Page 339 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

338 THIRD BOOK OF
most of the ancient religions consecrated the ashes of the dead, none of them ever thought of preparing the soul r that "undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns." Come and behold the most interesting spectacle that earth can exhibit; come and see the Christian expire. He hath ceased to be a creature of this world; he hath . ceased to' belong to his native country; all connexion between him and society is at an end. For him the calcula­ tion by time is closed ; and he is now begun to date om the grand era of eternity. A Priest seated by his pillow administers consolation. The servant of God cheers him with the prospect of immortality; and the sublime scene which all antiquity exhibited but· once in the greatest of its dying philosophers, is
daily renewed on the humblest pallet of the meanest Christian who expires. At length the decisive mo­ ment arrives ;-a sacrament opened r this just man the gates of the world-a sacrament closes them. Religion rocked him in the cradle oflife; her soothing voice and her maternal hand shall also lull him to sleep on the couch of death. His soul, nearly set ee om his body, becomes almost visible in his ce. Already he hears the concerts of the sera­ phim ; already he prepares to speed his ight om the world to the regions whither hope invites him. e dies,-yet his last sigh was inaudible ; he ex­
pires,-and long after he is no more, his iends keep silence around his bed, under the persuasion that he is only slumbering;-so gentle and so easy is the departure of this Christian. "Let me die the death of the just, and let my last end be like to theirs."
CHATEAUBRIAND.