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harvest is a son that causeth shame." Common sense readily acquiesces in all this-but let us accommodate the subject to moral and spiritual purposes. Let us represent your harvest season, and enforce upon you the necessity of diligence in using it.

I. God affords you opportunities for good; he favours you with seasons which may be considered as your harvest. In this view we may regard the whole period of life. While you are continued in this world, you have " space for repentance; and the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation."

You are blessed with a season of gospel grace. While many are sitting in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death, upon you "hath the light shined, to guide your feet into the way of peace." You not only live in a country where there is a written revelation, but your "eyes see your teachers, and your ears hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn aside to the right hand or to the left." Though the preaching of the word is neglected by some, and despised by others, it is an invaluable privilege. By this the scripture is explained to the mind, and enforced on the conscience: by this you are warned of your danger and encouraged to flee for refuge: you are called upon to draw nigh, and assured that "all things are now ready. Faith cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of God."

And this reminds us that you have a season of civil and religious liberty. You have the Bible in your hands, and are not fined for reading it: you may assemble together in public, and hear the word of life without danger; your devotions are sanctioned by law, and you may "sit under

your own vine, and under your own fig-tree, and none make you afraid." What advantages do we possess above many of our ancestors who suffered for conscience sake! They laboured, and we have entered into their labours. "They took joyfully the spoiling of their goods. They had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in-sheep-skins, and goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; of whom the world was not worthy; they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."

Some are living in a religious family, where they have the benefit of instruction, prayer, and example. Some, like Timothy, have been trained up by a mother and a grandmother of unfeigned faith, and from children "have known the scriptures, which are able to make us wise unto salvation."

Who in passing through a vale of tears has not experienced a day of trouble? From such a period many have had to date their saving acquaintance with divine things. Affliction is favourable to religion; it abstracts, it softens, it awes the mind: it strips the world of its attractions, and starves us out of the creature into God.

Where is the person who does not know what we mean by a season of conviction? Conscience has sometimes forced you to stand. Like Felix, you have trembled under the power of the world to come. You have sometimes been pleasingly affected; you have wept, and prayed, and sighed, "Now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee ?"

VOL. I.

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But, O! can I forget another season? or can I forget to urge the admonition of wisdom and friendship-"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them!" Never, never, my young friends, will you have a season in which your hinderances are so few, or your helps so many as the present. Everything now invites, everything constrains you :-" Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

II. I would enforce upon you the necessity of diligence to improve your reaping season.

And, first, consider how much you have to accomplish. You have the work of a husbandman in harvest-and will this allow you to be drowsy and idle? Does it not require you to rise early, and be active all the day? To seize every moment, and secure every assistance? The salvation of the soul is a great, an arduous concernand many things are required of you. For though you are not left to yourselves, nor called to act in your own strength, yet religion is a race, and you must run: it is a warfare, and you must fight. The blessings of the gospel are free, but they are to be sought, and gained. It is God that "worketh in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure," but we are commanded notwithstanding this, yea, because of this, to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling." Spring, then, from the bed of sloth, shake off every impediment; you have sins to be pardoned, passions to be subdued, graces to be exercised, duties to be performed a harvest to gather in !

Secondly, consider the worth of the blessings which demand your attention. The advantages

held forth by the prospect of harvest, animate the husbandman to diligence and reconcile him to exertion; but what are the blessings of the field compared with the blessings of salvation? The one is perishable, the other is eternal-the one is for the body only, the other is for the soul. What is an earthly portion in a barn, to "an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away; reserved in heaven for us?" I would address, you as rational creatures. Is it not desirable to be redeemed from the curse of the law; to be justified freely from every charge brought against us at the bar of God; to be delivered from the tyranny and rage of vicious appetites and passions? Great is the happiness of those that belong to God here; but who can describe the exalted glory and joy that await them hereafter? Do you not wish to enter in with those who shall be for ever with the Lord: and of whom it is said, "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Will not this indemnify you for every sacrifice, and abundantly recompense all your toil?

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Thirdly, remember that your labour will not be in vain in the Lord. "Be not weary in welldoing, for in due time you shall reap if you faint not. The husbandman has many uncertainties to contend with, insects, blights, droughts, and storms; but probability stimulates him, how much more should actual certainty encourage you?They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious

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seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

Fourthly, remember that your season for action is limited and short. Harvest does not last long. Your time in the whole compass of it is but a few days, and how little of it deserves the name of life, or can be applied to any important purposes. When infancy, sleep, business, recreations have engrossed their share, is the remainder, think you, too long a period to acquire the kingdom of God and his righteousness? But your time is uncertain as well as short. The present only is yours you know not what a day or an hour will bring forth. The fool in the gospel talked of goods laid up for many years, when he had but a few moments left: God put his finger upon his conscience, and said, "Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee.-Man knoweth not his time as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them." Youth is no certain protection from the grave. Death does not go by age, nor does it always wait till it has sent a warning. Your time is always in motion: if you are idle, time is not-but hurrying you forward. If you do not perceive your progress, every hour, and every moment brings you nearer to your end. And your time, once gone, cannot be recalled. God has plainly told you, that there is a season when he will not be found; "Therefore, seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near." In vain those who despised the warnings of Noah, clung to the sides of the ark when the door was shut it was then too late. : "Strive to enter in

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