The event which has just befallen us as a nation is fitted to teach--+I. The vanity of human dependence.+ The atheism of the human heart displays itself in a disposition to confide entirely in an arm of flesh. This is so in the family, the church, the nation. In various ways God endeavours to teach nations their real dependence upon Himself--by famine, by pestilence, by commercial disasters, by the death of their rulers. What "fools" we must be, and how "brutish" must be our understanding, if we do not lay to heart the lesson which He has now given us (Ps. cxlvi. 3). +II. The pettiness of party strife.+ How much of selfishness, unkindness, anger, and untruthfulness does the spirit of party give birth to! How seldom politicians of opposite parties do each other common justice! How fierce are their rivalries! But how mean, how worthless, how unworthy appear the objects of their strife when death enters the arenas and waves his skeleton arm! What a great calm falls upon the agitated spirits of men! How noise is hushed and excitement subdued! How like do the flushed and eager politicians seem then to silly children quarrelling for the possession of a bubble that has just been blown into the air, and that will disappear the moment it is grasped![1] +III. The vanity of the world, the certainty of death, and the nearness of eternity.+ These lessons are _taught_ when a beggar dies, but are more likely to be _laid to heart_ when a prince is laid low.[2] +IV. The supreme importance of a right moral character.+ Most instructive is the interest felt by survivors in the moral character of the departed, in the evidences of his preparation for death, in the manner in which the great summons affected him. This is the testimony of the human conscience, that in comparison with a fitness to appear before the tribunal of God, everything else loses its importance. When was the amount of a man's _possessions_ inscribed on his tombstone? The bare suggestion of such a thing would be construed as a mockery of death, under whose denuding hand the rich man leaves the world naked as he entered it. But if, in all his life, there was one virtue in his moral character, one trait which can afford satisfactory evidence of God's approval, this, be sure, you will find sculptured in conspicuous characters on his monumental marble. One thing alone can prepare any for their last account--the belief and practice of the Gospel of God. Have _you_ the great calm which is inspired by the confidence of being prepared for the great change?--_W. Adams, American National Preacher,_ xv. 97-105. FOOTNOTES: