MR. LYTTELTON. I have frequently admired that passage, my Lord, and consider it as one of the most favourable examples of the consolations of heathen philosophy.

BISHOP HOUGH. What, however, are these faint glimmerings of unassisted reason, compared with the divine light of Revelation, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day?

-My strength indeed declines and my end approaches; but I am most grateful that the moderate degree of understanding which God has been pleased to give me, is not impaired and I have a consoling hope, that when our SAVIOUR shall come in all his glory to judge mankind, you and I, with all

faithful people, shall

through the merits of our

mercy of GoD, and the REDEEMER, find a place at his right hand. What our portion may be in that kingdom, is known only to his Father and himself: but this is revealed to us, that at his right hand are pleasures above our conception to all eter-: nity. I have no doubt but that I have lengthened my life and preserved my health, by the calmness and composure which I derive from frequent meditation on this subject; for what can be more delightful and invigorating to the mind, than to contemplate with the eye of faith, a period now no longer distant, when I shall arrive at the eternal mansion, where the glory of Gon shall lighten it, and the LAMB

shall be the light thereof? The earthly house of this pilgrimage shall then be dissolved, and I shall have a building of GoD, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; and shall exclaim with the Apostle, "I have

61

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."-The sun shall then be no more my light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto me; but the LORD shall be my everlasting light, and our GoD shall be my glory..

-Nation shall not then lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more: for there shall be no

more death, neither sorrow, nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain. And is not this a subject, my

dear friends, to awaken all the enthusiasm of gratitude in my breast, and abundantly to recompence for the little aches and pains, the weaknesses and infirmities, of old age? With these contemplations present during the day, and always ready to tranquillize my waking hours at night, is it wonderful that I should with so little suffering or anxiety, have advanced to my ninetieth year? or that I should exclaim, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,—nor things present, nor things to come, nor heighth, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate me

from the love of God, which is in CHRIST JESUS our Lord.-The calm and steady perseverance, with which the martyrs for our faith in the times of primitive Christianity, and the victims of bigotry in our latter days, have endured all the torments which malice and ingenuity could invent and inflict, has ever been a subject of admiration and astonishment to the world. If, however, we reflect that these contemplations must have been present to the mind; and that they then anticipated with hope and faith, the blessed regions to which they were immediately advancing, and the glory and felicity prepared for them, their steadfastness and constancy become less matter of wonder. It was