22 DEATH A SLEEP. DEATH A SLEEP. REV. JOHN HARRIS. So ample and sufficient are the preparatory measures which Christ has taken for the final extinction of death, that he speaks of it in terms of comparative disparagement and indifference. So effectually is it disarmed and mutilated, and so completely at the disposal of Christ, that he speaks of it already as if it were not. Whosoever believeth in me shall never die." "If a man keep my sayings, he shall never taste of death; he shall never see death." In accordance with these representations, he has given the state of death the soft and tranquillizing name of sleep. 66 "For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him."-1 THESSALONIANS iv. DEATH AND SLEEP. KRUMMACHER. IN brotherly embrace walked the Angel of Sleep and the Angel of Death upon the earth. It was evening. They laid themselves down upon a hill not far from the dwelling of men. A melancholy silence prevailed around, and the chimes of the evening bell, in the distant hamlet, ceased. Still and silent, as was their custom, sat these two beneficent genii of the human race, their arms entwined with cordial familiarity; and soon the shades of night gathered around them. Then arose the Angel of Sleep from his mossgrown couch, and strewed with a gentle hand the invisible grains of slumber. The evening breeze wafted them to the quiet dwelling of the tired husbandman, infolding in sweet sleep the inmates of the rural cottage, from the old man upon the staff down to the infant in the cradle. The sick forgot their pain; the mourners their grief; the poor their care. All eyes closed. His task accomplished, the benevolent Angel of Sleep laid himself again by the side of his grave brother. "When Aurora awakes," exclaimed he, with innocent joy, "men praise me as their friend and benefactor. O, what happiness, unseen and secretly, to confer such benefits! How blessed are we to be the invisible messengers of the Good Spirit! How beautiful is our silent calling!" So spake the friendly Angel of Slumber. 24 HE GIVETH HIS BELOVED SLEEP. The Angel of Death sat with still deeper melancholy on his brow, and a tear, such as mortals shed, appeared in his large dark eyes. "Alas!" said he, "I may not, like thee, rejoice in the cheerful thanks of mankind; they call me, upon the earth, their enemy and joy killer." "O my brother," replied the gentle Angel of Slumber, "and will not the good man, at his awakening, recognize in thee his friend and benefactor, and gratefully bless thee in his joy? Are we not brothers, and ministers of one Father?" As he spoke, the eyes of the Death Angel beamed with pleasure, and again did the two friendly genii cordially embrace each other. "HE GIVETH HIS BELOVED SLEEP." BISHOP SPENCER. I TREAD the churchyard's path alone, Where doubting Mary went to weep. The world is but a feverish rest, And glory's hard-earned crown is riven. Here, softer than the dews of even Yes, on the grave's hard pillow rise And heavenward all our visions grow. The airs of Eden round us flow, And in their balm our slumbers steep. God calls his chosen home, and so "He giveth his beloved sleep." Ah! vainly would the human voice, In those high realms where joy is holy- If on that brow, so fair and young, Man gives his loved ones pain and sorrow, 26 THE DEATH BED. THE DEATH BED. THOMAS HOOD. WE watched her breathing through the night, So silently we seemed to speak, As we had lent her half our powers Our very hopes belied our fears, We thought her dying when she slept, For when the morn came dim and sad, "We spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if, by reason of strength, they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow: for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."-PSALM XC. |