trees. They come forth in the spring, and clothe the wood with robes of green. In autumn they wither; they fall; the winter wind scatters them on the earth. Another race comes in the season, and clothes the foreft again.

Confider the world, my friends, as you saw it at first, and as you fee it now. You have marked viciffitude and alteration in all human affairs. You have feen changes in almost every department of life. You have feen new minifters at the court, new judges on the bench, and new priests at the altar of the Lord. You have seen different kings upon the throne. You have seen peace and war, and war and peace again. How many of your equals in age have you furvived? How many younger than you, have you carried to the grave? Year after year hath made a blank in the number of your friends. Your own country hath infenfibly become a Strange land, and a new world hath rifen around you, before you perceived that the old had paffed away. The fame fate that hath taken away your friends, awaits you. Even now the decree is gone forth. The king of terrors hath received his commiffion, and is now on his way. If you have mifemployed your time, that talent which God hath put into your hand; if your life is marked with guilt or folly, how will you answer to your own heart at that awful hour? For previous to the general doom, Almighty God hath appointed a day of judgment in the breast of evThe last hour is ordained to pafs fentence on all the rest. The actions of your former life will there meet you again. How will you then answer at the bar of your own heart, when the collected crimes

ery man.

of a lengthened life, at one view, fhall flash upon the mind; when the ghosts of your departed hours, of those hours which you have murdered, fhall rise up in terrible array, and look you in the face? What would you then give for that time which you now throw away? What would the wretch who lies on a bed of agony, extended and groaning, who feels in his heart the poisoned arrow of death; who, looking back on his past life, turns aside from the view; who, looking forward to futurity, difcerns no beam of hope to break that utter darkness which overwhelms him; what would he then give for thofe hours which you now despise, to make his peace with Heaven, and fit him for his paffage into the world unknown? Remember, my friends, that this is no imaginary cafe; it is a cafe which may foon be your own. Be wise, therefore, while wisdom can avail, and fave yourfelves from the agony of repenting in bitterness of foul, when all repentance may be in vain.

To fum up all; my friends, the time is fhort. We are as guests in a strange land, who tarry but one night. We wander up and down in a place of graves. We read the epitaphs upon the tombs of the deceased. We fhed a few tears over the ashes of the dead; and, in a little time, we need from our furviving friends the tears we paid to the memory of our friends departed.

Time is precious. The time is now paffing that fixes our fate for ever. The hours are, at this instant on the wing, which carry along with them your eternal happiness or eternal mifery.

Time is irrecoverable. The clock is wound up once for all; the hand is advancing, and, in a little time, it strikes your last hour.

SERMON V.

PSALM iv. 4.

Stand in awe.

WHEN the Patriarch Jacob departed

from his father's house, and entered on that state of pilgrimage, which only terminated with his life, he lighted on a certain place, where he tarried all the night. Agreeably to the fimplicity of the ancient world, he laid himself down to reft upon the open plain; without any pillow but a stone of the field; and without any covering but the curtains of heaven. A ftranger he was to the elegance and luxury of after times, but he enjoyed pleasures of a higher kind. The God of his fathers was with him. In the patriarchal ages, before a public revelation was given to the world, the Deity frequently appeared to holy men in dreams, and visions of the night. Accordingly, Jacob, in his dream, beheld a ladder fet upon the earth, the top of it reaching unto the heavens, and upon it the angels of God afcending and defcending: and behold! the Lord stood above, and said, "I am "the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the "God of Ifaac; the land whereon thou lieft, to thee "will I give it, and to thy feed; and thy feed fhall "be as the duft of the earth; thou fhalt fpread "abroad to the eaft and to the weft; to the south "and to the north, and in thee, and in thy feed, fhall "all the families of the earth be bleffed."

Did the Patriarch awake in a rapture of joy, when he had been thus fo highly favoured of the Lord? You fhall hear :" And Jacob awaked out of his fleep, " and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and "I knew it not: and he was afraid, and faid, How "dreadful is this place! This is none other but the "houfe of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Though he had ascended in the visions of God, and beheld fcenes of glory which few are admitted to fee; though he had received the moft gracious promises of perfonal fafety, of profperous increase to his defcendants, and of the Meffiah who was to fpring from his race, nevertheless an impreffion of reverence and awe was the laft which remained upon his mind.

In like manner, my friends, although you have the near prospect of commemorating the most joyful event which fignalizes the annals of time, yet if,, at the approaching folemnity, God fhall be in this place, you will experience that state of mind which the Pa triarch was in when he awoke from his dream, and an impreffion of ferioufnefs and awe will keep its hold of your heart. There is a degree of reverence and holy fear which ever attends religion. Even when God manifefts his mercy, it is, that he may be feared. Hence we are called to ferve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before him with reverence, All objects make an impreffion upon the mind correfpondent to their own nature. A beautiful object calls forth pleasing ideas, and excites a gay emotion. A grand object leaves upon the mind an impreffion of grandeur. In all fublime scenes, there is a mixture of the awful. The view of the skies by night; the

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moon moving in the brightness of her courfe; and the host of heaven in filent majefty performing their eternal rounds, strike an awe and adoration into the mind; we feel divinity prefent; we bow down and worship in the temple which the Moft High God hath built with his hand, and hath filled with his presence. The prefence of a respectable character raises a fimilar impreffion on the mind; and the man, who sets the Lord always before him, will feel his heart impreffed with that mixture of seriousness and holy fear, which the Pfalmift here recommends, when he says, "Stand in awe."

In further treating upon this fubject, I fhall, in the first place, point out the advantages of this ferioufness and reverence which we ought to maintain upon our minds; and, in the second place, fhow you the fuitableness of this temper of mind to our present state.

The first thing propofed, is to point out the advantages of this seriousness and reverence which we ought to maintain upon our minds.

The great art of happiness consists in regulating, with propriety, the various offices of human life. To allow no duty to interfere with another; to prevent devotion from growing austere; and to restrain enjoyment from being criminal, is the mark of true wisdom, and of true piety. Every department of life is beautiful in its feafon. There is a time to be

cheerful, and a time to be ferious: an hour for folitude, and an hour for fociety. Providence hath appointed great part of our happiness to confift in fociety. We find, in every fituation of life, that it is not good for us to be alone. Hence, civil fociety at first was inftituted; hence, attachments are daily