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 Whither bound? 
 Conf Pam l2mo #589 
 
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No. 72. 
 
 WHITHER BOUND ? 
 
 in THE CHAPLAIN IOtH VIRCilMA CAVALRY, 
 
 Audison, in his " Vision of Miraa," thought he 6aw 
 a bridge standing in the midst of the tide. " The bridge 
 thou seest," said the genius, li is human life ; consider 
 it attentively." " Upon a more leisurely survey of it, I 
 found that it consisted of three score and ten entire 
 arches, with several broken arches, which, added to 
 those that were entire, made up the number about an 
 hundred. As I was counting the arches, the genius 
 told me that this bridge consisted at first of a thousand 
 arches, but that a great flood swept away the rest, and 
 left the bridge in the ruinous condition I now beheld it : 
 ' but tell me further/ said he, * what thou discoverest 
 ob it,' 'I see multitudes of people passing over it,' 
 said T, 'and a black cWd hanging on cacli end of it.' 
 As I looked more attentively, I saw several of the pas- 
 sengers dropping through the bridge into the great tide 
 that flowed underneath it : and upon further examina- 
 tion, perceived that there were innumerable trap-doors 
 that lay concealed in the bridge, which the passengers 
 no sooner trod upon, but they fell through them into the 
 tide, and immediately disappeared." 
 
Let us, with our mind's eye, look at the great anwds 
 of earth on their life journey. See them, 
 
 " Pale, trembling age, 
 " And fiery youth, 
 " And childhood 'with its brow of truth," 
 
 as they press along the bridge of life ! Ever and anon 
 some of them drop through and disappear forever. 
 
 Reader, you and I walk that bridge, and in our turn 
 will be missing from the throng. On leaving the bridge, 
 what becomes of us ? What is our destination ? There 
 are four places of which I would speak in this little 
 tract. To two of these, you, I, all who have ever lived, 
 and who shall hereafter live, must go. To one or the 
 other of the other two, all are destined. 
 
 1. The first is the Grave. " Dust thou art, and unto 
 dust shalt thou return." " I know," says Job> " that 
 thou wilt' bring me to death, and to the house appointed 
 for all the living." " It is appointed unto men once to 
 die." Such is the testimony of the word of God. Even 
 did that not speak, Reason teaches that man is a sure 
 and certain heir to mortality and the tomb. Our bodies 
 are not made of iron or steel, and » cannot withstand the 
 wear and tear of ages. Every pain, every throb of the 
 heart, each beating pulse, whispers in the ear of man, 
 " this is not your rest." We look back on the. past 
 generations of our species, and find that all have passed 
 away. Every being since our 'first parents, has died. 
 " Our fathers, where are they V Alas ! 
 
 " The earth rings hollow from below, 
 " And warns us ,of her dead." 
 
In every step, we tread upon the dust of those who wore 
 once living, sentient beings. -Methusaleh could not out- 
 live death ; Sampson could not contend with it ; Solo- 
 mon's wisdom could not devise a way of escape ; piety 
 and godliness have not availed, or patriarchs, apostles, 
 and good men of all ages, had still lived. 
 
 Some go to this place, (the Grave,,) with calmness and 
 peace, and some with horror. To some, death* is a mes- 
 senger of terror ; to others, a smiling friend. A mem- 
 ber of my Regiment was called, a few weeks since, to 
 die. His end was so calm, that, a survivor writes, "For 
 a while I could not tell that he had passed from earth." 
 Said an attending physician. " I would rather die that 
 death than live a moment longer." 
 
 2. But there is another place to which, from the 
 grave, all must go : It is, the Judgment Bar of God. 
 " It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this, 
 the judgment." "We must all appear before the judg- 
 ment seat of Christ." "Every one of us shall give an 
 account of himself to God." " I saw," says John, "the 
 dead, small and great, stand before God ; and the books 
 were opened." The Judge himself tells us, 'Khat be- 
 fore him shall be gathered all nations." Solemn, tre- 
 mendous day ! 0, reader, though it seems something 
 away off .in the dim, distant future which you cannot 
 realize, its certainty is based on the word of God him- 
 self. You and I must appear at the Judgment Seat, to 
 give account for talents, mercies, blessings, judgments 
 — for this little tract. How different will be that day 
 
to different persons. To some, a day of wrath ; to oth- 
 ers, a day of blessedness and triumph, for 
 
 " A mighty change awaits us when the hour 
 Arrives, that lands us on the eternal s*hore. 
 From glory then to glory we shall rise, 
 Or sink from deep to deeper miseries — 
 Ascend perfection's everlasting scale, 
 Or still descend from gulf to gulf in hell." 
 
 Hitherto the crowds have, without exception, gone to 
 the Grave and t"> the Judgment Seat, but at this last, 
 the Judge shall say to some, "Come, ye blessed ;" to oth- 
 ers, " Depart, ye cursed." " He will separate them one 
 from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the 
 goats ; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, and 
 the goats on the Left— and these shall go away into ever- 
 lasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." 
 
 There remain, then, two other places,* to one or the 
 other of which all must go. 
 
 Hell.. " The wicked shall be turned into hell, with 
 ail the nations that forget God." " 
 
 "Of what elements future misery will consist, we 
 •' cannot tell ; but it will include poignant remorse, and 
 " a sense of divine wrath, with the absence of all enjoy - 
 44 ment and all hope. It will produce, in the subjects 
 " of it, weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. They 
 " will realize that they are shut out forever from the 
 " kingdom of heaven, into outer darkness ; and they 
 
 *That Hall and Heaven are places, and not mere 
 states of being, see, Acts i : 25 : Luke xvi : 28 ; John 
 si?: % 
 
\ will remember the good things which they once en- 
 ' joyed, never more to be enjoyed again ; and the op- 
 ' portunities of mercy, once neglected, never more to 
 
 • return. They will be tormented in the flame, without 
 ' a drop of water to cool their tongues. Their hatred 
 ' of God will be complete, and they will blaspheme his 
 ; name, v> hile they feel themselves grasped in the hands 
 ' of his almighty wrath, without power to extricate 
 ' themsejvos. Devils, and wicked men, all under the 
 '. same condemnation, will be their eternal companions ; 
 'and the companionship, instead of affording relief, 
 ' will be an aggravation of their, woe. The whole 
 ' throng, hateful, and hating one another, will be tor- 
 1 mentors of one another. The malignant passions 
 ' which on earth caused wars, assassinations, cruelty, 
 ' oppression, and every species of injury, will be let 
 1 loose, without restraint, to banish peace and brother- 
 ' hood forever from the infernal society ; and the paa- 
 ' sions which burn in the hearts of wicked men on earth, 
 4 and destroy all internal peace, and sometimes drive to 
 ' suicide, will then be unrestrained, and do their full 
 ' work of torture ; and relief by suicide, or self-annihi- 
 'lation, will be forever impossible. 0, who can endure 
 ' such torments ? Who will not, with every energy, 
 ' and at every sacrifice, seek to escape from devouring 
 
 • fire and everlasting burnings V 
 
 This is a painful subject. Men dislike to hear of it. 
 They think it unkind, and in wretehed taste, that min- 
 isters should allude to it ; and yet, my friend, the most 
 loving teing that ever walked this earth spake of it. 
 
He whose great heart went out to a lost world — who 
 healed all manner of diseases — who "had compassion 
 on the multitudes" — who wept at the grave of Lazarus, . 
 and over the doomed City, warned men of this world of 
 ruin in no ambiguous terms. 
 
 Would that this tract might make you so uncomferta- 
 ble and wretched that you would never rest till } r ou founa 
 peace in believing. If you persist in sin, Hell must be 
 your portion. That Saviour who "died to save you Jrom 
 it, will, as your judge, send you there. How fearful, 
 should you meet such a doom —the possibility! — the 
 probability 1 ! 
 
 I pass on with pleasure to speak of the other place. 
 
 Heaven. Who of the crowds go to this? All the 
 holy. These will go away "into life eternal. 7 / The 
 blessed Saviour said, "I go to prepare a place for you." 
 
 . "Eye hath not seen it ! 
 
 Bar hath not heard its deep songs of joy ; 
 Dreams cannot picture' a world so fair ; 
 ' Sorrow and death may not enter there ; 
 
 Time doth not breathe on its fadeless bloom, 
 For beyond the clouds and beyond the tomb, 
 It is there, it is there." 
 
 There, entereth not a sin. There, will be assembled 
 those who have feared God in all ages. Out of every 
 period of time, and out of every kindred, and nation, 
 and people, and tongue, will be gathered into one great 
 multitude all the children of God — the holy prophets, 
 . apostles, the noble army of martyrs — but the main at- 
 traction will be Jesus. 
 
I have now spoken of the four places to whieh allu- 
 sion was made in the beginning of this tract. To two 
 of these, on falling from the bridge of lire, all must go : 
 the Grave and the Judgment Bar of God. Soon you 
 must die, and "after death, the judgment. ,; Then your 
 destiny for eternity will be decided. Shall itbeHerfven 
 or Hell ? The decision rests with you. Seek the Sa- 
 viour — obtain an interest in the atoning blood of Christ, 
 through whom, and through whom alone, you can enter 
 " through the gates into the city." You will thus be 
 safe, for time and eternity, whether death come soon or 
 late. Then it shall little matter whether you die in 
 your quiet chamber, with loved ones near to cool your 
 fevered brow antl speak words of sympathy and love, 
 or whether on the bloody battle-field, amid the smoke 
 and thunder of battle, you are called away. Death 
 will be not a rcmoreless enemy, .but a smiling friend — 
 not a destroyer, but a servant of God, to bid you wel- 
 come to our Father's House ; tho everlasting andjoyou.> 
 home, where we shall be "forever with the Lord." 
 
LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 
 
 Oh ! where shall rest be found ? 
 Rest for the weary soul ; 
 'Twere vain the ocean depths to sound, 
 Or pierce to either pole. 
 
 This world can never give 
 The bliss for which we sigh ; 
 J Tis not the whole of life to live, 
 Nor all of death to die. 
 
 Beyond this vale of tears,* 
 There is a life above ; 
 Unmeasured by the flight of years, 
 And all that life is love. 
 
 There is a .death whose pang 
 Outlasts the fleeting breath ^ 
 Oh ! what eternal horrors hang 
 Around the second death. 
 
 Lord, God of truth and grace, 
 Teach us that death to shun; 
 Lest we be banished from thy face 
 And evermore undone. 
 
Hollinger Corp. 
 P H8.5