A Step from the Altar to the Grave

A young man of handsome person and pleasing address was married on Thursday evening to a sweet and beautiful girl, and on the Sabbath following was a lifeless corpse, and the same minister that met him at the altar, followed him to the grave. His funeral solemnities were performed in the same apartment in which his nuptial rites were celebrated. The same persons were present; but how changed the scene! The voice of mirth was changed into the voice of lamentation. The light-hearted and gay ones that danced on the festive evening, were now the mourners around the dead. She who wore the bridal attire on the wedding evening, was now, in three brief days, muffled in the gloomy habiliments of mourning. The faces that but yesterday were wreathed in smiles, were now wet with tears. What a change; and how sudden! but a step between the altar and the grave. We are always within the reach of death. There is no condition of life that furnishes an indemnity against his summons. Wealth, honour, pleasure, worldly engagements, nothing can turn aside his shaft, or relax his grasp when he claims his victim. Reader, live hourly in a state of preparation for death; for thou knowest not when the Master will call thee.