darkness upon the face of the abyss. And if we look forward, our anticipations are as speedily checked. A few more empires will rise and fall, a few more battles will be fought, the earth will perform a few more revolutions in her orbit, and then the angel will stand upon the sea and upon the earth, and lifting his hand to heaven, will swear, by Him that liveth forever and ever, that created heaven, and the things that are therein, and the earth, and the things that are therein, and the sea and the things that are therein, that there shall be time no longer.

But if time be thus brief, when considered of itself, it diminishes almost to a point when compared with that endless duration of which it forms so infinitely small a part. Carry your conceptions backward before the morning stars sang together, or ever the sons of God shouted for joy, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever He had formed the earth or the world, when from everlasting to everlasting Jehovah was God. Nay, carry your conceptions still farther back, before seraphim or cherubim were created, when from eternity God reigned alone; and, having wearied yourself in endeavours to comprehend an eternity that is past, stretch every faculty of your soul to the utmost to comprehend an eternity to come. Think of a duration, which, as it never had a beginning, can never have an end. And having done this, ask what, in comparison with it, are those few moments which we denominate time. They are as a sand to the sea-shore. They are as a drop to the ocean. They are as a single ray of light to that exhaustless flood of brightness which from the first morning of creation has been poured upon

illimitable space from the great luminary of day.

But short as is the whole of time, we are personally interested in a very small part of it. It is divided into an infinite number of lesser portions, of which each generation occupies one.

For we are with a flood.

The generations which have preceded us have each occupied their portion, and have passed away like the shadow of a summer's cloud; we are now occupying ours, and shall in like manner quickly pass away. We look back upon them as upon the leaves of the forest, which in summer flourished, in autumn faded, and have long since mouldered into forgetfulness. We now are flourishing, we as quickly shall fade, and the places which now know us shall know us no more forever. carried away as We are as a sleep ing we are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up, in the evening it is cut down and withereth. The days of our years are threescore years and ten, and if by reason of strength, they be four score years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Behold thou hast made our age as an hand-breadth and our years are as nothing before thee. Surely every man in his best estate is altogether vanity.

In the morn

Or we may bring the subject more immediately to our own experience. What is our life? Let those of us answer, whose heads have been frosted by the snows of many winters. In a few minutes can you not recall all that ever you have seen or known? But few events have transpired since your existence commenced. The sun has performed but few revolutions since you began to be. The clock has told but few hours since its first

stroke fell upon your ear. And every succeeding year seems shorter than its predecessor. The events of the past year seem but as the transactions of a fortnight. It seems but as yesterday since we exchanged our annual congratulations, and called to mind those friends whom the last twelve months had consigned to darkness and the shadow of death.

But brief as is our probationary existence, the consideration of its brevity is still more emphatically impressed upon us, when we consider that a large portion of it has already consumed To some of us only a year, a month, a day; nay, there may be some to whom only a few moments remain. And this remainder is all that can be improved. The past is forever beyond our control. Whatever has been done is already sealed up for eternity. It is recorded in that book which shall not be opened until the day of judgment. Neither prayers, nor tears, nor penitence, can alter one article which is already recorded. Nothing is within our power, but the few fleeting, lessening moments which remain.

Here let us add one more consideration. This fleeting transitory existence is all the probation that will ever be granted to us. The few moments we spend on earth will decide our destiny for eternity. All beyond the grave is fixed and unalterable as the throne of God. The character which we acquire on earth will be the basis of the character which will attach to us through interminable ages. The only alteration of which it will be susceptible, will be a change from glory to glory, or from shame to shame through the illimitable range of an endless existence. Beyond the confines of time it will be said, "He that is holy,

let him be holy stil; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still."

If consequences so infinite depend upon our present ephemeral duration, how important is it that every moment of it be rightly improved! How aggravated is the folly of him who squanders so inestimable a treasure! If wealth be squandered, it may be regained; if influence be alienated, it may be recalled; but time once past, never returns; the moment that is lost, is lost forever."

Let us each, then, at the commencement of a new year ask himself, am I accomplishing the great purposes of my existence? Am I living for eternity? or are my designs all bounded by the narrow limits of three score years and ten? Am I, by patient continuance in well doing, seeking for glory, honor, and immortality? Or am I treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath? Am I, by a life of holiness, preparing to unite in the anthems of cherubim ? Or by a continuance in sin am I adding force to those principles of evil which will only render me meet for the wailings of the damned?

Or suppose we have a cheering hope that our names are written in the Lamb's book of life; that, sprinkled with the blood of the atonement, we shall stand accepted in that great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be made manifest,-still much remains for us to do. We are bound to exhibit in our lives the effect of the principles we profess. By a steady cultivation. of the grace that is within us we are to add to our "faith, knowledge, to our knowledge temperance, to our temperance patience, to our patience godliness, to our godliness brotherly kindness, and to our brotherly