I am now young, and in the flower of my days ; but who knows what a day may bring forth ? The greatest weight hangs upon the smallest wires,2 an eternity depends upon those few hours I am to breathe in this world. Oh ! what cause have I therefore to be good betimes, to know God betimes, to believe betimes, to repent betimes, to get my peace made and my pardon sealed betimes, to get my nature changed, my conscience purged, and my interest in Christ cleared betimes, before eternity overtakes me, before my glass be out, my sun set, my race run, lest the dark night of eternity should overtake me, and I made miserable for ever.
I have read of one Myrogenes, who, when great gifts were sent unto him, he sent them all back again, saying, I only desire this one thing at your master's hand : to pray for me that I may be saved for eternity. Oh ! that all young men and women, who make earth their heaven, plea- sures their paradise, that eat the fat and drink the sweet, that clothe themselves richly, and crown their heads with rose-buds, that they would seriously consider of eternity, so as to hear as for eternity, and pray as for eternity, and live as for eternity, and provide as for eternity ! Luke xv. 12-20. That they might say with that famous painter Zeuxis, JZternitati pingo, I paint for eternity.3 We do all for eter- nity, we believe for eternity, we repent for eternity, we obey for eter- nity, &c.
1 JEternitas est semper et immutabile esse. The old Komans were out, that thought eter- nity dwelt in statues and in marble monuments.
2 This is a favourite ' Emblem' of the Puritans, and is prefixed to several of their books, e. g. John Goodwin's. — G.
3 The proverb is more accurately Pingo in ceternitatem, from the great artist's reply to Agatharcus, preserved by Plutarch (De Amic. Mull. v. p. 94 f.), ' I confess that I take a long time to paint ; for 1 paint works to last a long time.' — G.
184 APPLES OF GOLD. [1 KlNGS XIV. 13.
Oh ! thai you would not make those things eternal for punishment that cannot be eternal for use.1
Ah ! vounjr men and women, God calls, and the blood of Jesus Christ calls, and the Spirit of Christ in the gospel calls, and the rage of Satan calls, and your sad state and condition calls, and the happiness and blessedness of glorified saints calls ; these all call aloud upon you to make sure a glorious eternity, before you fall out into that dreadful ocean. All your eternal good depends upon the short and uncertain moments of your lives ; and if the thread of your lives should be cut before a happy eternity is made sure, woe to you that ever you were born ! Do not say, O young man, that thou art young, and hereafter will be time enough to provide for eternity, for eternity may be at the door, ready to caiTy thee away for ever. Every day's experience speaks out eternity to be as near the young man's back as it is before the old man's face.
Oh grasp to-day the diadem of a blessed eternity, lest thou art cut off before the morning comes ! Though there is but one way to come into this world, yet there is a thousand thousand ways to be sent out of this world. Well ! young men and women, remember this, as the motions of the soul are quick, so are the motions of divine justice quick also ; and if you will not hear the voice of God to-day, if you will not provide for eternity to-day, God may swear to-morrow that you shall never enter into his rest, Heb. iii. 7, 8, 15, 16, 18, 19. It is a very sad and dangerous thing to trifle and dally with God, his word, his offers, our own souls, and eternity. Therefore, let all young people labour to be good betimes, and not to let him that is goodness itself alone till he hath made them good, till he hath given them those hopes of eternity that will both make them good and keep them good ; that will make them happy, and keep them happy, and that for ever. If all this will not do, then know that ere long those fears of eternity, of misery, that beget that monster Despair, which, like Medusa's head, astonisheth with its very aspect, and strangles hope, which is the breath of the soul, will certainly overtake you ; as it is said, Duvi Sjnro, Spero, so it may be inverted Dum Spero, Spiro; other miseries may wound the spirit, but despair kills it dead. My prayer shall be, that none of you may ever experience this sad truth, but that you may all be good in good earnest, betimes, which will yield you two heavens, a heaven on earth, and a heaven after death.
Reason 8. Because they do not begin to live till they begin to be really good.
Till they begin to be good, they are dead God-wards, and Christ- wards, and heaven-wards, and holiness-wards. Till a man begins to be really good, he is really dead, and that first in respect of working ; his works are called dead works, Heb. ix. J 4. The most glistering services of unregenerate persons are but dead works, because they proceed not from a principle of life, and they lead to death, Rom. vi. 23, and leave a sentence of death upon the soul, till it be washed off by the blood of the Lamb. Secondly, he is dead in respect of honour ; he is dead to all privileges, he is not fit to inherit mercy. Who will set the crown of
1 Cur ea quae, ad usum diuturna esse non possunt, ad supplicium diuturna deposcet ? — Am- brose in Luke iv. 5.
1 Kings XIV. 13.] apples of gold. 185
life upon a dead man ? The crown of life is only for living Christians, Rev. ii. 10. The young prodigal was dead till he begun to be good, till he begun to remember his father's house, and to resolve to return home: ' My son was dead, but is alive,' Luke xv. 24 ; and the widow that ' liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth,' 1 Tim. v. 6.
When Joshaphat asked Barlaam how old he was, he answered, Five and forty years old ; to whom Joshaphat replied, Thou seemest to be seventy. True, saith he, if you reckon ever since I was born ; but I count not those years which were spent in vanity.1
Ah, sirs ! you never begin to live till you begin to be good, in good earnest. There is the life of vegetation, and that is the life of plants ; secondly, there is the life of sense, and that is the life of beasts ; thirdly, there is the life of reason, and that is the life of man ; fourthly, there is the life of grace, and that is the life of saints ; and this life you do not begin to live till you begin to be good. If ' a living dog is better than a dead lion,' as the wise man speaks, Eccles. ix. 4, and if a fly is more excellent than the heavens, because the fly hath life, which the heavens have not, as the philosopher saith, what a sad, dead, poor no- thing is that person that is a stranger to the life of grace and goodness, that is dead even whilst he is alive !