* * * It is good, dear brother, that we should be brought to think of death. The coming of the Lord is our hope, we desire, that that which is mortal should be swallowed up by life; but it is good for us to feel that death has entered this scene, that all is passing, that with our last breath all is gone, except the responsibility which has accompanied us all the way through. Thanks be to God, as to the imputation of sin: the cross is the perfect answer to that responsibility; but, with regard to this latter, it is good that the heart should be exercised, to have everything settled in the presence of God. It is thus that the apostle used even the judgment, not to cause fear in thinking of responsibility—he was pressed to persuade others—but for his walk. I am, he said, manifested to God. By faith he applied to himself what will take place when the day shall have come.
Elberfeld,
October, 1857.