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asks himself, “and his soul, where is it gone?" Know, unreflecting men, who attach so little importance to this word death, when you apply it to a fellow-man, provided indeed it does not affect you; know that to him who is departed, “death” is every thing ; time ended—judgment passed-eternity begun; the gravest, the most solemn thing that can be conceived. One day it will be so to you also, and you will know what these serious words imply, “ Thou shalt die and not live.” Then you also shall have a bed of death, a shroud, a coffin, a tomb, a day of burial, when the mourners shall follow you in silence to your long home, and you shall be slowly let down into the ground, and the hollow sound of the clay falling heavily upon the coffin-lid to coverit, shall be heard. Hear you that sound? understand you all its solemn meaning? It tells you, that for the child of Adam whom the earth covers, “there shall be time no longer.” It tells you, that for him the world with its lusts has passed away. It is, as it were, an eternal adieu to all that the world contains-to all that he has seen, and loved, and sought after, and possessed therein. When this mournful ceremony shall have been performed for you, others shall continue to live upon the earth as before; they shall buy and sell, and plant and build. Soon your houses shall be inhabited by others; others shall wear your clothes——they shall search the most secret recesses of your closet, where you were wont to shut yourself up in private; they shall succeed you in all your occupations, and in a short time it shall not be perceived that

you have left a vacant place in the world. The sun, as usual, shall know the place of his rising and the place of his setting ; the seasons shall succeed one another in due order; the spring shall bring back its fowers, the summer its heat, the autumn its fruits, the

winter its retirement and repose. But for you no more flowers of spring, no more shades of summer, no more fruits of autumn, no more tranquil scenes of winter around the domestic fireside. For you nothing but God, judgment, and eternity; an eternity either of happiness or of misery! Oh! I beseech you, consider all that these words, so important and so solemn, contain" Thou shalt die, and not live.” Consider that they may be put into' execution against you at any moment, and that this night your soul may be required

of you.

unto you,

Hear, then, the voice of the Holy Spirit, which saith

“Set thy house in order.” And, first, if there be any among you whose temporal affairs are not well regulated, I repeat it, set them in order without delay, or you cannot die in peace, being in this respect out of the path of the commandments of that God who will bring every “work into judgment." If

. your affairs be well regulated, still I say to you, "set thy house in order,” as one who is about to die. Make them as little complicated as possible; act like a man who intends to retire from business with a view to returning into his own country, and seeks gradually to disengage himself from his connexions. Buy and sell if it be necessary, but ever remember the words, “Let them that buy be as though they possessed not." Marry, if the Lord call you to that state ; but remember the exhortation, that “they that have wives be as though they had none." Enjoy the things of this world which God has given you, and from which you may without sin derive some pleasure ; but forget not the words, “ Let those that use the world be as not abusing it ; for the fashion of this world passeth away." 1 Cor. vii. 29-31. Form not distant projects-let not your thoughts be too much carried into the future

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of this world ; be not like those who say, “ To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain.” James iv. 13. Often say to yourselves, to check yourselves when your temporal prospects open out in the distance before

you,

“ Thou shalt die and not live.” But there is another house to be set in order, as if we were always on the verge of death. That house is our soul, which is the building of God—“a spiritual house," as it is called by the Holy Spirit, 1 Pet. ïi. 5. This house we must examine, that at the day of trial it

may

be found built upon the rock, and may stand firm and unshaken. Now you know that “other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus." I Cor. iii. 11. This is the foundationstone, elect and precious, upon which whosoever buildeth shall not be confounded. 1 Pet. ii. 6. Examine then, seriously, what is the foundation of all

your hopes. Is it Christ alone, and his perfect righteousness? Does

your
whole heart repose upon

him ? Do you rest on nothing which you have done, or which you ever hope to do? If you strive after sanctification, is it that you may “ build yourself up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost ?” Do you place merit neither in your prayers, nor in your repentance, nor in your faith, nor in your works? Do you aim at sanctification from love to him who has already saved you, and not from fear, or with a view to meriting, by a certain measure of holiness, a participation in the merits of Christ? In a word, standing as it were in the presence of death and judgment, and leaning upon your house, to ascertain if it stands firm, see if it abides the trial of this warning, brought powerfully home to your heart by the Holy Spirit,“ set thy house in order, for thou must die and not live."

But further; if you tell me that your hope is well grounded, that, according to the Word, you are sure that you are “ the house of God,” because you “hold fast your confidence and rejoicing of hope," I would say to you, This is well, but I would add, Examine now if that confidence be a living principle within you, and if your “faith worketh by love." When a house is really founded upon Christ, Christ dwells in that house: Christ, it is said, “ dwells in our hearts by faith," Eph. iii. 17; and when Christ dwells in a house, “ he cleanseth it from all filthiness and from all idols.” Ezek. Xxxvi. 25. He who dwelleth in Christ and Christ in him, “ beareth much fruit ;" and whosoever “hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure.” Let us examine ourselves in this respect ; let us not rest in a dry and lifeless assurance of salvation, founded on some theological system by which we would endeavor to persuade ourselves that we are saved, and not on a demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”

While it is true that we must not build our house upon the foundation of works, it is equally true that the house founded upon Christ is a temple in which the Spirit of Christ teaches, exhorts, reproves, prays, and acts. Let us take care not merely to write upon the front of our house, “ The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord;" but let this inscription be engraved within, on our thoughts, and on the inmost feelings of our heart. Let us take care that he who regards the heart and not the appearance alone, may not have reason, notwithstanding all this external show of religion, to write upon our spiritual temple the inscription which Paul found engraved upon the Athenian altar, “ To the unknown God.” Acts xvii. 23. Let us take care that we be not of the number of those who “profess to know God but in works deny him."

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Let us often go through the secret chambers of our heart to see what dwells there. It must either be Christ or Belial ; for there is no agreement between them. “ What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? and what communion hath light with darkness ? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols ?" It is impossible, therefore, to divide your house between two masters; either Satan must be cast out, or Christ must remain at the door. Once more, I ask you, who is in the house ? who dwells there? who rules it? who governs

it ? We read in the eighth chapter of Ezekiel, that the Lord, wishing to discover to the prophet the abominations which were committed in the temple, conducted him to the entrance of the court, made him pierce through the wall, and said unto him: “ Go in and behold the wicked abominations that they do here." Then the prophet went in and saw, "and behold, every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel pourtrayed upon the wall round about;" he saw also “seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.” Then the Lord said unto the prophet : “ Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, the Lord seeth us not.” The prophet is then conducted to another part of the temple, where “ there sat women weeping for Tammuz.” And the Lord said unto him, “ Hast thou seen this, O son of

? Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.” And the Lord conducts him to the inner courts of the Lord's house, and shews him “at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, about five and twenty men,

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