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"there fell this voice from heaven, Thy kingdom is "departed from thee. The fame hour was the thing "fulfilled." Together with his kingdom, that monarch's understanding departed from him, and he was fent to graze with the beafts; because he knew not that the heavens do rule. Ancient Babylon, the lady of kingdoms, given to pleasures, and dwelling carelessly, trufting in her high walls, her gates of brass, and bars of iron, was in one hour made defolate. Men in honour, who reflect not from whom promotion cometh, are fuddenly abafed. "God will deftroy, and not build them "up; because they regard not his hand." The confidence of him who boafted in his abundance, and prefumed on many years' eafe, prefaged the fummons from the Sovereign of life, This night thy foul shall be required of thee.

Do we trust in man, and make flesh our arm? Our heart departeth from the Lord. Admit that our human friend is wife, and good, and able to help us; he may, by the act of providence, be rendered unable. Or his breath may go forth, and all his thoughts for our welfare perifh. We may, at any hour, be deprived of his counsel, fupport, fympathy, fociety and example.

Does any one know that a firm conftitution will hold out many years? A difeafe, or any accident, to which the ftrong are as much expofed as the feeble, may fuddenly prove fatal.

Superior talents may be impaired or deftroyed, as bodily health and ftrength; and by the fame means. "Let not the wife man glory in his wifdom; nor the mighty man in his might; nor the rich man in his "riches."

As to fame, however well deserved and fpotlefs, it may be blafted. Never is it more expofed, than when security and self-complacency put men off their guard. But felf-complacency and fecurity afide: The most modeft worth, the moft circumfpect behaviour, are no fure guards. Envy, ambition and pride are able to

tarnish the faireft character, and have, not seldom, rifen on its ruins-rifen indeed but to fall. For "the triumphing of the wicked is fhort, and the joy of the "hypocrite is but for a moment." Boafting of a false gift, elevated without talents or integrity, which alone can dignify an high ftation, their own counsel cafts them down.

O man, whoever thou art, who boafteft of to-mor row! thou knoweft not what will be on the morrow, fhouldst thou then be among the living. Thou knoweft not what may befal thy perfon, property, or reputation, or thy deareft comforts-what may happen to thy body or mind. Thou doft not know whether thou shalt continue to enjoy foundness in thy flesh, and rest in thy bones, and the exercise of thy reafon; or be chaftened with fickness on thy bed, and the multitude of thy bones with ftrong pain; or thy inward powers fufpended-Whether thy house shall be, as at prefent, thy children about thee, in vigourous health, and thy fubftance untouched; or whether fome great alteration of state may be nigh-Whether thou fhalt have further opportunity for any purpose, however laudable. Why fhould you be exempt from frowns of woe? You never knew an inftance of unmingled, uninterrupted profperity. Not to expect in this world the afflictions common to men, is to lay a fure foundation for difquietude and vexation of fpirit. Would you lie under the imputation of this folly? If you know not what will be on the morrow, or the next year, on what ground do you determine that your condition will then be more happy than it now is? You may just as well determine that the coming day or year will be an evil one. Neither of thefe conclufions is wife: The firft is prefumption: The laft is diftruft. Wisdom dictates the medium between the two extremes. Neither prefume, nor defpónd. Be content with thy prefent lot. In patience poffefs thy foul. Defer not until to-morrow, or the next year, what you should do to

day. Truft the Providence which is over all, and do good; fo fhall you be provided for. The good you hope for fhall be beftowed; and the evil you fear

averted-if beft.

Befide the mutability and uncertainty of every terreftrial good; and, of confequence, our entire ignorance of what may take place in time to come, admitting that we ourselves fhall ftill live; it is further to be confidered that life itself is altogether uncertain. What is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for little time, and then vanifheth away.

This emblem of human life, has been verified in all times. A vapour vanishes while you behold it. Thine eye is on me, faid Job, and I am not. Life paffeth as a weaver's fhuttle; as a poft that hafteth by; as the fwift fhips, which leave no track behind them; as an eagle hafteth to her prey. The wind paffeth over the flower of the field, and it is gone. All flesh is grafs, and all the goodlinefs thereof is as the flower of the field. When moft fresh and fair, man is a prey for death. His days are meafured by an hand-breadth: He is crushed before the moth. By fuch emblems the scriptures have reprefented the brevity, the extreme uncertainty of life-the fading glory of man. Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.

How numerous the avenues of death! how inconfiderable and unobferved the means! How early and how fudden with refpect to a large proportion! Thofe of the firmeft conftitution, whofe ftrength is the strength of ftones, and their flesh of brass, are as liable to common accidents and inftant death as any of the human race. The tallest trees in the foreft are fooneft torn from the roots. Elevated rank and flourishing circumstances are a confpicuous mark for death. Some, who by lingering diseases are reduced to fkin and bones, who wait and long for death, are spared and revive; while those who looked for their removal from day to day, unthoughtful of their own, have left them behind in the world.

Great is their folly, who, neglecting the duty of the paffing day, thoughtless of what may be to-morrow, are eager to get and keep all they can hold within their grafp-or eager in the purfuit of pleasures, or honour, or power, or fame. They wafte all their abilities and advantages in projections for years which they may not live to fee; or if they should live, they would not realize their ardent withes. Shall beings of fo fhort and uncertain date? fhall probationers for eternal retributions, take fo much care for this life, and be indifferent and thoughtless with refpect to that to come? Shall they be thus forgetful of the viciffitudes of the world, and of the hour of their departure? Other thoughts and cares are enforced by the evident inftability of men and things on the earth, the certainty and nearness of death, and the eternal confequences depending on the ftate in which it fhall find us.

Do we know what a day may bring forth in respect to our moral and religious character? May the good man presume that no future temptation will overcome him? None could be more confident than Peter, that, in all circumstances of trial which might be before him, he fhould continue to own his Lord-that, if all others fhould deny Chrift, he never would-that he would follow him to prifon and to death. Call to mind his fhameful defection the very night in which he thus refolved. See the great need of the caution, "Let him "who thinketh he ftandeth, take heed left he fall." This inftance alone is fufficient to prevent the fuppofition that our own virtue, or that of any other perfon, is impregnable to affault. Let the good man watch and pray, fear and tremble. Snares and dangers, of which he is not aware, may befet him. Faith may be weak. Love may grow cold. Courage may fail. Luft may entice and draw afide. Human strength is weakWhat character is there that has no vulnerable part? that is exempt from paffions and infirmities? The latent wickednefs of the heart is not known till

nefs.

the hour of temptation. "Be not high-minded, but "fear. Who can understand his errours? Cleanse "thou me from fecret faults. Keep back thy fervant "alfo from presumptuous fins." What circumfpection! what mighty aids of grace are requifite to keep the faint from falling! "Take heed to thyfelf, that "thou lose not the things which thou haft wrought."

When the confciences of finners are awakened, they are wont to stifle conviction, with the vain imagination of a more convenient season to repent and turn from the errour of their way. Do they know what a day may bring forth? They may not live till to-morrow. Or fhould they be among the living, they may be caft on the bed of ficknefs. Sickness is not fo convenient a seafon as health to do the work on which they were fent into the world. It calls for the joy of a good confcience, and the hope that maketh not afhamed. What affurance has the delaying finner that he fhall enjoy his inward powers to-morrow, or the next year? what affurance that divine influence may not be withdrawn?" The Holy Ghoft faith, "To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your "heart."

In the last place, our fubject points out the course of wisdom and duty. Te ought to fay, If the Lord will, we fhall live, and do this, or that.

The Sovereign of life only knows how long we have to live. The number of our days is with him. In his hands our breath is. It depends entirely upon him, whether we fhall live another year or day, and do this or that. He is the proprietor of our time and talents.

From these obvious truths the plain, inftruction is, that all futurity is to be referred to him. In his natural and moral kingdom he "worketh all things after "the counfel of his own will." Whether we acquiesce in his will or not, the whole difpofal of our life, the term and the circumftances of it, is with him. By