missionaries falling into the grave ere they have been permitted to labor
to any considerable degree for the conversion of the heathen. Did we not
feel perfectly satisfied in relation to the wisdom and mercy of the great
Head of the church, we might well fold our hands and ask, "Will God be
angry forever?" But who does not know that Jehovah is able to accomplish
more by our deaths than _we_ are able to accomplish by our lives? Who does
not know that, from the very ashes of the tomb, he can send up a voice
which will echo amid the shades of night and thrill the cold hearts of
degraded men?

They who despond, as the tidings of woe come borne to us on almost every
breeze which sweeps across the ocean, have lost sight of Him who holds in
his hand the issues of life and the awful realities of death. These have
drawn their eyes from the immutable promises and the ever-present Helper,
and fixed them on the tomb, and the corpse, and the pale mementoes of
mortality. They have ceased to reason like Christian men, and look at God's
providence through the misty vision of scepticism and doubt.

Men admit that certain laws control the world of planets, the world of
animal life, the world of intellect and reason; but seem not to have the
idea that the providences are all under God's control, and regulated by
fixed and certain laws. The sparrow that flits from bush to tree, and the
mighty angel that wheels in everlasting circles around God's throne, are
alike under divine protection. The feeblest insect which creeps upon the
earth, and the highest archangel which ministers to God above, are equally
safe beneath the divine protection. The Being who holds the universe, who
keeps worlds in their places, is also employed to count the feathers of the
young raven's wing, and number the hairs which cluster upon the human head.

Nor will God allow the places of the dead to remain long vacant. The