Thank you for visiting SNEWPapers!
Sign up free
Literary
March 14, 1809
The New Hampshire Gazette
Portsmouth, Rockingham County, New Hampshire
What is this article about?
A moral prose reflection warning that youthful indulgence in pleasure and intemperance leads to unreliable deathbed repentance, where afflictions or age force belated reckoning, but last-hour atonement is frail.
Clipping
OCR Quality
98%
Excellent
Full Text
Death Bed Repentance.
When the edge of appetite is worn
down, and the spirit of youthful days
are cooled, which hurried us on in a
circle of pleasure and intemperance,
--then, reason and recollection will
have the weight which they deserve;
--afflictions, or the bed of sickness, will
supply the place of conscience; and
if they should fail, old age will over-
take us at last, and shew us the past
pursuits of life, and force us to look
upon them in their true point of view.
If there is any thing more to cast a
cloud upon so melancholy a prospect
as this shews us, it is surely the difficulty and hazard of having all the
works of the day to perform in the
last hour;--of making an atonement
to God when we have no sacrifice to
offer him, but the dregs and infirmities of those days, when we could have
no pleasure in them. Whatever trespasses
we may lay upon it a death bed repent-
ance is but a weak and slender plank
to trust our all upon.
When the edge of appetite is worn
down, and the spirit of youthful days
are cooled, which hurried us on in a
circle of pleasure and intemperance,
--then, reason and recollection will
have the weight which they deserve;
--afflictions, or the bed of sickness, will
supply the place of conscience; and
if they should fail, old age will over-
take us at last, and shew us the past
pursuits of life, and force us to look
upon them in their true point of view.
If there is any thing more to cast a
cloud upon so melancholy a prospect
as this shews us, it is surely the difficulty and hazard of having all the
works of the day to perform in the
last hour;--of making an atonement
to God when we have no sacrifice to
offer him, but the dregs and infirmities of those days, when we could have
no pleasure in them. Whatever trespasses
we may lay upon it a death bed repent-
ance is but a weak and slender plank
to trust our all upon.
What sub-type of article is it?
Essay
What themes does it cover?
Death Mortality
Moral Virtue
What keywords are associated?
Deathbed Repentance
Youthful Intemperance
Moral Atonement
Sickness Conscience
Old Age Reflection
Literary Details
Title
Death Bed Repentance.
Subject
Reflection On The Futility Of Deathbed Repentance
Form / Style
Prose Meditation On Vice And Atonement
Key Lines
When The Edge Of Appetite Is Worn Down, And The Spirit Of Youthful Days Are Cooled, Which Hurried Us On In A Circle Of Pleasure And Intemperance
Afflictions, Or The Bed Of Sickness, Will Supply The Place Of Conscience
A Death Bed Repentance Is But A Weak And Slender Plank To Trust Our All Upon.