SERMON connected us once with our father, and XVII. our father's house. Thy father has perhaps, long ago, gone down to the dust. But when you recal the innocent days of childhood and youth; when you think of those family transactions, which once gladdened your hearts; your father's friend, in the midst of these, will rise to your remembrance. There was a time when you accosted him with respect, or looked up to him with fondness, and was made happy by his kindly notice. Does such a one now survive, and shall he not receive from you some portion of filial reverence and honour? To disregard and neglect him, is to spurn your father's memory; is to insult the ashes of him who now sleeps in the grave; is to transmit yourselves to those who shall succeed you, as unfeeling and base. Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not. I HAVE pointed out some of the chief duties which belong to virtuous friendship; and some of the principal means by which this sacred bond should be preserved unbroken; this holy flame should be XVII. be kept alive in the human breast. The SERMON spirit, and sentiments, which I have studied to inspire, are such as virtue breathes, and such as true piety should increase. It is thus we fulfil that great law of love which our Divine Master taught. It is thus we prepare ourselves for those happy regions, where charity never faileth; where, in the presence of the God of Love, eternal and invariable friendships unite together all the blessed; friendships, which, by no human infirmity disturbed, by death never separated, shall constitute, throughout endless ages, a great and distinguished portion of the celestial felicity. SERMON XVIII. On the CONDUCT to be held with regard to FUTURE EVENTS. SERMON PROVERBS, XXVii. 1. Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. FROM these words I purpose to discourse of the proper conduct which we ought to hold, with regard to futurity, amidst the present uncertainties of life. Time and life are always going on, and to each of us are preparing changes in our state. What these may be, whether for the better or for the worse, we cannot tell ; as it hath pleased the wisdom of Providence, to cover futurity with a veil which no XVIII. no mortal can lift up. In the mean time, SERMON none of us can avoid forming designs, and laying plans, for the time to come. The present moment is never sufficient to give full employment to the active mind of man, without some excursions into futurity; and in these excursions, the present is often wholly spent. It is therefore of the highest consequence, that a proper direction be given to the mind, in its employments of thought relating to futurity. Otherwise, in the prospects which we take of that unknown region, false hopes, or ill-grounded fears, shall flatter or torment us in vain. We know not, as the Wise Man tells us, what a day may bring forth. It may, very probably, produce something that we had not looked for; and therefore, instead of boasting ourselves of to-morrow, as the multitudeare apt to do, it becomes us to be disciplined and prepared, for whatever it may bring. Ir is needless to spend much time in confirming the truth, which is the foundation of the admonition in the text; in SERMON proving, either that change and mutability XVIII. belong to our present state, or that the changes of it cannot be foreseen by us. These are truths so obvious and confessed, that an attempt to confirm them is like proving that all men are to die. At the same time, obvious as they are, it were to be wished, that the thoughts of men dwelt upon them more. For by a strange but prevailing deception, it would seem, from the general conduct of mankind, that almost every one thinks his own case an exception from the general law; and that he may build plans with as much confidence on his present situation, as if some assurance had been given him that it were never to change. Hence it has been often observed by serious persons, that there is no more general cause to which the vices of men can be ascribed, their forgetfulness of God and their neglect of duty, than to their presuming upon the continuance of life, of pleasure, and prosperity. Look but a little way, my friends, into your own state; and you must unavoidably perceive that, from the beginning, it has |