with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God? While you are tottering on the brink of the grave, all things admonish you to be ready. Be ye ready say your silver locks, furrowed brows, stiffened joints, impaired senses, and trembling limbs. "When later, there's less time to play the fool." Be ye ready say the volume of divine truth, the ministers of the Gospel, the voice of the Holy Spirit, your responsibility to God, the solemnity of death, and the importance of eternity. Be ye ready, sounds from the ashes of departed thousands who died long before they reached the age at which you have arrived.Ye rich and opulent" be ye also ready." You have immense hords of wealth, are encircled with abundance of this world's good, have your magnificent residences, pleasing scenes, gay companions, numerous attendants, gorgeous apparel, sumptuous fare, rounds of pleasure, easy couches, charming music, and your numerous means of getting and doing good: But are you ready to leave the whole at any moment, to give an account of your lives, become inhabitants of that house in which there are many mansions, eat of the hidden manna, and drink the mystic winę, one among those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, listen to the harps of Seraphs, and possess an inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away.-Ye poor and afflicted, "be ye also ready." You have your numerous exercises, your large families, comfortless habitations, toilsome employments, course fare, many anxieties, in a word-your continued conflicts: But are you ready to enter that world where degradation will be known no more, where moral worth rises to its proper elevation, where all your trials will be finished and tears dried; where the conflicts of time will heighten the bliss of your condition, when you will associate with all the great and noble in the Divine dominions, and where, though. poor

bleeding memories. But, are you ready to join them in a better country, to embrace them before the throne of God, partake with them of bliss which knows no limits, and live with them in the closest union through ages which will never end?—Ye young and blythe, “be ye also ready." Your condition seems promising, health flushes in your cheeks, sprightliness glows in your countenance, temptations to folly surround you on every hand, and you are sanguine in your calculations concerning the future part of your life: But, are you ready to quit with cheerfulness the surrounding scene, to bid your companions farewell, close your eyes in death, and join a society where all is verdant with life: and whose members bloom with immortal youth ?—Ye members of the Church militant," be ye also ready." In your religious profession you have come to Mount Sion, you are separated from the common mass of the people, your names are enrolled with the followers of the Lamb, you have communion with the children of the Most High, and are treated as the members of his family: But are you ready to enter into the city of the living God, join the innumerable company of angels, associate with the spirits, of just men made perfect, receive the smile of Jesus who is the mediator of the new covenant, stand acquitted before God, who is the Judge of all, and become pillars in his house to go out no more for ever?-Ye careless and impenitent sinners, "be ye also ready." You increase your aggravated transgressions, become deeper dyed in crimson crimes, ward of all that tends to impress you with eternal. things, are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath, and are pursuing that line of conduct which "tenfold terror gives to death,and dips in venom his twice mortal sting :" But are you ready to answer to God for your sins, to contend with him who is a consuming fire, and who, if he touch the mountains they smoke, or if he look on the earth it treubles, are you ready to receive your sentence and begin.

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your hell, to conflict with the fiery tempest of the burning pool, and pass along endless ages pierced with anguish, and encompassed with tribulation and woe?

My brethren be ye every soul ready. Reflect! "In such an hour as you think not the Son of Man cometh.". This impression should accompany us through life. We ought to view death as looking us in the face. The coffin and shroud should be continually before us. The judg ment's trump should still be sounding in our ears. Sin we ought ever to resist. Seriousness ought always to pervade our spirits. A spirit of fervent prayer we ought ever to possess and practice. Holiness to the Lord should be written o all our thoughts, words, and actions. Excepting as necessity plainly demands, the world should be renounced, and the mind absorpt in the things of God. Our loins should be girded, our lights burning, and we looking for the coming of the Lord.

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But, alas! alas! how rarely we find this habitual seriousness and readiness. How few are thus prepared for the coming of their Lord : Or,

"Looking to God, their soul's to keep,
And watching unto prayer.”

Strange, indeed! By what are you thus bewitched! By what secret chains are you bound to earth and sin. Why are your minds thus wrapped in the trifles of the present evil world. Why your arms folded and you at rest. Has the coming of the Son of Man no relation to you. Whether you regard it or not, are you not going the way of all flesh? Are you certain that death is distant from you. Is the time of your departure from this world written i on your foreheads? Has he, in whose hands are the issues

of life, assured you that the hour of Christ's coming is yet far off. Nay, do you not know that, in "a moment's space,”

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you may be placed across the impassible gulph, and fixed where "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom;" where-" Everlasting fool is writ in fire, or real wisdom wafts you to the skies." How inexplicable is your conduct.

"Is death that ever threatening ne'er remote,
That all important and that only sure,
(Come when he will) an unexpected guest?
Nay, though invited by the loudest calls
Of blind imprudence unexpected still?
Though numerous messengers are sent before
To warn his great arrival. What the cause,
The wonderous cause, of this mysterious ill?
All heaven looks down astonished at the sight.

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And will you continue to indulge this indifference? Are you determined to try the way of folly to the last? Will you still jest with the coffin, the shroud, the grave, the coming of the Son of Man, and the solemnities of death? Dare you amuse yourselves while conversing on the final Judgment, the voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God? That trump, the blast of which will divide the solid earth, rush through the caverns of the mighty deep, pierce the dull cold ear of death, call forth the spoils of the grave, and place the human family at the bar of God. Will you banish seriousness from your minds, and bury yourselves in the most consummate folly? Will you yet neglect prayer, plunge deeper in sin, insult God to his face, and carry the visible stamp of impiety in all your conduct? Will you hold fast the world, pursue its trifles, and stand to your post? Will you abandon from your thoughts the Author of your being, and cease to reflect on the felicities of paradise and the abodes of misery? Indulging yourselves in the reveries of a mind absent from the

things of eternity, and forgetful of the future conseqences of your conduct, will you rush along your present unhallowed path, until in an unexpected moment you drop into the quenchless flames of hell!

My dear fellow-creatures, do not be offended at my plainness of speech, nor conclude that I take pleasure in dwelling on awful things. The truth is, I am concerned for you; for I know there is an awful possibility of your hearts being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. You may indeed charge me with the want of civility and charity, and complain of the coarseness of my present address;-you may be inclined to treat my exhortation with indifference, you may refuse to stand in awe of God, may spurn divine mercy,-resist the only Saviour,— make light of his dying agonies,-trample his precious blood under your feet,-fortify your minds against the fear of death,—and abandon every serious reflection connected with it: But you know all this will not alter plain matter of fact.

"The farthest from the fear

Are often nearest to the strokes of death."

Death has certainly marked you for his victim, and it is but a little while and he will strike his dart into your vitals. You then may cry but he will not hear, and may weep, vow, and plead, but he will not regard you. You will be destitute of strength, or defence, or comfort, or hope. For the enjoyments of life will vanish, your hearts and flesh fail, the poison of death's arrows drink up your spirits, and the edifice raised by your towering hopes crumble into ruins. The gay glories of time will depart, the salutations of friendship will cease, the flame of life become extinct, and the world recede and disappear. The awful realities of eternity will burst upon your souls, the distressing outcries of the lost salute your ears, and the roar from the