round his neck, he could say with calmness, that “he was not afraid, for he knew that his Saviour would take him to himself.” But it may still be said, How do we know that Jolin was sincere in all that he said, or that he was not under delusion in what he felt? To this question the reply has been, I think, already offered in these pages—by pointing to the workings of his mind, and the consistency of his conduct. And here we must leave the case till the last great day. In the meanwhile, let us learn from this history, some of the lessons which it is calculated to teach. The first of these is, the _misery and danger of a state of sin_. St. Paul, in describing the consequences of a state of sin, says, in an appeal to the Roman converts, (vi. 21,) “What part had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed; for the end of those things is death.” That is, sin yields no real _fruit_; it produces shame; and the end of it will be _death_. Every Christian feels the truth of this statement, as respects himself; and it is the case with all other men, although they know it not. What, for instance, is the usual fruit of drunkenness? disease, quarrelling, and loss of one kind or another. The drunkard is usually a blasphemer, hard-hearted, and cruel, as he proves himself to his wife and children, starving or ill-treating them to gratify his own lust. His habits of drunkenness make him a bad child, a bad neighbour, a disgrace in himself, and a plague to others. So it is more or less with the followers of every sin. Sin, then, brings no real fruit, and the end of it will be eternal death; for it is written, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God.” “As surely, therefore, as a man sows, so shall he also reap; he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption.” How awful is the history of Jolin’s father! His life how disgraceful, his death how dreadful! Would the sinner who reads this be content to come to such an end? But to this, in his present state, he is every moment liable. Let the sinner remember, that he who called this poor wretch to judgment at a moment’s warning, may say to himself, “This night thy soul is required of thee.” The probability of thus dying is commonly passed over; and it is the hope of a sinner that he shall still live to repent, as Jolin did. Yet how great are the chances against this! Many a man has been deluded by such a hope, and perished in his transgression. He has looked to some case like this, or like that of the thief on the cross, and delayed his repentance, till, in an hour when he has not looked for it, he has been “driven away in his wickedness.” But in this, as it is said by an old writer, “The perverseness of our nature may be seen, in that this one case, that of the penitent thief, serveth us to looseness of life, in hope of the like: whereas, we might better reason, that is _but_ one, and