III.

they have laid; from the friendships and SERMON connections which they they have secured; from the plans of conduct which they have formed. Alas! how deceitful do all these dreams of happiness often prove! While many are saying in secret to their hearts, To-morrow shall be as this day as this day and more abundantly, we are obliged in return to say to them, Boast not thyself of to-morrrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. I do not mean that in the unknown prospect which lies before us, we should forbode to ourselves nothing but misfortunes. May it be the pleasure of Heaven that this year run on in a placid and tranquil tenor to us all! But this I say, that in such foresight of futurity as we are allowed to take, we may reckon upon it as certain, that this year shall prove to us, as many past have proved, a checquered scene of some comforts and some troubles. In what pro

portion one or other of these shall prevail in it; whether, when it ends, it shall leave with us the memory of joys or of sorrows, is to be determined by him in whose hands our times are. Our wisE 2 dom

SERMON dom is to be prepared for whatever the

III.

year is
is to bring;

prepared to receive comforts with thankfulness, troubles with fortitude; and to improve both for the great purposes of virtue and eternal life.

ANOTHER important instruction which naturally arises from our times not being in our own hands is, that we ought no longer to trifle with what it is not in our power to prolong: but that we should make haste to live as wise men; not delaying till to-morrow what may be done to-day; doing now with all our might whatever our hand findeth to do; before that night cometh wherein no man can work.

Amidst the uncertainty of the events which are before us, there is one thing we have too much reason to believe, namely, that of us who are now assembled in this congregation, and who have seen the year begin, there are some who shall not survive to see it close. Whe

ther it shall be you, or you, or I, who shall be gathered to our fathers before the revolving year has finished its round, God alone knows. Our times are in his band!

9

III.

hand! But to our place, it is more than SERMON
probable that some of us shall have gone.
Could we foretel the month, or the day,
on which our change was to happen, how
diligent would we be in setting our house in
order, and preparing ourselves to appear
before our Maker? Surely, that ought to
be prepared for with most care, concerning
which we are ignorant how soon it is to take
place. Let us therefore walk circumspectly,
Let us dismiss those

and redeem the time.
trivial and superfluous cares which burden
or corrupt our life, in order to attend to
what is of highest importance to us as men
and Christians. The beginning of each
year should
carry to us all a solemn admo-
nition of our folly in neglecting to improve
suitably the years that are past. It should
call up mispent time into our view; and
be like the hand coming forth upon the wall,
in the days of Belshazzar, and writing in
legible characters over against us, "Oman!"

thy days are numbered; thou art weighed " in the balance, and found wanting; take "care lest thy kingdom be on the point of "departing from thee."

SERMON

III.

WHEN We consider, in the next place, that our times, as I before illustrated, are in the hand of God as a sovereign Disposer, it is an obvious inference from this truth, that we should prepare ourselves to submit patiently to his pleasure, both as to the events which are to fill up our days, and as to the time of our continuing in this world. To contend with him we know to be fruitless. The word that is gone.out of his mouth must stand. In the path which he has marked out for us, whether it be short or long, rugged or smooth, we must walk, Is it not then the dictate of wisdom, that we should previously reconcile ourselves to this sovereign ordination, and bring our minds to harmonize with what is appointed to be our destiny? Let us mortify this temper, by recalling that reflection of the wise man; who knoweth what is good for man in this life; all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow * ?

To enjoy long life, and see many days, is the universal wish; and, as the wish is prompted by nature, it cannot be in At the same time, several • Eccles. vi. 12,

itself unlawful.

circum

III.

circumstances concur to temper the eager- SERMON ness of this wish; and to shew us that it should always be formed under due submission to the wiser judgment of Heaven. Who among us can tell whether, in wishing for the continuance of many years on earth, we may not be only wishing for a prolongation of distress and misery?— You might live, my friends, till you had undergone lingering rounds of severe pain, from which death would have proved a seasonable deliverance. You might live till your breasts were pierced with many a wound from public calamities or private sorrows, You might live till you beheld the death of all whom you had loved, till you survived all those who love you; till you were left as desolate strangers on earth in the midst of a new race, who neither knew you, nor cared for you, but who wished you off the stage. Of a nature so ambiguous are all the prospects which life sets before us, that in every wish we form relating to them, much reason we have to be satisfied that our times are in the hands of God, rather than our own.