God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.' A'shout' perhaps denotes the universal joy of heaven, for the arrival of the day when the war is terminated in victory, and the last enemy is destroyed. The blowing of a 'trumpet' may probably allude to that of the jubilee, on which the prison doors were thrown open, and the captives set at liberty. Such were the consolations presented to the Thessalonians, on the death of their christian friends.

Our Lord did not absolutely forbid his apostles to weep at his departure: he himself wept at the grave of Lazarus: but he dissuaded them from excessive grief. 'Let not your heart be troubled.' I think that I never felt what may be called heart trouble, or deep distress, for the loss of any person, however near to me, whose death I considered merely as a removal to the church above. The words of our Saviour are here applicable. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I go to the Father: for my Father is greater than I.' That is, the glory I go to possess with my Father is greater than any thing I could inherit upon earth; and therefore, if ye loved me, and your love operated in a proper way, you would rather be glad for my sake, than sorry for your own.

FINIS.

J. M. Morris, Printer, Bungay.