0 sirs ! shall nature do more than grace ? shall morality excel real piety ? It was the glorious commendation of the church of Thyatira that her last works were more than her first, Rev, ii. 19, ' I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy work, and the last to be more than the first.' Oh, the happiness of that man that is best at last, that brings forth most of the fruits of righteousness and hoHness in old age. Oh, the blessedness of that man whose faith is more strong at last than at first, and whose love is more inflamed at last than at first, and whose hopes are more raised and elevated at last than at first, and whose knowledge is more clear at last than at first, and whose zeal is warmer at last than at first, and whose thoughts are more heavenly at last than at first, and whose heart is more spiritual at last than at first, and whose communion with God is more high at last than at first, and whose life is more holy at last than at first !
If there be any man in the world that is ripe for heaven, and that enjoys a heaven in his own soul on this side heaven, this is the man whose graces, and whose gracious works, are more at last than at first. Well, Christians, for ever remember this, the nearer death makes her approaches to you, the louder God calls upon you to be holy.
And thus, by a hand of grace that hath been in me, upon me, and with me, I have shewed you what those special times and seasons are wherein God calls loudest for holiness, and so, according to my weak measure, I have given out all that the Lord hath graciously given in concerning that most necessary, that most noble, that most glorious, and that most useful point of points, viz., holiness; and therefore I have nothing more to do but earnestly to pray that what hath been spoken and written niay be so blessed from on high, that it may work mightily to the internal and eternal welfare both of writer, reader, and hearer, that so, when their race is run, and their work done here on earth, they may be everlastingly blessed with a happy sight of the beatifical vision of God in heaven. Amen.
BALLANTYNE AKD COMPANY, PRINTBK?, EDIKBVKQB.