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devotion, combined with unceasing exertion for the present and future happiness of fallen man.

Come, then, O! my soul, and withdraw thyself from a thoughtless world, which is so eagerly pursuing the phantom of happiness. Look unto Jesus -place all thy affections upon him. He is the only source of spiritual felicity.

Whilst delighting thyself in the active services of a loving obedience, seek an increase of grace by daily secret converse with the Saviour.

We love the society of a dear friend. Can we then be strangers to communion with Jesus, if we indeed love him? Oh! that we may feel a sweeter relish for sacred retirement, when this retirement is designed to cultivate a closer acquaintance with our own hearts, and with Him who is "the chiefest among ten thousand"-the "altogether lovely."

Blessed Spirit of grace and truth, shed forth thy kindly influences on my soul. Preserve me from spiritual sloth, under the specious mask of religious retirement; and from ostentatious pride, under the imposing garb of active benevolence.

O! make me sincere in all my professions of love and obedience; simply depending on thy grace, whilst labouring to promote the welfare of my fellowcreatures; that in all things I may be willing to do and suffer thy righteous will.

Jesus! my soul would now repose
Beneath the banner of thy love:
Each rising storm do thou compose,
Each dark'ning cloud far hence remove.

Beneath thy smile is heavenly bliss;

How sweet is solitude with thee!

My soul, in such a world as this,

May now from anxious cares be free.

Reveal thy mercies to my heart;
With joy my longing spirit fill;
Thy grace unceasingly impart,
To do and suffer all thy will.

O! leave me not one moment, Lord;
Uphold me all my journey through;
Then will my soul on high record

The wonders sov'reign grace can do.

Yes, when I stand before thy throne,

A monument of love divine,

Transported, I'll adoring own

The grace which made such blessings mine.

II. ON INSENSIBILITY TO ETERNAL THINGS.

COME, O! my soul, call in thy scattered thoughts; collect thy wandering desires, and meditate with solemn awe on everlasting things.

How busy is the world! How big with designs, all resting on to-morrow! But to-morrow's sun may never rise on thousands who are fondly hoping to behold a range of following years. Short-sighted mortals ! He who ruleth over all, hath assigned to each a limit, beyond which the worldling cannot pass. Man hath an appointed time upon earth; his days are the days of an hireling. Ó! for true wisdom to learn the measure of our days; and to compute with justness the extent of life.

The volume of inspiration has done this with peculiar force and beauty. There human life is compared to a sleep; to the rapidity of a flood; to a tale that is told; to a vapour that appeareth for a little time; to a flower which flourisheth in the morning,

and in the evening is cut down and withered; to vanity; to a shadow that passeth away.

Eternity, that solemn word soon passes from the lip; but who can grasp the mighty, the immense idea, which this word ETERNITY conveys? All thought is lost in its immensity, and swallowed up in its fathomless abyss.

The mind may conceive, though faintly, of millions of ages heaped upon millions, till numbers lose themselves; or rather, till we are lost in the vast calculation.

But who can measure eternity; compared with whose everlasting lines, myriads of years are infinitely less than atoms floating in the mid-day sun?

All men are hastening to eternity. All are standing upon the brink of an interminable state of being. Yet all, except the little flock of Christ, are living as if life would never end; and die as if beyond the grave there was nothing to awaken their solici

tous concern.

Awful insensibility! how fatally has sin blinded the mind of them that believe not! Men are willing to believe that which they wish to be true. They flatter themselves that all will be well at the last, though they follow the corrupt desires of their hearts, in direct opposition to the revealed will of God.

Here indeed the wicked, from their animal nature, have many objects to gratify their sensitive appetites, even at the very time when their spirits are enduring the stings and lashes of an upbraiding conscience. But in eternity, where the body shall no longer be the seat of animal desire; in eternity, where all the sensual gratifications shall for ever cease; the soul will experience no change from pain to pleasure, or from pleasure to pain; but all will be either unmixed pain or unalloyed pleasure.

Surely no thought can be more awakening than

this and yet with what subtlety does the heart evade its force; with what shocking indifference is it treated by a world of dying sinners!

O blessed Jesus! thou compassionate High Priest, awaken my drowsy sense. Deliver me from the fatal lethargy of unbelief. Captivate all my heart by the sweet constraining influence of redeeming love. Thou who art the Sun of Righteousness, dispel the mist of error; dissipate every darkening cloud which would intercept thy cheering beam; and let all thy brightness burst upon my ravished sight.

Reveal thyself as my Saviour; let all thy goodness pass before me; say to my trembling heart"I am thy salvation:"-then shall I be able to contemplate eternity, with joyful expectation; knowing, that to be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord.

Moses was well acquainted with the insensibility of the human heart to eternal things, when he prayed, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." We are walking every moment on the verge of eternity. A slight accident can loosen the cords which unite soul and body; and thus bring us instantly into the world of spirits. Then why should we calculate upon length of days? Why should we act as if we had years at command? This moment only is our own. So precious is time, that Infinite Bounty deals it out by seconds. And yet how prodigal we are of time, as if it were of all things the easiest to attain; or its loss the easiest to repair! Dying sinners whose consciences are awakened, and whose eyes are opened to see their danger, know the incalculable value of time. They feel every moment to be inconceivably precious, if, in this fleeting remnant of time, they can find the Saviour whom they have

basely slighted; and through his pardoning grace be saved from the wrath to come. It is at dying beds that we learn something of the value of time. The keen self-reproaches of the convicted sinner show the folly of wasting days and hours, which have a value beyond the power of human calculation. The shortness of life is continually forcing itself upon us by the passing bell, the funeral procession, and the weekly voice of public prints. Yet its very commonness, which ought to alarm us, tends only to lull us into a strange security. This is observable in large towns, where multitudes are continually summoned into eternity; whilst in villages, where deaths are less frequent, a solemn awe is usually excited, at least for a time.

Whatever others do, O! may I think seriously on my dying hour. Lord, teach me so to number my days, that I may apply my heart unto wisdom. Enlighten my understanding to perceive what things I ought to do; and give me grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same.

We are born in sin; therefore, to be happy we must be born again. We have lived in sin-and to be happy, we must be delivered from its reigning power.

As in this world there is no peace to the wicked; so, in the next, they have no rest day nor night; for the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever. O! that they were wise; that they understood this; that they would consider their latter end.

All that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Then they that be wise, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.

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