"And when Jacob had made an end of commanding he sona le gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost" Gen X 33 decked with the painted splendours of meridian light, to scenes of stillness, darkness, and death-like sleep. There is, however, in the setting of the sun of life that which is equally grand, still more solemn, and surpassingly sublime. For The sun is but a spark of fire- Shall never die. The SOUL, of origin divine, God's glorious image, freed from clay, In heaven's eternal sphere shall shine, Though the soul, by virtue of its immortality, and the eternal interests connected with it, is thus infinitely superior to the sun, which is but a mass of inanimate matter, and which, when it has served its purpose, shall be blotted out, yet there are several striking analogies between the setting of the sun of nature, and the setting of the sun of life, which suggest profitable considerations. In speaking of a human sunset, we restrict our thoughts to those only who die in the Lord, and so sleep in Jesus. The sun when it sets has run a whole day's circuit; his pathway has apparently traversed an entire arc of the heavens, and slowly, patiently, but surely, it has done its allotted work. And so the aged Christian, when he dies, is described as having "run his race," as having "finished his course." He has perhaps traversed the allotted distance of human life. He has passed |