spirit's eye and mine, and the gales of eternity shall freshen upon 

 our souls, God alone knows ! Sometimes danger and death show them- 

 selves in the distance, and with slow and steady step gradually approach, 

 letting us know, that they aim at us and ours, and that their office and 

 work is with us ; at other times they draw nigh wdth steady tread — noise- 

 less, silent, unperceived they gather round ; their presence is but recog- 

 nized in their attack^in the marks of their desolation— in the affixing of 

 an unchanging seal which cannot be mistaken, and which can neither 

 he blotted out, nor broken I All ma}^ be quiet without, and calm within ; 

 and there may be no sense of danger, and no fear— but Death is there, and 

 sudden destruction. The veil of Eternity sometimes parts as in the twink- 

 ling of an eye and the soul without sign or token, or note or warning, is 

 in the spirit land, summoned to the presence of God, its Infinite Judge! 

 Ah, Friends ! the text is true, " Man knoweth not his time/^ The sons of 

 men are oftentimes snared in sudden calamity ; there is an awful, a fear-* 

 ful uncertainty as to what is before us, when w^e shall be called on to lay 

 aside these vestments of mortality, and to stand before Jehovah God our 

 Judge ! Then is it not wise ?— would it not be well to have our prepara- 

 tion work well and early done, that we may stand ready, and waiting for 

 the coming of the Son of Man ? " Man knoweth not his Time^as the fish 

 are taken in a net, as the birds are caught in a snare, so are the sons of 

 men snared in an evil when it falleth suddenly upon them/' My Text 

 has been selected, and the train of thought just indulged in, suggested) 

 1 ty one of those fearful incidents of life which alike startle and appall ! 

 Tidings of them fall not listlessly on human ears, they fail not deeply, 

 and painfully to affect human hearts I It is no ordinary death scene that 

 we chronicle ; nor is it the departure from the scenes of time of any ordi- 

 nary man, that we have met in the Sanctuary to meditate upon ! Elisha 

 Mitchell ! the loved and venerated— -the astute and wise— ^the man of 

 God and Christian Minister, lies low in death ! He is no more of earthy 

 for God hath taken him up to the scenes of the spiritual) and caused him 

 to mingle in the realities of the eternal world ! His family are bereft of 

 their Head — no more shall he guide them by his counsels, nor at morning 

 and evening lead their devotions ; — the temple of Science has had extin- 

 y;ui6hed in him one of its living lights, and taken down and removed is 

 one of its stalwart pillars I The Church of God and its courts have in him 

 lost an advocate — a judicious counsellor^ and prized presbyter! His seat 

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