29. THE DEATH OF FRIENDS.
29. THE DEATH OF FRIENDS.
If we love to converse with our friends, surely I should love to converse much with the unseen world, where all my godly friends are. Several years ago, death swept off all my family into the unseen world.
Thus Providence has torn my family to pieces, blasted my pleasant prospects, plucked up the olive-plant which graced my table, cut down the fruitful vine which flourished by my side; and so desolated me, that I have no near friend to consult with about the affairs of this world, or the concerns of the unseen world.
Now, if there was no other state than this, no other world but the present, surely my situation would be extremely melancholy.
But there is a future state, an unseen world which balances all. So, while the tear starts in my eye from affection to my friends, a triumph rises in my heart, from a knowledge of their felicity. The days of my mourning will come to an end—but their happiness and hosannahs are eternal!