APOSTROPHE.

Venerable sir, thou hast borne the burdens of the world to the last mile-post.  Thy companions have fallen by the wayside, and even some of them may have gone unbidden to their Judge.  But thou, having in view the dignity of the human mind and the will of God, hast labored while the light was given thee, and hast journeyed while thy strength remained.  Thy destiny is now but opening to thy sight.  Thou lookest through the inner doors and seest that infinite cathedral which openeth beyond the vestibule of death.

     “The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
     Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years;
     But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
     Unhurt amidst the war of elements,
     The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.”

THE FUTURE LIFE.

     Whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
     This longing after immortality? 
     Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,
     Of falling into naught?  Why shrinks the soul
     Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 
     ’Tis the divinity that stirs within us;
     ’Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter,
     And intimates eternity to man. 
     Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought!—­Addison.

“Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.”  So spake the Savior.  “We know,” says Paul, “that all things work together for good to them that love God.  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is my sting?  O grave, where is thy victory?  For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:  henceforth there is laid up for me

A CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS,

which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”  “These things saith He that holdeth the Seven Stars in his right hand:  Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”  These are a few of the bright promises held out to us in the Book of Life.  Are we not blest?  “The joys of heaven,” says Bishop Norris, “are without example, above experience, and beyond imagination, for which the whole creation wants a comparison; we an apprehension; and even the Word of God a revelation.”  “Heaven,” says Shakspeare, “is the treasury of everlasting joy.”  “By heaven we understand a state of happiness,” says Franklin, “infinite in degree, and endless in duration.”  With man’s finite mind man solaces himself with