the echo will not answer “wo;” if a man always keeps on the right road to Jerusalem he will not find himself in Babylon at the end of his journey; he who tries to serve God faithfully during life will never find himself abandoned by God in death. I never could find any reason for believing those stories that we read sometimes about people who have spent years serving God in solitude, and who yielded to temptation in their last moments and died an unhappy death. Nonsense! the promises of the God of truth cannot be broken. If those tales are true, as far as the end of them is concerned, then I say that it is not true that those men lived really holy lives, but for a long time they must have been subject to pride or other secret vices that were hidden from the eyes of men, and that laid the foundation of an unhappy death. I cannot form such a despicable opinion of my heavenly Father as to think that He would be capable of throwing one of His dear children off His lap at the last moment, and casting him into the jaws of the hellish wolf. Nor can I think any man such a fool as to change all of a sudden, when the gate of heaven is actually open for him, to renounce God and give himself to the devil, damn himself forever after having worked so long and so hard to get to heaven. No; as a man lives, so shall he die. Continue to serve God, and that with joyful hearts; you need not fear death, no matter how, when, or where he comes for you. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints;”[1] “With him that feareth the Lord it shall go well in the latter end, and in the day of his death he shall be blessed.”[2]
Folly of sinners in not being converted in time. Sinners, it is to you that my sermon is principally directed; not through dislike, but through sincere and well-meant love for your souls; not to drive you to despair, but to induce you to amend; not to announce to you such a terrible death, but to give you a paternal warning against it, while you still have time (and who knows how long that time will last?). Tell me; is it really your wish to die such an unhappy death? Do you indeed desire to go into eternity in that manner? Ah, if so, of what good to you is a handful of money, a bit of ground, a short-lived pleasure, a point of honor, or the joy you find in a creature? And that is all for which you abandon your God and commit sin. I ask you again: do you mean to die a bad death for such trump-
