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and pleasure we used to enjoy in the conversation and society of the departed. But, though it is not avoidable to sorrow on such occasions, yet there are not only different degrees, but different kinds of sorrow, too; and, were it not for the certain discoveries of life and immortality through the sacrifice of our Redeemer, which have been so clearly brought to light by the Gospel, the sorrow consequent on such a loss as we have sustained, in the death of that excellent and pious parent, must have been a sorrow destitute of any alleviating intermixture of comfort. But, according to the tenor of the precious promises of the Gospel, and of her life, thanks be to the Adorable Trinity, we are not quite void of comfort, because thence we have hope, that she now rests in a much happier place than a changeable and fleeting world; hope, that her felicity has no limit as to its duration, nor any as to its measure, except those of the enlarged capacity of such a creature as man in his glorified and exalted state; and hope, that the virtuous soul is making a perpetual progress towards the perfection of its nature, going on from strength to strength, arriving from one degree of happiness to another, and shining for ever with still new accessions of glory and bliss; in a word, we have hope, that we too, who are left behind, shall not therefore be excluded the heavenly Jerusalem, but though we may arrive somewhat later thither, shall, if our honest endeavors co-operate with our gracious Redeemer's all-sufficient merits, be at length admitted into God's presence, where alone is fulness of joys and pleasures for evermore. These are pleasing and triumphant considerations, and the basis of those glorious hopes which shoot enlivening rays of comfort through the blackest clouds, and dash even grief with some refreshing alloy of joy, but of a joy which perhaps it is easier to feel than describe,