deavouring to lose that which is so precious; of killing that which is of such importance! O dear-bought pleasures, if they rob me of my time; ill-purchased enjoyments, if my moments are passing away to testify my neglect, my indolence, my guilt, at the bar of God! "What will it profit me, if I gain the whole world, anu lose my own soul?”*

Once more, let me put the question as to human life: what is it? Does it creep slowly on; can nothing stay its course; can none command the sun to stand still, nor stop the march of time? Alas! no: it is but one life, and that is running out with unimpeded rapidity. “My days," said Job, "are swifter than a post; they flee away; they see no good; they pass away as the eagle that hasteth to the prey. They are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope. O remember that my life is wind, as the cloud is consumed, and vanisheth away." "The sun returns every day, but time never returns." O how very soon do the moments complete the minutes; the minutes the

* Mark viii, 36 ↑ Job ix, 26. Job vii. 6, 7. 9.

hour; the hours the day; the days the month; the months the year; and the years the life? Come then, reader, on the review of these answers to this important question; kneel down before him who has thy life in his hand, and say, "Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Behold thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth, and mine age as nothing before thee. Teach me to number my days that I may apply my heart unto wisdom."*

Having now answered the question as to human life, let us make some enquiries as to

HUMAN NATURE.

AND what is human nature? Is it pure, dignified, and naturally virtuous, as some suppose? Alas! no. "Lo, this have I found, that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." Man was created after the image

* Psalm xxxix. 4, 5, & xc. 12. † Ecel. vii. 29.

of God; a holy, happy, intelligent being. He had not only a literal paradise around him, but a moral paradise within him. His mind was illumined by the light of heaven. His will was conformed to the divine law, and his affections placed on the Supreme Good. This was his original righteousness; but which, after all, as experience has proved, was mutable; for how soon was this illustrious sun eclipsed, his glory sullied, and his excellency cast down to the ground! Sin entered into the world; degraded his powers, filled him with shame, tormented him with guilt, deprived him of his happiness, and exposed him to death!

awful scene soon appeared.

Hence, what an

"God saw that

the wickedness of man was great in the earth; and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."* Adam, driven from paradise, carried his fallen, corrupt nature with him; hence, all his offspring became contaminated, and the world was filled with iniquity as fast as its population increased. Nor has his depravity been diminished by the

* Gen. vi. 5.

succession of ages: man remains the same now as ever; and none can say, "I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin."* Some indeed are inclined to think more highly of human nature; and that it is not the innate depravity, but the evil examples of others, by which we are injured. But let us only attend to scripture, observation, and experience, and we shall find that man has nothing to glory in. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. We are by nature the children of wrath. For from within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evils come from within, and defile the man. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."+ Let these scriptnres suffice to prove this humilia

* Prov. xx. 9.

Eph. ii. 3.

+ Job xiv. 4. Psa. li. 5. John iii. 6. Mark vii. 21, 22. Jer. xvii. 9.

ting doctrine. Observation will furnish uswith many awful evidences of man's lost condition. From whence do all the calamities in the world arise, but from this corrupt fountain? From whence all our sighs, our tears, our afflictions, our pains, our losses, our disappointments, our miseries--but from this? How early in life, too, does this depravity begin to operate? What aversion from good, and what a propensity to evil, do we observe in the rising generation?" Foolishness is said to be bound in the heart of a child."* What do we see in the conduct of those of a larger growth? Do men naturally love God? do they seek his favour? do they abhor iniquity, and reverence the Divine name? Alas! on the contrary, do they not live in a state of rebellion against him, and work iniquity with all greediness? Do they not also rise up one against another? Are not envy, jealousy, malignity, constantly at work? Whence come wars and fightings among men, and the whole world convulsed by their animosities and broils? What are judges and counsellors,

* Prov. xxii. 15,