ETERNITY!-- “What is Eternity? Can aught Paint its duration to the thought? Tell every beam the sun emits, When in sublimest noon he sits; Tell every light-winged mote that strays Within its ample round of rays; Tell all the leaves and all the buds That crown the garden, fields, and wood; Tell all the spires of grass the meads Produce, when spring propitious leads The new-born year-- Be this astonishing account Augmented with the full amount Of all the drops the clouds have shed Where’er their watery fleeces spread Through all time’s long-protracted tour; Tell all the sands the ocean laves, Tell all the changes of its waves, Or tell, with more laborious pains, The drops its mighty mass contains. * * * * * Were there a belt that could contain In its vast orb the earth and main, With figures were it clustered o’er, And not one cipher in the score; And could your laboring thoughts assign The total of the extended line: How vast the amount, the attempt how vain To read duration’s endless chain; For when as many years have run, Eternity is but begun! Then think, O man, and strive to attain, The eternal life, the Immortal’s gain!” “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” XXXVIII. CONCLUSION. It may be due the patient reader to know that I was born July the 18th, 1824, in the town of Scipio, Cayuga County, N. Y. I received some of the advantages derived from the common schools of the day, but my most thorough drill has been the long and varied term of rugged experience, burnished up at the University of wide-spread observation. Having had the blessing of the Lord on my heart while writing this book, and writing, as we humbly trust, for the glory of God, we now send it out to greet the dear saints--with the prayer that all that read it, may be greatly blessed and made much better for so doing. Yours in Christ, REV. ZENAS OSBORNE. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES Chapter: 2, paragraph: 7 - ‘convictions’ replaced with ‘conviction’ (My conviction for this) Chapter: 4, paragraph: 17 - Opening quote marks missing in text. (and the Congregational churches.”) Chapter: 5, paragraph: 2 - ‘annointed’ replaced with ‘anointed’ (Touch not mine anointed,)