176 RELIGION ON THE SICK-BED. 
in reference to the last hours of Polly Adams, 
which will be found noticed in a subsequent 
page, as well as to some other cases of dying 
persons : 
" Had inquiry been made for examples of 
HAPPY DEATHS, I could have replied with un- 
mitigated satisfaction; for I have seen many 
depart this life, not only happy, but triumphant. 
And herein is, I think, the test of the Christian 
character ; for when we see a person, who for a 
number of years has not only in word, but in 
deed, adorned the doctrine of God our Saviour 
in all things, brought by sickness or casualty 
to the confines of the eternal world, about to 
enter the precincts of the silent grave, yet with 
unabated energy and fervour proclaim his hope 
of a glorious resurrection ; when we see a per- 
son, Buffering the most acute pain, exhorting 
and encouraging others to pursue the same path 
he has trod, telling the love of God to his soul, 
and of his desire to depart, that he may enter 
into the presence of his Redeemer; when we 
witness such unwavering confidence, amid such 
intense sufferings, and when the sanity of the 
patient is undoubted, can we hesitate to say at 
the demise of such an one, ' Let me die the 
death of the righteous, and let my last end be 
like his !' It has been my felicity to witness 
several departures of this description within 
a few years : two from accidents, one from a 
cancer in the breast, one shortly after child- 
birth, and one from disease of the heart. All 
these died in the faith. Some of the diseases 
were lingering, others rapidly fatal ; but in all 
