Morning Star

How to estimate Happiness.

Its true test is the judgment-seat of Christ. Take all the mere worldly happiness which can be gathered, and if we have no other source of joy, what is it, what can it be, to us? It is but a vapor; a fleeting dream, a fading leaf, a dissolving cloud, a passing wave; a withering flower. It is but a shadow, which is soon gone—a garland, that will ere long fade—a slight robe, that will be devoured, like chaff; by the last day's flames, leaving our bereaved spirits defenceless, forlorn, friendless, for ever! That only is true, substantial happiness, which, like gold from the furnace; will come forth even from those flames, purified, and of endless brightness. That only is the abode of true happiness; where sin and sorrow can never come—where bliss is endless, and without alloy—where is an Eden without a serpent, a crown without a cross, a garden without a sepulchre, a rose without a thorn. Once more: we are taught by this subject,

The importance, the imperious necessity of preparing for the scenes to which it points us as so very near. If about to journey to a distant place, you would all admit, and feel too; the necessity of preparing for it. How much more should you feel this necessity; when the journey is to terminate, and that, too, very soon; in mansions of endless joy or wo?

Especially let me urge this consideration upon the children and youth of this congregation, and let it be impressed upon you by the providence, which is the word of God. Within a few days; my dear friends, one of your number has Commenced—or, rather, has ended this journey. Marked by peculiar loveliness, often had she mingled in your enjoyments, and joined you in your studies in yonder hall, and been beside you in the Sabbath school and the Bible class. And I have met her in the room of solemn inquiry, asking, with tearful earnestness, "What shall I do to be saved?" And often have I urged her to accept the offers of the gospel, and yield her heart to the Redeemer, that her soul might be saved. But a few days since, and her health still continued, and her prospects of life were as fair as those of any of you. And
NO. 31.

Then, as in a moment, she was thrown upon the bed of wasting sickness; and when I was called to her bed-side, her reason was stupefied, and death was purpleing her lips, and blanching her cheek; her eyes were closed from weakness, and her breathing was gasping to its final flight; and soon the shroud was her garment, and the coffin her bed, and she was senseless to the flowing tears, and the sobbing grief, and the breaking hearts of parents, and kindred and friends. But a few days since, she was with you; and to-day, the sun is shining on her grave, and her deathless soul is in the world of spirits!

And now, I ask you, my dear friends. are you prepared for that dying chamber and that winding sheet, and that final hour? Ye who were companions of the departed, are you prepared to be seized as in a moment, and borne away to the sepulchre? to follow her as suddenly as she was called, to the judgment, to the unseen world? I come to you with a message from God, entreating you, by this affecting call of his providence, that you prepare to meet him. "To the judgment! to the judgment!" is echoed to you from the grave of your companion, by the voice of conscience, by the strivings of the Spirit, by the word of God—To the judgment—to the judgment, you are passing, as on the wings of the wind, as the arrow through the air, as the lightning through the clouds. Be wise, and prepare for it, lest you be miserable for ever. Prepare for it, and thus be fitted for a happy life, a blissful death, and a glorious immortality. Prepare for it now, while health continues; for a dying hour is the most wretched of all moments in which to prepare for heaven! I repeat it, and I bring the warning from yonder chamber of the dying—would that I could impress it for ever upon every heart!—DYING HOUR THE MOST WRETCHED OF ALL MOMENTS IN WHICH TO PREPARE FOR HEAVEN!—Not Preacher