half an hour. And is this a space too much to be allotted, in the most busy life, for an exercise so sacred in its obligation, and so replete with advantage as this has been shewn to be? Where is the man so incessantly occupied as not to allow himself more leisure than this, frequently, if not habitually; that does not allot more time to objects of confessedly inferior magnitude? In addition to what has been advanced, it would not be difficult to prove that no loss of time will usually result; for what may seem a loss will be more than compensated by that spirit of order and regularity which the stated observance of this duty tends to produce. It will serve as an edge and border to preserve the web of life from unravelling; it will tend to keep every thing in its proper place and [time]; and this practice will naturally introduce a similar regularity into other employments. Consider for a moment on what principle does the plea of want of time depend. Plainly on this: that religion is not the grand concern; that there is something more important than the service of God; that the pleasing and glorifying of our Maker is not the great end of human existence;-a fatal delusion, a soul-destroying mistake, which militates against the whole spirit of the gospel, and presumptuously impeaches the wisdom of that Saviour who exclaimed, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.' *Matt. vi. 33. "We are (3.) Another class will perhaps reply, convinced of the urgent obligation of the duty which has been recommended; but we have so long neglected it that we know not how to begin,— are ashamed at the prospect of the surprise, the curiosity, it will occasion. But there is much impiety in this shame; and if it be permitted to deter you from complying with the dictates of conscience and the commands of God, it will unquestionably class you with the fearful and unbelieving, who shall have their portion in the second death. To be ashamed of the service of Christ is to be ashamed of Christ and his cross; and you have heard the divine denunciation of judgement on such characters. "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."* You are afraid of presenting yourself under a singular aspect to your domestics and acquaintance: have you not reflected on the awful and trying situation in which you will be placed by the infliction of the sentence, justly merited, "Of him will I be ashamed;" "Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee?" II. Hints on the practice. Best mode of performing it. * Mark viii. 38. 1. Let it ever be joined with reading the Scriptures. 2. Let it be constant. 3. Attend with a full decision of mind, with the utmost seriousness. 4. Seek the aid of the Spirit. XXVII. REFLECTIONS ON THE INEVITABLE LOT OF ECCLES. xi. 8.-If a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. THERE is nothing better established by universal observation, than that the condition of man upon earth is, less or more, an afflicted condition: "Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. "* As the sparks ascend by an immutable law in nature, so the sorrows to which we are exposed spring from necessity, from causes whose operation is unavoidable and universal. Look through all the generations of man, throughout all times and places, and see if you can discover a single individual who has not, at one period or another, been exposed to the arrows of adversity. The roll or record of human destiny is written "within and without, with lamentation, and mourning, and woe.”† We are naturally extremely and immoderately attached to worldly enjoyments and to temporal † Ezek. ii. 10. *Job v. 7. prospects. Our souls cleave to them with an eagerness extremely disproportioned to their real value, which is one of the maledictions incurred by the fall. The curse denounced upon the earth for man's sake has contracted the sum of earthly good within a narrow compass, and blasted it with much vanity; but has not had the effect of dispelling the charm by which it engages our affections. It is a part of the misery of man, in his fallen state, that he has become more attached than ever to the world, now that it has lost its value. Having swerved from God, and lost his true centre, he has fallen into an idolatry of the world, and makes it the exclusive object of his attachment, even at the very time that its beauty is marred and its satisfactions impaired. "It is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun. While the sun of earthly prospects shines, we are apt to feel the day of evil at a distance from our minds; we are reluctant to admit the possibility of a change of scene; we shut out the thought of calamity and distress as an unwelcome intruder. The young revel in the enjoyment of health, and exult in the gay hopes and enchanting gratifications suited to that delightful [season], as though they were never to know a period. Amused and transported with [their] situation and [their] prospects, it is with extreme difficulty they admit the conviction that the days are fast approaching when they shall confess they have no pleasure in them. * Eccles. xi. 7. J "Let us enjoy the good things that are present." "Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments, and let no flower of the spring pass by us.” "Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they be withered."* Experience, in most cases, soon alters their sentiments, and events arise which impress an indelible conviction of the short duration of earthly good. The bloom of health is blasted by disease; the seeds of some incurable malady begin to shoot up, and make their appearance; or the agony of disappointed passions is impressed; or cares and anxieties begin to corrode the mind; or the hand of death [inflicts] some fatal stroke, by which the object of the tenderest affection is snatched away. If a long course of prosperity has been enjoyed, during which almost every thing has succeeded to the wish, (which sometimes, though very rarely, occurs) the confidence in worldly hopes and prospects is mightily increased; the mind is more softened and enervated by an uninterrupted series of prosperity, and is the more unfitted to [go through] those scenes of distress which inevitably await him. He who is in this situation is tempted to say, "I shall surely die in my nest:"+ or, in the language of the rich man in the gospel, "Soul, eat, drink, and be merry; thou hast goods laid up for many years." I *Wisdom of Solomon ii. 8. + Job xxix. 18. Luke xii. 19. |
