racter. And am I wrong? Some cases of a similar kind have been known to you. "In the midst of life we are in death." O, how many illustrations of this fact occur every year, and in every place! And do you still say, "there is time enough yet!" Had you seen Mr. Loomis, of Bangor, ascend the pulpit on a certain new year Sabbath, you would have thought it probable that he would ascend his pulpit many Sabbaths yet to come. Alas! he had entered it for the last time. He arose, he took his text-it was this: "This year thou shalt die." He made a few remarks, turned pale, and sank down in his pulpit a lifeless corpse. His pulpit was his death-chamber, and his gown his winding-sheet. "Time enough yet!" If you had seen Judge Boling rise up in the hall of the House of Representatives a few years ago, and address the Speaker, you might have expected him to make many more speeches in that hall of legislation; but, alas! he was then making his last speech. "Mr. Speaker," said he; and while addressing the chair, the angel of death touched him, and he fell down a dead man! "Time enough yet!" If you had seen Colonel Bowie, some eighteen or twenty years since, enter a certain church in the city of Washington, you would little have thought that he had entered the church of God for the last time; but so it was. While the man of God in the pulpit was preaching to the

people the unsearchable riches of Christ, all who were present, heard a groan! It was his last. Colonel Bowie fell upon the floor and immediately expired! His friends gathered

around him and carried him out a dead man. And O! who can forget the sudden death of Emmet, of Harper, and of Clinton, and especially the tragical and most melancholy affair on board the Princeton, when two of the heads of the departments of government, with several other distinguished individuals, were in a moment launched into eternity? Ah! my brethren, we can compute the length of any natural day, but not how long any man is going to live on earth; we can tell precisely when the natural sun will set, but not when the sun of life will go down. Sometimes the period of man's life is lengthened like a summer's day; sometimes it is made short as a day in midwinter. Sometimes the sun of life goes down at noon, and sometimes while it is yet early in the morning. Sometimes it fades away like the fleecy cloud on the azure sky; sometimes it appears like the meteor flashing and coruscating in the heavens, and then in a moment quenched and gone out.

"Our life contains a thousand springs,

And fails if one be gone;

Strange that a harp of thousand strings

Should keep in tune so long."

"Boast not thyself of to-morrow," said one

who uttered many wise sayings. "Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." When such mighty interests are at stake, none should presume upon the future. "Be wise to-day, 'tis

madness to defer."

Once more:

"I must wait God's time." Some really seem to be waiting for miracles. I know very well that Saul of Tarsus was miraculously arrested on his way to Damascus, but let not every sinner expect miracles on his way to Damascus. But does not David say, "My soul waiteth for the Lord?" Certainly he said so, but did he not also add, "More than they that watch for the morning?" How remarkable the expression, "More than they that watch for the morning;" that is, more than the nurse in the chamber of the sick man, who looks out at the window, and longs for the breaking of the day; or more than the sentinel in a cold damp night looks towards the east, and longs for the rising of the morning star. Can you say that you do wait for the Lord more than they who do thus long for the breaking of the day, and the rising of the morning star? You are waiting God's time? Is this really so? Then, be it thus; but remember, the present is his time, as it is written-"Behold now is the accepted time-behold, now is the day of salvation." And again: "Choose ye this day whom you will serve."

And again,

"To-day, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."

And now my friends, in closing, hear me! O, do attend to what I say! Only a little while, and we shall have done with the scenes of this transitory state-only a little while, and our race will have been run, our probation closed, and our character and destiny sealed for ever! Our eternal all is at stake! Let there be no trifling in this matter-bring near the scenes which are certainly before us. Suppose you were now upon a dying bed, how would your excuses appear?-Suppose this was the very moment of your leaving the world-pulse quivering, blood freezing, heart-strings breaking, soul panting, shuddering, launching away!-how would your excuses appear? But change the scene. Suppose this were the great judgment day, and all its tremendous scenes now passing before you trump sounding, dead rising, God descending, angels shouting, devils wailing-in these solemn circumstances how would your excuses appear? If your excuses are good, my counsel is, hold them fast! Do not let the minister take them from you-do not let your mother take them from you. Let no one take them from you. If you are sure they are good, I repeat it, hold them fast! carry them with you all along the journey of life! carry them with you down into the grave, and up to the judgment bar; plead them before your Maker. If your ex

cuses are good, God is just, and he will sustain them. But, if they are not good, (and is there not a misgiving in your heart, even now—aye, a conviction that they are not good?) I change my counsel altogether. If not good, do not hold them fast; I beseech you do not carry them with you through the journey of life! Do not, I entreat you, as you value your precious souls, do not carry them with you down to the grave, nor up to the judgment bar, lest God look upon you and you wither away! lest God frown upon you, and you perish for ever!

SERMON XII.

IDLENESS REPROVED.

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, why stand ye here all the day idle?— MATTHEW XX., 6.

It was foretold of our blessed Saviour, that he should open his mouth in parables, and we find that it was oftentimes in this way that he instructed his friends and silenced his enemies. The parable of the householder, like that of the prodigal son, is of a national character, and was primarily designed to repre