and that, when a few years are come, then we shall go the way whence we shall not return. This is the case with every man; but it is not every man who makes suitable reflections thereupon, calculated to improve the present time to the everlasting benefit of the soul within him.

All men know that in the midst of life they are in death. They see the young, the strong, the middleaged, and the old, going to that place whence there is no return; but perhaps, with some slight shudder at passing mortality, they bid the disagreeable reflection depart, and forget to number their own days by applying their hearts unto wisdom!

Anything that has life is much more entertaining; and willingly, indeed, do men fly away from a subject which, to them, has nothing to recommend it. Oh, let it not be so with us; but let us seriously this day consider our days, that, few and evil as they have been, the small portion contained in the few days to come may not be spent in vain. May God, our merciful God, so look over the past life of every one here who can read His word, as to blot out of His eternal book every record of our sins! "0, that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth with his neighbour!

This pious aspiration of Job may now be accomplished for, as Christians, we are commanded to "Pray one for another, that if we see our brother sin a sin, which is not unto death, we may ask God, who shall give him life and pardon. There is a sin unto death (says the apostle); I do not say he shall pray for it." But I hope there are none here such wilfully wicked sinners as so to deny the God who bought them as to be beyond the reach of prayer

to Him who intercedes for us at God's right hand. All unrighteousness is sin; but there is a sin not unto death that is not beyond the bounds of reconciliation with God, through His Son Jesus Christ. All manner of sin shall be forgiven-but that sin against the Holy Ghost-that great offence whereby we exclude ourselves for ever from the kingdom of heaven and eternal life.

It is our duty to call you from the hold which sin would take upon you, lest you die therein. "Yea, father Abraham; but if one returned unto them from the dead they will repent!" (Luke xvi. 36). It is much to be doubted whether the sight of any departed friend, were he to return from that place whence he is departed, would move the hardened heart, if the Scriptures of God, if Moses and the prophets, if Christ and His apostles, have no effect. A man who believes not the word of God would soon learn to think his own eyesight, hearing, or touch as mere delusions; and though his own father stood before him from the grave-his own brother, sister, or friend appeared to him-though they spake to him, touched him, and he heard them warn him of "the few years to come," yet he would in a few years forget their advice, and soon learn to treat their admonitions with indifference: "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither would they be persuaded though one returned unto them from the dead." "When a few years are come, then I shall go whence I shall not return."

Now, had this language been held forth to any young man who is departed from among you, he would scarcely have believed how few his years were before he should depart. Indeed, until the very last

few weeks of expiring nature the man of sin cannot be persuaded in his own mind but that he should recover, and live many years longer on this earth. He might have been, indeed, but a very young man, and might appear to have as bright a prospect of life as any of you who now live and breathe; yet how few have been his years, and he is gone for ever! His toils are over: his sufferings, I trust and hope, are over, and he is gone, God grant it to us all, to Abraham's bosom; but let me tell you, young men, however strong you may be, that but a few short years to come, and you must go to Him, He cannot come to you! And what are those years at best? They are but a transient shadow-a vapour which passeth away. Oh, be advised now in your youth to remember your Creator, for God will soon call you into judgment! Take heed to your ways before it be too late! Drive not off the day of repentance; but forsake your evil ways, and turn unto the Lord your God!

O, consider how short your time is, and that you are not made for nought! You are not called into this life for any other purpose than to work out your salvation to a better, to know there is a happier life-a kingdom which is rapidly coming on, a day fast drawing nigh in which God shall judge the secrets of men by that Man whom He has appointed, even Christ Jesus. For this purpose, we both labour and suffer that you may learn wisdom. We stand here but to call men to repentance,-to exhort them to put off the old man which is corrupt, and to put on the new man which, in Christ Jesus, is created unto good works. When a few years are come, and we who preach and you who hear shall

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all be gone, then will it be seen if our preaching, and your hearing, and practice, have been according to the faith.

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Oh, do not wait then for a death-bed repentance! Draw nigh unto God this day, and He will draw nigh to you! You know not what a single day may bring forth. Death may come unawares: he does come most unwelcome to many-to many unprepared to most with surprise: to few who have that lively faith which says, Lord, I welcome him as thy messenger to eternal peace." Oh, let us all apply our hearts to wisdom-aye! to that wisdom which carries with it the consolation of Job, “I know that my Redeemer liveth;" or to that consolation of the apostle, "To me to die is gain!" Delay not to your death-bed that work which ought to be the study of your whole life. How short your time is! Improve the precious hours; waste them not: some wisdom is to be gained therein which will greatly add to the placid comfort of your dying hour. We are dependent, one upon another, for help in the affairs of this life in our own greatest strength: for no man can do all things for himself, but he requires the assistance of his brother; but, the time must come when the soul must stand or fall according to its faith. Put not your trust in princes, nor in any son of man whatever. No man can give anything to redeem his brother's soul. We must each learn to know the price of our redemption, and to value our souls above all the riches of the world! You cannot set too high a price upon your soul's salvation-you cannot estimate its value at too much. Only consider, every one of you, that God has paid a greater price than all the world could pay

for your souls: even the giving His only begotten Son-the express image of His glory-giving him to death as a ransom for many. Can, then, the poorest here set too high a value upon his soul? Oh, what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

How precious are you, O ye poor souls, in the sight of God! Oh, would to God you each knew how much the Lord your God loved you, and you never would barter those souls, as the Scripture says, "For a few handfuls of barley, or a few pieces of silver." You would never think houses, lands, corn, cattle, granaries, gold, silver, precious stones, rubies, pearls, or diamonds, so valuable as your souls. How angry, then, must God feel when He sees men selling their own souls for the paltry consideration of a few trifles which perish in a moment !

Oh, that I could once open the eyes of you all to this wonderful love of God for souls! You would each learn to think yourselves not consequential in each others' eyes, but precious in the sight of God. Your life would have an object desirable to live for, for ever-aye! one which, the longer you lived, would give you the greater pleasure and only be exceeded by the happiness to come. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that all that believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Young men, children, parents, servants, masters, brothers, sisters, friends, and fellow labourers, this is all I wish you to know; but I wish you to know it, to feel it, to own it, and to cherish it, as the doctrine of life; that you may find comfort and satisfaction in it, and never part with its joys till you part with life for glory. When a