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CHAPTER XVII.

THE THEATRE.

1. This world, decry it as we choose, is a beautiful and magnificent world. Who can look to the sun, and moon, and stars, and to the azure vault above us, or to the mountains and vales, the oceans and rivers around us, and not feel astonishment and awe, delight and joy? We reflect on the magnitudes, the distances, and the velocities of what we call the heavenly bodies, and our feelings become more and more lively and intense. We can only

say,

"

man.

Come, then, expressive Silence! muse His praise."

2. We pass to the labours and achievements of Now we look to populous cities, or to splendid mansions; to palaces, temples, castles, and towers; or to ships, those houses that float on the bosom of the ocean, impelled by the winds, and guided by the compass.-But we may enter into the dwellings of the great and opulent, and a new series of striking objects is presented to our view, as we gaze on the productions of the statuary or the painter, or as we listen to the ravishing notes of music. What monu

ments of genius, taste, and art!

3. Here we may pause and think. The whole

Creation is the work of the Infinite Mind. The works of man are the products of finite minds. Yes: and from the material and visible we turn to the spiritual and invisible. The higher wonders of existence, as our own consciousness assures us, are to be found in what is unseen; in what falls under the province of faith, not of sense. Here we have the solemn and the permanently interesting; not the theatre, with its lamps, and tapestry, and countless decorations, but the actors, spiritual and undying beings.

4. And is it not well to send forth our souls in the exercise of faith, in the light of divine truth, into the invisible world; which is never at a distance from us, and with which we shall be soon familiar: for short is the span of threescore years and ten, though we may fondly deem it long? What is it when gone but as a fleeting and troubled dream?

5. But what is this world? A theatre on which we act our part, not merely as the social inhabitants of earth, bound together by a thousand bands of love and interest and necessity, but as spiritual and moral beings, soon to mingle with agents in a higher sphere.

6. Here our employments are often wearisome, often mean, as we put forth our strength and ingenuity in moulding and arranging some of the earthly materials around us; the tree of the forest, the stone of the quarry, the treasures or the ground upon which we walk.

of the mine, But we look

forward to a state of being where, freed from the encumbrance and wants of the body, our souls will be exclusively engaged in services congenial to their

nature.

7. We only look rightly on this visible stage when we consider it with an immediate reference to our souls and to an eternal state. What crowds of feeble beings are continually entering upon the stage! What crowds of feeble beings are continually quitting it! In the one case we see the tenderness of infancy; in the other, the decrepitude of age.

8. Between the entrance and the exit, how short at most is the interval! And this short period is human life; in which our energies are unfolded, our faculties exerted, our principles, passions, and affections brought into full exercise, and (how can we possibly forget it?) that character is formed which

we are to sustain for ever.

9. Here is the great fact, which ought to make the giddy thoughtful and the gay serious: for during the few moments spent in writing or reading these lines, how many immortal beings have entered upon this earthly stage; born to know the toil and change, the joy and sorrow of human life; and how many have passed from it into eternity, where there is no change!

10. A theatre crowded with souls, who are always pressing onward to their departure hence such is this world; such it has been from age to age; and such it will be until the purpose of God with regard

to the human race is accomplished. We are here only as it were for a few moments: we tread upon the earth, look around us, plume our wings, take our flight, and are seen no more by those whom we leave behind us.

11. How wonderful is man! How interesting is his condition! But do not most persons disregard the true character of this world, and also their own nature and circumstances? They look to the body and its concerns, and forget the soul and its concerns. The material world, the mere husk, is every thing in their esteem; and the spiritual world is reduced to a mere nothing. They treat life, in spite of experience and conviction, as if they held it in perpetuity, and allow the moment of departure to arrive without any preparation for it. What folly! what delusion!

12. We plan and study; we labour to-day and to-morrow; we are prudent and persevering: and if we succeed and prosper, if we gain riches or fame, if we grasp the object we had in view; then we are pleased; we have realised our wishes; we have done well for ourselves, and for those around us: we have lived for some purpose.-Dan. iv. 30.

13. Converse with a man of the world on his death-bed. "I have enjoyed all that the world had to give me: I have been respected among men: I leave behind me an unspotted name: and my children will find themselves in good circumstances.” What a statement is this for a Christian to make at

the close of life! How many can say little or nothing more!

14. We wish men to consider themselves as spiritual beings, and to recollect that one great fact in our earthly existence is this; "We are all day by day gathering about us those moral elements which will be our glory or shame, our happiness or our torment, for ever." At the hour of death, the last seal will be set upon the characters of men; "He that is filthy, let him be filthy still:" or, "He that is holy, let him be holy still."

15 It will be well to lay to heart, that earthly riches, honours, pleasures, and renown will only follow us to the grave; but our virtues and vices, our good deeds and our bad deeds, will go with us beyond it. If this were duly considered, would it not lead men to see, that spiritual good is the great good, and that spiritual evil is the great evil; and in comparison with which the temporal good and evil of this world is but a fleeting shadow.

16. How has sin blinded man, blunted his feelings, and perverted all his powers! How heedless, trifling, deluded, and presuming are the multitude of mankind! Born for heaven, they gravitate to earth; Sin their master, Folly their guide, and Vanity and Vexation their recompense. Some are as beetles in the mire; others are as butterflies upon the wing. Consider, frail mortal! and examine thyself; what thou art, how thou art acting, and whither thou art going.