Providence, has almost annihilated time and space. The length of the Holy Land, from Dan on the north to Beersheba on the south, would have taken the most enduring of the patriarchs to accomplish, not less than four or five days. The same number

of miles, by steamboat or railroad, could now be accomplished in less than one. So that although the time of life is numerically shortened, it is substantially increased; and so far as the actual value of life is concerned, the time of man is no shorter than when he lived to his hundreds of years. Still, time is short,' compared with days which have gone before us; and it always was so; for even a patriarch, who in the one hundred and thirtieth year of his age, stood before the throne of the Egyptian monarch, and was questioned as to his years, could say, 'the days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years. and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.' We doubt not, that had Methuselah, towards the close of life, been asked the same question, he

Few

too would have considered that his time had been

• short.'

Time is short,' compared with our projects. There is this very striking singularity in the constitution of things. The whole of the business of

human life is conducted on the principle of anticipation; and yet no man has any positive certainty that any moment will be his.

He is certain that

the present moment is his, but beyond this, all except death and eternity are uncertain. And yet did not the all-wise Disposer of events, allow us to act upon probabilities, there would be at once a stop to all effort in worldly business. Still, even in all worldly matters, there is no man whose anticipations do not go far beyond all bounds of reasonable expectation. We form projects, which, without miracle, could not be accomplished, even should we live for ages beyond the allotted sphere of human life; and it is no wonder, then, that we complain that 'time is short,' when we find that our projects, even if they go on, fall most lamentably within the limits we had prescribed in our imaginations. But what renders this matter particularly injurious in a

religious point of view, is the fact, that the mind, absorbed in the anticipation of prospective worldly advantages, neglects the present opportunity of providing for a future, which, though it may appear more distant than any of our imaginings, may be at our very doors. Our time is infinitely shorter than our projects, and yet in giving our minds to these projects, we neglect the present business of salvation. It was one of the wisest of our Saviour's maxims, or rather exhortations, Seek first the kingdom of God.' If we did this, we should gain this immense advantage-we should find time, though shorter than our projects, yet long enough to secure our best and eternal interests;-and this is all that is really worth living for.

"Time is short,' compared with what we actually have to do. Duties are generally divided into three classes-those which we owe to God, our neighbour, and ourselves. The division is convenient, though not strictly necessary, for all duty may be resolved into that which we owe to God. Our duty to our neighbour arises out of the claims of God upon our obedience to his requi

sitions; and our duty to ourselves is but another name for obedience to God, for our interest and happiness depend upon it. But leaving speculations of this kind out of the question, 'time is short' when we actually contemplate what we have to do, for man is a being formed for unceasing activity; and there is not a moment of his life which is cut loose from the obligations of positive effort, mental or bodily. If this be so, then every. moment of time is actually filled up with responsibilities; and by no species of reasoning, or alchemy, can time be lengthened out beyond the period of actual positive obligations. For this reason it is, that at the day of judgment an account will be demanded of all our time; and it is for this reason that the waste of a moment is criminal—

'Throw time away,

Throw empires, and be blameless

Moments seize,-heavens on their wing

A moment we may lose, which worlds want wealth to buy.'

He who employs every moment of his time in his duty to God, his neighbour, and himself, will find that time is short' to accomplish all he must do;

and yet not short, because all filled up profitably. He who has time to waste, will find that it must be dreadfully accounted for.

'Time is short,' compared with any man's expectations of life. There is one thing in which very few feel disposed to derive any advantage from the lessons of experience. We see men die

daily. We are aware that the sentence is inevitable, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.' We notice that here one is cut off in advanced years; there another in the vigour of manhood;―here one, apparently in health, suddenly cut down; there another sinking under the slow, though certain advances of infirmity and disease. Here we see the youth just coming to his prime, quickly disappearing; and there the tender infant, passing, as it were, from its mother's arms to the bosom of eternity. And yet there is scarcely an individual who learns the lesson of his own liability to be cut off, and perhaps with little or no warning. All look for lengthened years, and though not one in ten can, in the whole analogy of his experience of others, have a reasonable hope of living even thirty years, yet every individual