And there reader, you are going!

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(William Thoseby, "Foot-prints on the Sands of Time" 1869)

" And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" Hebrews 9:27

"For as in Adam all die." 1 Corinthians 15 :22

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" Romans 5:12

Memories of the dearly departed, crowd in upon us all, and often "fill the haunted chambers of the night." Who has not some friend or family member among the past deceased millions?

What is our life? "It is even as a vapor which appears for a little while, and then vanishes away!" Nothing can exempt us from the common lot of humanity.

What is the history of our race? It is a lengthened bill of mortality--a vast Aceldama (field of blood), on whose gates are written, "Lamentation, mourning and woe!"

What are the words that apply alike to all? It is the solemn sentence--"Dust you are, and unto dust shall you return!" Everywhere we meet with the grim and ghastly triumphs of death. In every language you may hear his hoarse, bass voice calling--"Return O children of men!" The pyramids of Egypt, while they are a monument of human labor--are likewise a monument of human mortality. The thickening grave-stones in our cemeteries preach to us their reminder, "Remember death!"

The brief allusions of the inspired writers to the ravages of death are fitted to arrest the attention of our readers:

"Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." Job 14:1-2

"For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." Psalm 90:9-10

"The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass." Isaiah 40:6-7

These are but a few, out of the many, of the ever recurring cries of humanity, respecting the ravages of death. Into how many of our homes has the "King of Terrors" and the terror of kings entered unbidden and smitten down some of our nearest, dearest, and best of friends! May we not ask:

Where is the husband who stood by you at the altar, and under the protection of whose arm you felt secure?

Where is the wife with whom you took sweet counsel, and walked to the house of God, to whose accents you surrender your soul, and to whose language of affection you desired to listen forever?

Where is the father who toiled for you with his brawny arms, and loved you with a manly heart?

Where is the mother who watched over your infancy, hushed you to sleep on her gentle bosom, and tended your sick-bed through many a fevered dream?

Where are the children, those angels of your home over whom you shed your hottest tears?

Are they not gone, some of them at least, to the cold damp bed, the grave, where there is . . .
  no pillow but the cold clay;
  no covering but the sod;
  no curtain but the dark coffin lid;
  no companion but the worm!

And there reader, you are going!

But death is not your final resting-place.

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" Hebrews 9:27

As death leaves you--so judgment shall find you!
As the judgment finds you--so shall eternity keep you!

"Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." Amos 4:12
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