Ӧ ETERNITY REALIZED: OR, A GUIDE TO THE THOUGHTFUL. BY ROBERT PHILIP, OF MABERLY CHAPEL. "I have been dwelling on the sides of Eternity." FROM THE LONDON EDITION. BRAINERD. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY PERKINS & MARVIN, 1833. PREFACE. BUT for the wide circulation of his "Guide to the Perplexed," and of his "Guide to the Devotional," the Author would not feel himself warranted to address the THOUGHTFUL. Even in doing so, he has not presumed to think for them. He is a guide only "to the borders of Immanuel's land;" and only to that class of the thoughtful who, like himself, meditate for devotional and holy purposes. His aim has been to place the great truths and duties of religion in the light of eternity; and to prove, that it is both easy and pleasant to cultivate such a habit of realizing the eternal world, as shall help Christians to keep this world in its proper place. R. P. No. I. THE DUTY OF REALIZING ETERNITY. DID "ETERNAL LIFE" suggest to us only the bare idea of living for ever in an unknown world, it would deserve more attention than is usually given to heaven or hell. "The life that now is," is such an evanescent vapor, that "everlasting life," however deeply veiled as to its place or employments, is a contrast which ought to arrest and rivet supreme attention. The bare fact of immortality is fraught with instruction and warning. It has a commanding character, independent of its revealed character. For, as life involves thought, and feeling, and action; an eternity of thinking, an eternity of feeling, an eternity of acting, is a solemn consideration! It could not be weighed without profit. Who would not be improved, both in character and spirit, by arguing thus:- "I must think for ever; would |