If we devote our youth to God,
"Tis pleasing in his eyes:

A flower, when offered in the bud,

Is no mean sacrifice.

But to the inquiry of my text, some might answer; "We are now at the period of life, at which fierce temptations urge; at which the world presents itself, in all its importance, and its power; and brings its hopes and fears, its occupations and anxieties, to bear, with all their force, upon our minds." In truth, these matters are not small, to flesh and blood. You are now in the heat of the battle the burthen of the day is upon you: and you are amidst the swellings of Jordan. This is precisely the time, at which men ought to think the most, but at which, in reality, they think the least, of another state of being;—at which they are so often imbruted with sensuality, struggling, with their whole might, to provide for themselves and families, or saying, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up, for many years." So live those, between whom and eternity, the line of separation is as brittle as the spider's web. And when, in this state of profound delusion, the summons (as it often does) suddenly arrives ;-when the suspended sword, in the twinkling of an eye, descends, and cuts the slender thread of life :-O blessed God! what a change is here! The soul, at one moment,

sunk in animality, and buried in the flesh; and the next moment, ejected from the "earthly house of this tabernacle," and turned out upon the wide world of spirits! At one moment, the unhappy sinner, encircled with the things of time, and secured behind all the entrenchments which they can throw around the mind-living as if there were no life but this-every avenue effectually closed against the piercing, painful light of truth -conscience slumbering-all busy inquiries, and troublesome misgivings, about the future, hushed to rest-the world in quiet possession, and all things promising peace and safety-and, in the midst of this deathlike sleep, surprised, by a hand which thunders at the door, and a voice which says, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee!" Now end all the pleasures of time-the bubble of the world is burst, and nothing of it is left, but the recollection that it has been our ruin. Now begins, in good earnest eternity. Now the other life presents itself, as a real thing. Now the soul perceives, that the warnings which it had despised, are true; and that it has struck on the very rocks, which had been so often pointed out to it, in vain. Now it believes, that but one thing is needful; and finds how little he is advantaged, who has gained the whole world, and lost his own soul.

These, my brethren, are serious and awakening thoughts. Before these terrors of the Lord, when brought to bear upon the mind, fly all the dazzling follies of a low ambition, and all the false appearances, by which the world can flatter or terrify, like a dream when one awaketh. Before these considerations, even the important inquiry of my text, vanishes into nothing:-For what are years, whether few or many, interposed between us, and hopeless, endless misery?

Are there any of you, now in the prime of manhood, who are still living without God in the world? To you I would say, let the coming year bring home the message of salvation, to your souls. Hail its first dawn, as the commencement, to you, of life eternal. You still have time. It is not yet too late. Avert from your own heads, the horrors I have described. Beware of a death-bed without

hope. Fly for pardon, while it may be found :fly to him, who can expiate all your guilt, and whose blood can cleanse you from all sin.

Do I address myself to some, whose pilgrimage is well-nigh over-whose years are but labor and sorrow-and who have lived, to say, of things they once enjoyed, "there is no pleasure in them?" Did not facts so abundantly disprove it, such as these, it might be thought, stood always, with their loins girded about, and their lights burning, and

they themselves like unto men that wait for their Lord. But alas! it often happens, that none more systematically and effectually put away from them all thoughts of death, than those, who, in the course of nature, are drawing near the grave;that there are none, whose hearts are more devoted to the world, than those who are on the point of leaving it. And whether this strange fatuity be considered as strong delusion, sent by God, or as the triumph of Satan over the rational soul: yet so it is, that man, in his fallen state, is thus a mockery of himself. Led by blind instinct, and not by reason, the creature of habit, rather than reflection, he cleaves to the world, merely because he has been long a slave to it.

But the masterpiece of this perversion is thisnot only, that man sets his heart on the world, when he is about to leave it; but that the last passion which seizes the human soul, is the love of the world, in the shape, and for the sake, of the very thing, which has now peculiarly lost its use. The fact is, that three ruling passions reign, successively, in the child of earth, and fill up the history of his life below: the love of pleasure, the love of power, and the love of riches. Sensuality, ambition, and avarice, form the grand outline of man's apostacy from God. Now, if this order, or rather disorder, were re

versed; if riches were first sought, with all the energies of the soul, nature would thus make provision for a fund, to feed the appetite for pleasure, and gratify the lust of power. But nature, fallen from God, is but blind fatuity: and all the machinery of man is out of course, unless it tend to Him. And thus the soul, by a just judgment, gropes in a vain shadow, is cheated by false appetites, and grasps at nothings; sets a value on means, when no value for the end is felt; and, in a word, serves and worships mammon, precisely in proportion as the mind has lost its relish for the only things, which money can purchase, or wealth procure.

But I trust these observations have no personal application here. It is my fervent hope, that of the elder portion of this assembly, there are some who can, with the pious Hooker, say, that, "by God's grace, they have loved him in their youth, and feared him in their age, and laboured to have a conscience void of offence, to him, and to all men: " or, with Simeon of old, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."

And, yet, there may be those among you, who have stood all the day idle, even unto the eleventh hour. Oh! let this new year commence, with a voice which speaks, and speaks effectually, to you, saying;