and from which they look back on the fair scenes they have quitted, but to which they know that they

cannot return.

And dreadful is the sorrow of that period when the bones are full of the sins of youth; when excesses committed at that season are felt in acute pains and loathsome sores of body, or in the bitter reflections and upbraidings of conscience; when they have to look back on injuries done to others which they have left it to Providence to avenge, on opportunities of usefulness which they did not improve while they had the means of doing so, and on follies and crimes which wounded the hearts of those whom they should have honoured and blessed by their wisdom and their virtue.

O ye whose hearts are now so gay, behold in this picture what you shall feel if you should become old! The blackness of mortality shall gather over your countenance, and fears and regrets shall overwhelm your hearts. You think that ye will carry with you to old age the bright faculties, the gay hopes, and the active pursuits of youth or manhood; but then the imagination shall be clouded, the memory shall fail, and the senses shall be so blunted as to give no enjoyment. Would it be pleasant to dwell in a house whose walls were rent and bowing, whose windows were broken, and through whose shattered roof the winds blew and the rains poured down? Such a mansion is man's frame in age. "I loathe it; I would not live alway."

4. The text suggests, that when life is come to these limits, its extinction may be hourly expected. "It

is soon cut off, and we fly away." When the body is assaulted by disease in youth or manhood, the vigour of nature may maintain a long struggle with it, and it frequently triumphs over it. But what resistance can decrepitude or infirmity oppose? To hear the man of fourscore flattering himself with years to come is most preposterous. To him the language of Job is most suitable:-" My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.' In your emaciated body death hath put in his claim to you as his victim. You may tell your friends and neighbours not to turn with disgust from your ghastly visage, for the eye that now sees you shall soon see you no more. Complain not that your ministrations to us are burdensome, for we shall soon have nought to request of you but to lay us in our grave. There is not a day in which you may not say, "I am this day going the way of all the earth;" not a night in which you may not bid adieu to the sun, and all that is done under it. Old age is a second childhood as to feebleness and helplessness, but with this difference; in childhood nature is advancing by slow degrees to vigour and maturity; but in old age the remnant of our strength is rapidly diminishing, and before the last enemy it is less than nothing.

It would be a wicked abuse of this text to consider it as justifying the neglect of suitable means of preserving life in old age, either by the aged themselves, or by their friends.

Whatever is necessary for supporting declining na

* Job xvii. 1.

ture, and for giving rest and comfort in its infirmities, must be obtained in as far as our circumstances will admit. It is foolish to say, that life at that period is not worthy of our care. Let the young reflect when they are tempted to such conduct to the aged, what would have been their fate had their parents thought thus when they were lying weak and sickly in their cradles. That very feebleness gave you the stronger interest in a mother's heart; and let her infirmities prompt you to every affectionate attention. You were once cast on their care, now they are cast on yours.

It becomes the aged to submit to death without murmuring. We are ready to mark with indulgence their unwillingness to die, whom death is about to remove when the fairest prospects of earthly honour and felicity were opening before them, but no excuse can be made for you if, after so long a course, you still cry, "O spare me!" It is your duty to be ready for your departure, and to employ every moment that remains in cultivating the spirit of the world to which you are going, and in utility to those who are to occupy the sphere you leave. When Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them even to the end, and by washing their feet gave them a proof of his benevolent condescension, and a pledge of his sanctifying grace. It is recorded of a great Roman, that, at the approach of death, he adjusted his mantle, that it might be seen, when he was no more, with what calm dignity he had submitted to his fate; but how

superior was the conduct of the Prophet, who, in the very moment of his triumphant ascension to glory, dropt his mantle to encourage the hope and to animate the zeal of his successor! To be useful till death, and to be useful in it, is the consummation of holy activity on earth.

CONCLUSION.

Let me address myself to those who have arrived, or are on the point of arriving, at these limits. The appearance of the aged in religious assemblies is useful, not only to themselves, but serves also as a memento of mortality to others. It is a most serious inquiry which we call on such persons to make,"Have I heard so many sermons and spent so many Sabbaths in vain ?" If this is the case, let not this one be added to the number. Oh! may the word be now heard by you in faith and in love, and the Sabbath be now to you the day of salvation! The holiest old man feels that he is an unprofitable servant; and let him confess this in shame and sorrow; and having much forgiven him, let him love much.

Think on the many opportunities you have had of promoting the Divine glory in comparison of others; and remember, that to whom much is given, of them also shall much be required. How insufficient and unsatisfactory do the apologies for indolence now seem with which you once silenced your consciences, and how inadequate to the claims which the cause of Christ had on you, do all your efforts for it now appear! You feel that you have no reason to call your life a well-spent life; and while there is yet time for

you to redeem, live to the Lord, and thus will you rejoice in the hope of mercy in your final account.

Labour to be still useful. If in the morning of life you sowed the seed of wisdom and pious charity, you will now have the satisfaction of seeing it yield its increase; and in its evening do not withhold your hand; and when you are numbered with the dead, it will arise and call you blessed. Think not that the counsels and efforts of the aged will be disregarded as of no value. They may be ridiculed by the self-sufficient and the presumptuous; but by all who are qualified to appreciate true wisdom and well-tried goodness, they will be regarded as rich in the spirit of Jesus, and likely to receive his testimony now and hereafter.

Remember that if you are strangers to Christ, your saving acquaintance with him must be now or never. Mercy yet waits to be gracious; and it must be criminal and foolish, in the highest degree, to delay for one moment your acceptance of its offers. You may be afraid to attempt this from fear and despair; but you thus question the sincerity and the power of a gracious Saviour, and give to the devil success in his last attempt to ruin you. The prayer of contrition never rose to him in vain.

You

Fret not that your life is labour and sorrow. are wringing out the dregs of the cup of life, and they must be bitter; but from that cup you have had many a delicious draught. Let your conduct be suited to that world to which you are hastening. your eyelids are the shadow of death; and shall you not turn them away from beholding vanity? You

On