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one awful and final catastrophe!--long predicted, often alluded to, and delayed only, until the fulness of time shall come. But it will come, and will not tarry. "For the heavens and the earth shall perish, yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shall God change them, and they shall be changed." But God endureth for ever, and his word shall never fail. "He

is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering towards our world, and not willing that any should perish." It is for this cause that he delayeth, and sendeth his word and his messengers, to warn the sons of men of their danger and to hasten them to their duty. And shall we doubt and perish? Must our ruin be the only evidence that will convince us? Shall we, like those of old, eat and drink, build and plant, buy and sell—shall we seek honor and pleasure, wealth and office,-thoughtless of the future, and reckless of our danger, until we see "our God in grandeur and our world on fire?" O what is man! how slow in heart to believe, how dull in feeling, not to tremble at the threatened judgments of the Almighty! "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end." Then would they become emulous of a crown that fadeth not, and of a throne that crumbleth not, and of pleasures at God's right hand for evermore. But I am admonished that it is time to come to the accustomed congratulations of the occasion, and so conclude.

His Excellency the Governor, and the other officers and members of the Executive and Legislative Departments, will accept our cordial felicitations for the honors conferred on them by the free suffrages of an enlightened people. Of all offices in the world, those conferred thus, and under such circumstances are the most desirable and the most flattering. We love and respect the rulers of our own choice; and we doubt not but such rulers love and respect us. We are yours, and you are ours. Strong and endearing ties! Well may it be said of such, at least so far as the political interests of our country are concerned,Happy rulers, over a happy people! But while I am permitted thus publicly to be the organ of these congratulations, you will suffer me, I doubt not, to present them in full view of the preceding subject, and of the need you have, for all the motives here furnished, to enable you amidst the cares and honors of public life, to be sober, watchful, and prayerful. For the more interesting and honorable your relations to society, the greater your danger of being too much engrossed by them. Faithfulness and diligence in the duties of your respective offices do indeed become you; nor are you required to be indifferent to the confidence, honors, and affection of your fellow-citizens. Our fault is not, that we feel an interest in the duties and concerns of time, but that this interest is not always regulated by a regard to the connection of time with eternity. Who would build the temple of his fame, and the palace of his pleasures, on the sand? Yet he builds thus, who loves the world for its own sake. But if, through all the relations and duties of time, you feel and act with due respect to the events of the great day, then will you fill up your respective spheres, with pleasure, with interest, and with integrity; and in the end it shall be said to each of you--Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

BY JUSTIN EDWARDS, D.D.

BOSTON, MASS.

I PETER, IV. 7.—But the end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

It is one of the striking evidences of human depravity, and of its power over the mind, that men can live as if they were at home in this world, and confine their views, affections, and efforts, to the objects of time. It would seem, at first, to be impossible, that rational creatures, born for immortality, and whose happiness to endless ages depends upon placing their affections on things above, should be able to confine them to things below; especially after God has told them, that the end of this is death.

But we know from observation that they can do it, and from woful experience that they love to do it. Although admonished by the pains which they feel in their own bodies, by the warning voice of conscience, the testimony of dying friends, and the declarations of the Holy Ghost, that they have no abiding place on earth, still they seek this world as their chief good; and not unfrequently they continue to do this till the last hour of life, and neglect the great salvation till their souls are lost for ever..

But they can never say that they do this without warning. God has told them, the time is short; and they know not what a day may bring forth. “The end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer."

The end here spoken of, some have supposed to be the end of the Jewish nation, when their city and temple were destroyed, and eleven hundred thousand were swept into eternity. But it more naturally leads our minds to the end of the world; when, not a temple, or a city merely, but the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements melt with fervent heat, the earth, and all that is in it, be burnt up, and the scenes of time be swallowed up in an opening and boundless eternity.

Although it may be ages before this shall take place, yet, compared with eternity, it is at hand. All the time between this and the end of the world, when it is past, will look like a dream when one awakes.

But the end to you, my hearers, and to me, is much nearer than this. All the concern that we shall ever have with things below, is confined to the time in which we live. And what is your life? A vapour, which appears, and vanishes away. And must we at death drop all connection with things below? Surely, then, the end is at hand. I shall, therefore,

I. Illustrate this truth; and,

II. Point out the duties to which it calls us.

1. A thing is said to be at hand, when it is so near that we can reach it; or so near that it may come on us, or we may meet it, at any time. In this sense, the end of all things is at hand. It is so near that it may meet us at any time. Wherever we go, whatever we do, when we lie down, and when we rise up, when we go out, and when we come in, the next thing may be, the end. There is not a moment of life in which we are not exposed, without warning, to meet death. Even if we have laid out plans for years, and are engaged in

them with all the heart, still we may be called to leave them, just where they are, for other hearts to enjoy, and other hands to accomplish. You may have known a man with fair opening prospects, perhaps he had bought him a farm, and begun to make great improvements; or had built him a house, and expected soon to occupy it, and find a settled habitation; or he had engaged in merchandise, and laid the foundation for long and prosperous business; he intended to prosecute it for years before he should close his concerns; his treasures were wafted by every wind, and his agents were seen in every clime; but suddenly his business stopped; his plans were broken; the end had come, and the man was a corpse. Even if he had done nothing to prepare for death, and it was certain, should he then die, that he would sink to perdition, still he could not stop a moment; prepared or unprepared, he must go,and enter upon the endless retributions of eternity. Ah! he should have watched, and laid up his treasure in heaven; then he had been ready; and when absent from the body, he had been present with the Lord, beholding his glory and rejoicing in his love. I once saw an infant smiling in its mother's arms; she rocked it in her cradle; and her heart leaped for joy as she thought how it would soon delight her with its half-formed accents, and be the solace of her heart for many future years; but the hand of death touched it, and her hopes, and her infant, sunk together into the grave! Have pity upon her, O ye her friends, have pity upon her, for the hand of the Lord hath touched her.

Your child perhaps lived till he could surprise and delight you with his opening and vivid intelligence; and by presenting every day some new attraction, bind a new cord around your heart; but a fall, or a fever, the fire, or the water, or some other messenger of the Lord, broke all asunder, and there was a wound which nothing but the balm in Gilead, and the Physician there, could heal.

Your neighbor's child lived till he had risen, perhaps, to manhood, and engaged in the active concerns of life. It may be he had freighted a vessel, and gone to a distant country; and after years of painful absence, his friends were expecting his return. Their hearts leaped for joy as the vessel approached; they hastened down to meet him; but, ah! he was gone ;—the end had come ; and they shall never more behold him, till the last great day. No age, no condition, no prospects, keep off death. With regard to every individual, the end of all things is at hand. I shall now, therefore,

II. Point out the duties to which the subject calls us: "Be ye sober, and watch unto prayer."

1. Be ye sober. This applies to the body, and to the mind. It means, abstain from outward dissipation, and from inward idolatry. Let your appetites, your passions, and your affections, be governed by the Bible. When the means of gratifying appetite, or exciting passion, appear before you, or when you are tempted to place your hearts on the world, remember that you must die. On earth you are a stranger, passing quickly to your eternal home. Let this truth sink deep, regulate your appetites, govern your passions, and take off your hearts from things below. They will soon be to you as though they had never been; except as to the effect which your having had them, and used them, will have on your character and your future condition; this will last for ever. Keep this in view, and look not at things seen and temporal, but at things unseen and eternal.

Even those who profess to believe God, are often excessively devoted to this world. They are lifted up by its smiles, or cast down by its frowns. They are so anxious to obtain it, are so disappointed if they cannot, or so envious towards those who can, that they have no rest; and sometimes they continue

this course, till they are on the brink of the bottomless pit. My feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped, I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked; they have no bands in their death; their strength is firm; they are not in trouble as other men are; their eyes stand out with fatness, and they have more than heart can wish; while the poor Christian turns from overwhelming disappointment, and sorrows of a full cup are wrung out unto him, and he is tempted to say, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence, for I am plagued all the day, and straitened every moment. But let him go up into the temple of the Lord, and in the light of eternal ages, view their end. O! Thou castest them down into destruction, and they are desolated in a moment !

The sight of this should banish all envious, all covetous, and all discontented feelings from the minds of Christians. On earth they are pilgrims, never to rest till they arrive in glory. There is but one rest that remaineth for the people of God. They cannot find it, they ought not to expect it, till they pass over Jordan. Clusters indeed from that land of promise they may expect; they might have them often, to cheer and strengthen them on their journey, would they pass by. the poisonous fruits of the wilderness, and leave an example which should testify to those who come after, "Touch not, taste not, handle not." Still the permanent joy which they will here experience, should they be as holy as Moses, as heavenly-minded as Daniel, and as active for God as Paul, compared with what they will have in heaven, can be only as a drop to the boundless ocean. And yet their joy on earth may be unspeakable and full of glory. What then will it be in heaven, as they behold the face of Christ, see him as he is, and are for ever like him! How great then the folly, and how tremendous the guilt, of giving up those joys for these trifles! But those joys no man can obtain, without, while on earth, being sober; governing his appetites, his passions, and his affections, by the Bible. What he knows to be sin, he must renounce; and what he knows to be duty, he must perform, let the self-denial be what it may.. If a man lives in what he knows to be sin, or continues to neglect what he knows to be duty, vain is that man's hope of heaven. It does not purify him; it is not the hope of the gospel; and it will be like the spider's web, when God taketh away the soul. Would you, my hearers, have that hope which maketh not ashamed? Form no plans, engage in no business, speak no words, indulge no feelings, but what you really believe, after all the light that you can gain, God will approve. Let, Thou God seest me, be written upon your hearts, and under it, Thy favor is life, and thy loving-kindness is better than life. In keeping his commands, fear not those who can only kill the body; but fear Him, who can kill also the soul. Whatever be the consequences, let his will, at all times, and in all places, govern you. Trust in Jesus Christ, and make it your great object to obey all his commands. This is of infinite moment, not only to you, but to all who may succeed you. You may soon die; but you leave an example, the influence of which can never die. Suppose you are a parent, and neglect the Lord Jesus; your example, long after you are dead, may lead your children to neglect him; and their example may lead their children to neglect him; and thus the influence may extend to the end of time. Nor once imagine that you do no evil, merely because you are not openly immoral. If you neglect the Lord Jesus-if you do not live for him-you may do greater evil than men or angels can describe.

Nor once imagine, on the other hand, that you cannot do great good, because you may not have great talents, learning, property, or influence. Let all that you have, be it more or less, be devoted to Christ, and you may, through grace, do greater good than Gabriel can conceive.

The reading of the life of David Brainerd, led Henry Martyn to resolve that

he would be a missionary, and spend his life in translating the Bible, and preaching the gospel to those who had never heard of Christ. In pursuance of this resolution, he left his father's house, his native country; and although he died a young man, he had preached the gospel to thousands, who before had never heard it; and translated the whole of the New Testament into Hindostanee, and also into Persian; languages in which it was before unknown, and in which it will be read by millions to all future generations. Such was the influence of David Brainerd, more than half a century after he was dead, on a single man, more than three thousand miles from the place where he lived and died. And upon how many other men has the life of Brainerd produced an influence which will be felt when the earth and heavens are dissolved!

But Brainerd, you say, was a minister, and no doubt ministers should be holy men, because they are in public stations, and their influence is important; but we are private Christians, in obscure stations; and can there be any such great good accomplished by our example and influence? A woman in a private station had a little child, whom she early taught the truths of the Bible by means of the tiles in the chinney. And that child was Philip Loddridge; whose influence is felt through kingdoms, and will continue to be felt, till the kingdoms of this world are no more.

Another woman in a private station, had a son, with whom she often prayed; but, called of God, she left him motherless before he was five years old. Her instructions, however, and her prayers, after twenty years of wickedness, awakened in his bosom compunctions of conscience, and brought him to deep repentance. That man was John Newton ; who afterwards became a minister, and was the means of bringing hundreds, and probably thousands, of others to repentance; among whom was one, whose "Star in the East" has electrified Christendom; and another, whose " Family Bible" is now read by fifty thousand families, and will help forward millions to glory.

So much can be seen, even in this distant world, and while looking through a glass darkly, to be connected with the fervent prayers and pious labors of one obscure woman, who had no greater means of exerting an influence on the world, than has every mother in this assembly. Could you look forward and trace the influence of that one obscure woman through a few of the unnumbered ages of eternity,-O what a prospect!--And such a prospect, my friends, if you will live for Christ, and devote your all to him, may open before each one of you. And what are the little concerns of kingdoms, and empires, and worlds, compared with the glory of turning many to righteousness, and shining as the stars in the firmament, and as the sun in his strength, for ever and ever!

The good which you may do, does not depend so much on the greatness of the influence which you exert, as it does upon the kind. Let all the influence which you have, be for Christ, and you will accomplish a good, the greatness of which will be the theme of adoring praises, from multitudes that no man can number, to endless ages.

But to accomplish so much, you must follow also the other direction of

the text:

2. Watch unto prayer. Prayer, humble, believing, affectionate, persevering prayer, in the name of Christ, and for the purpose of promoting his glory and the salvation of men, is, in its influence omnipresent, in its results omnipotent. By it a person may do good at home and abroad; throughout the city in which he lives, throughout the country, and throughout the world; and he may continue to do good throughout all future ages. Open your mouths wide, saith God, and I will fill them. In answer to prayer, blind eyes may be opened, and deaf ears be unstopped; the lame man made to leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb to sing in the wilderness waters to break

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