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Such is the true Christian. And he became rich by taking hold of the covenant of God in Christ. Seeing his own guilt and misery, he came to God by the Mediator of the new covenant, and found safety and peace.

Let us endeavour to realize our actual condition. We are sinners, condemned and ransomed. Our safety consists in our thankful acceptance of mercy. The Holy Spirit then forms our character. And here it is: "If a man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his ;" and if he have the spirit of Christ, then will he worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. This is apostolical Christianity, personally considered. Examine yourselves by this rule, whether you are truly in the covenant of God's mercy.

APPROACHING DEATH.

"And the time drew nigh that Israel must die."-GENESIS xlvii. 29

MAN's great fault is forgetfulness of death. It were his wisdom often to think of it. It would give sobriety to enjoyment; lighten the load of suffering; teach the proper character of human life.

Not that time and its duties are to be neglected. The Scriptures enjoin a proper attention to them. But they are not to absorb our thoughts, nor shut out consideration for the future.

The whole life of Israel had been eventful. Very remarkable circumstances of providence and grace had been connected with it. He had lost his name, Jacob, the artful, active, worldly supplanter: he was called Israel, the man who had had power with God, as a prince, and had prevailed. Such as his life had been, such is human life generally. We see its blessings, its dangers, its trials, its cares; its lights, and its shadows all, too, under providential government, and directed to the attainment of spiritual objects.

Yet, eventful as his life had been, and though he had seen a century and a half of years, yet there was the close. We float on the stream. We rest not till we enter the

mysterious eternity to which our voyage tends. "The time drew nigh that Israel must die.”

I wish to direct your attention to a few reflections suggested by the form in which the text is expressed.

1. Man must die. Well as the fact is known, trite as is the proposition which announces it, yet is it a fact of which we need often to be reminded. So fleeting is the impression it makes on the mind, that unless often repeated, no practical result will follow.

We remind you, then, of man's original immortality. Death entered into the world by sin. Mortality is natural, because man is now judged as a sinner. Its circumstances are all regarded as natural. We forget the real source of all this. Even since the fall, man was preserved in health during a period of many hundred years. The sentence is thus shown to be in God's hands. It was in the order of nature that Methuselah's days were prolonged. It is in the order of nature that we decay when we come to the threescore years and ten. The order of nature is that system which God, the actual Ruler of all things, pleases to appoint. And now both the mortality of man, and the brevity of life, are in the order of nature. We see the growth, the apparent maturity, the decline of man, all succeeding according to certain laws. Even if early disease invade not, the machine is so constructed that, after going for a course of years, "the weary wheels of life stand still at last." We ascend the hill, full of the vigour of youth; we walk a while on the high level of full manhood, but we cannot stand still; our path conducts us onwards; we feel we are moving downward; the valley and shadow of death are soon seen in the no longer distant prospect; and whatever our life has been, "the time draws nigh that" we "must die."

2. There are some of whom it is obviously true that the time is approaching when they must die.

Divine provi

Thus, there are the sick in mortal disease. dence has permitted the attack. He blesses not the means of defence. You see some on whom lingering but resistless consumption has laid her hand. You mark the symptoms, and their progress,-the decreasing strength, the wasting

flesh, the warning cough: the movement is slow, but you see that the time of death draws nigh. Or you see the more decided attacks of inflammation and fever. Nature is not undermined, but vehemently assailed. The struggle is violent. The action of disease, and the defence of nature, are powerful and distressing; but the grasp of the foe cannot be unloosed. The tide of life rapidly ebbs: the time is drawing near when Israel must die.

Then, there are the aged and infirm. Strong they may have been; but you now see all the "labour and sorrow" of life's last days. The strength fails, the sinews become rigid, the head bald, the forehead wrinkled, the eye sunk, the arm almost powerless. The strong man is bowed down. So weak is he, that the grasshopper is a burden. You know what all this means. The symptoms point to the issue. They must soon go the way of all flesh. The time draweth

nigh that Israel must die.

But, 3. There are many of whom this is equally true, though less obviously so.

Our time is in God's hands. With him are the issues of life. He does not leave nature in all cases to decay, to wear itself out. Take the bills of mortality. You see all ages. You see a whole troop of diseases assailing man. These servants of death, under providential control, commence their depredations on the infant. As men advance, their progress is connected with the advancement of disease. Till at length, of the number who began life together, one or two are left, like dry leaves on the tree, waiting for the first angry blast of winter to shake them off. Thus uncertain is life. We cannot say to any one, "This text is inapplicable to you." You may be full of the schemes of life. You fancy you gaze on the prospect of long years to come. You may have breathed the infection of the fever that shall pull down your strength, and cast you into the grave. The seeds of decline may be taking root in your lungs. The vessel may, all unconsciously to you, be wearing away, becoming thinner and thinner, whose breaking shall cause immediate death. We stand in jeopardy every hour. "In the midst of life we are in death." Could we see unfolded the events of the

coming months, to how many, who think not of it, should we have to say, The time draweth nigh that they must die!

God's pardoning

4. Let these reflections issue in a practical improvement. Here is the question: Is it, or is it not a question of indifference,-How shall we die? Die we must. Are we without wishes on the subject? The natural circumstances of death are often invested with an importance which does not belong to them. Death is but a point, and its real importance is found in its moral relations. Up to it, we are probationers: beyond it, our state is fixed. It is of inconceivable importance that we die right. Do you ask, How? We tell you: you must die prepared to enter the glorious presence of God. Death must be thus the gate of life to you. And for this, you must be free from the guilt of sin. mercy in Christ gives the title to heaven. God's sanctifying grace gives the meetness. All this you must seek. And recollecting habitually that death approaches, and shall be followed by eternity, to the claims and interests of eternity you will give their rightful preponderance. What are your fourscore years to the eternity that succeeds to them? Be it your care to seek the expulsion of all unfitting principles and affections; the establishment and maturity of all heavenly God is the good of the soul in eternity: let him be your good here. It is the choice of God, the love of God, the service of God, that alone can produce a holy indifferency to death or life. Let the time draw nigh, more or less rapidly, that you must die. You know it. You expect it. You prepare for it. "My flesh and heart faileth," you say; but this even makes you joyful, for you add, "God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."

ones.

THE TRUE OBJECT OF DESIRE AND SEARCH.

"Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it."-PROVERBS viii. 10, 11.

We find ourselves not only capable of desiring and seeking for something without ourselves, but irresistibly led to it by the very constitution of our nature. We have a deep convic

tion of human insufficiency. We may not put the conviction into words, but we have the feeling which expresses it. We want something to make us happy that is not in ourselves.

We are thus active creatures; and this may be termed the law of our activity. We want something. We endeavour to ascertain what it is. To that which we thus fix upon, our desires are directed; and these prompt our endeavours to obtain it.

Yet who knows not how much misapprehension there is on the objects which we ought to pursue? Men are perpetually acknowledging their mistakes and disappointments. It might be almost certain they would be thankful for a safe guide where error is so common, and where it is productive of so much evil. And yet, the only true and safe guide is too much an unheeded one. That guide is God's word. Its lessons are well known, and yet, to a most melancholy extent, unheeded. I must now call your attention to them. You are active creatures. If you seek not as you ought, you waste your labour, you misspend your time, you offend God, you miss the mark at which you profess to aim, you lose your soul. I. Let a few minutes be occupied by noticing what men generally do desire and seek.

The text refers to silver and gold and rubies; in a word, to worldly wealth. It is easy to see why this is desired.

1. General opinion proclaims it to be that which is needful.

2. Its possession is visibly connected with the power of obtaining other things for which we may wish.

3. The possessor of it obtains a very marked respect, a sort of homage, from others.

4. Thus, our nature, as the Scripture represents it, is powerfully disposed to the desire of the things which wealth can purchase, and to that self-confidence which the possession of wealth inspires.

5. Besides, the desire and search of silver and gold are not absolutely and on all occasions wrong. The possession of wealth may even be the occasion of much good. No wonder, therefore, that wealth is generally sought.

II. But, after what ought we to seek?

1. The object stated in the text is "wisdom."

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