would hold themselves mad to make no such provision under the presumption that they will not fall out, but touching their Lord's coming-sure as they acknowledge the event to be, signs enough as they must confess there are that it may be soon and cannot be very distant-there they flatter themselves there will be delay; and act accordingly. But it is in their hearts only this is done those hearts which are so deceitful and ready to cheat us, that there is no fraud on ourselves we may not practise in that quarter. For in this instance, who would have boldness enough to declare openly and in so many words his reasonings and feelings; laying his folly (for folly he could not but perceive it to be) bare to himself and all men? Who would have boldness, I say, to express himself openly thus: "I do not doubt I shall live long-a great many years; that I shall have time, abundance of time, to set my house in order, before my Lord comes; ample opportunity of garnishing my heart with every virtue, and casting off every weight that besets me, before death deals the summons. I feel that it is safe enough for the present to eat, drink, and be merry. It is not reasonable for such a man as I am, so stout and strong, to have any misgivings whatever upon the score that I may be carried off suddenly. I never see such things happen to any man—or at least I see them happen to very few, indeed to none in my precise circumstances. I am confident it is two or three to one that I shall not be condemned to everlasting burnings, to be devoured of the worm which dieth not, or the fire which is not quenched, by reason of the state I may certainly be found in when I die. There is no denying that there is a risk of this; but as I say, I feel that the chances will favour me. It is a shame to see so many good things about me, and not take my share in them, sin or no sin, for a season at least. After I have had my fling I will have

done with them, and then for repentance and amendment and preparation to die! And after all this has been duly done, and I am quite perfect, and not before,—just then I am convinced, neither sooner nor later, I shall be called away-the Lord will actually come, and who so ready as I?" I say, any man would be shocked to avow all this to another man, or even openly to himself. He would be startled at the sound of his own voice giving utterance to such indescribable folly as this; yet this is just what he says in his own heart, when he consoles himself with the reflection "the Lord delayeth His coming." The folly of it is not the less because it is not avowed or expressed in words-for it is of just the same force as if it was, inasmuch as it influences the life, and leads the man to act according to it.

Can there be a doubt that thousands of souls have miscarried through just these calculations? I wonder, if we could summon one of them back and get him to hear us whilst we thus reasoned, what he would say! What, with his experience of what he had done for himself by trusting to that very staff we are trusting to now, would be his exclamation at our strange, strange blindness! I wonder whether, if he could tell us the history of each of his fellow prisoners in that everlasting gaol, and what had brought them to it, we should not learn from him that it was this one fraud they had practised on themselves above all, "the Lord delayeth His coming," that it was this one fond and foolish thought that had betrayed them, and consigned them to the flood of fire they were bathing in. For it was that which had set their affections upon the world and glued them to it so closely, which had given a strength to every lust beyond its own, which had strangled in them every good resolution and virtuous aim, which had estranged

them from looking to God, or thinking of Him, or praying to Him, or praising Him: for all that they could care about Him was, that they might be long before they saw His face; that He would keep from them, and not come nigh them, nor require of them that they should approach His presence.

My friends, let us beware that we cherish not the same delusion as they, to experience in our turn a last end such as theirs. We have our hour of grace yet. Here we are alive this day. Hitherto, certainly, God has delayed His coming for us; howbeit had He come, what would He have found us about? He hath delayed hitherto, certainly, but why? To encourage us to smite our fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken, and to say in our hearts there is yet time enough? No! How would this be to despise the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that such goodness of God ought to lead us to repentance! It was this long-suffering of God which once waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing—but it was not turned to account; and so, few, i. e. eight souls only, were saved. It was this longsuffering of the master of the fig-tree, which was content to look for fruit three successive years, and finding none, to sentence it in the fourth; and if that warning failed, in the fifth to cut it down. God takes some time in bending His bow and making it ready-that is His delay; but when He sees the pause produces presumption and not penitence -when He sees its effect is to set the sinner upon getting the more out of His way, instead of crying unto Him to have mercy on him and spare him-then He is induced at last to shoot with a swift arrow, and His aim is sure.

Let not us then, my friends, put any trust in the certainty of a life like this, which hangs on a breath. Let us

resolve to live unto God, and put our resolutions in force to-day, and not to-morrow. Let us renounce the sin that besets us, and make haste and delay not, lest we die in it. Let us follow our Lord's counsel, and watch; nor watch only, but pray also pray, amongst other graces and gifts of God's Holy Spirit, for this one amongst the number (for of that Spirit it comes, and lies at the foundation of every thing that is good and godly in this life), even that we may be taught so to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

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SERMON XXXIV.

TAKE HEED HOW YE HEAR.

ST. LUKE, viii. 18.

"Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have."

We have in these words a part of a short sermon which our Lord delivered to the people about Him. It was a sermon, like most of our Blessed Saviour's, which had for its object to make His hearers better livers-to make them understand that the Gospel, which He was come to preach, was meant to be wrought out and exemplified in the positive, apparent improvement it effected in the world. He was a sower, His doctrine was the seed; some fell by the wayside and was trodden down and devoured of fowls, i. e. it fell upon hearers out of whose hearts the devil quickly came and took it away; some fell on the rock and sprung up, but withered for lack of moisture, i. e. upon hearers who fell away at the first temptation; and some fell among thorns, and was choked, i. e. upon hearers of whom the world had got possession and would not let better thoughts grow in them; and some again fell upon good ground and bare ample fruit, i. e. upon hearers earnest and honest, and who