[If we are advanced in lite, this truth is obvious ; but if we be in the bloom of youth, it is no less certain : for, what is the space of man's life ? it is only seventy or eighty years at most : and though that appears long in the prospect, it appears as nothing in the retrospect : every aged man will tell you that
his life has passed away as a dream And besides the
shortness of life, we must take into the account its uncertainty also : for who can tell what a day, or even an hour, may bring forth ? Truly, every man may justly say, " There is but a step between me and death" ]
From this consideration we may well rise superior to all the vanities of time and sense —
[Let us suppose a man condemned to death, and about to be executed in a few hours ; What wovild be his feelings in reference to every thing here below ? Would he take much complacency in any thing he possessed, or be much alfected with any tidings either of loss or gain i No : the things of time and sense would appear to him in their true colours, and be regarded by him as of little importance : the near prospect of that hour when he must bid an eternal farewell to all of them would shew him their emptiness and vanity. Now tliis is the feeling which every man should cherish. We say not, that any man should neglect his worldly business, or be forgetfid of any relative duty ; but that he should have liis affections with- drawn from every tlimg here below, and set on things above: he should be divested of anxious care about the acquisition of earthly things; and, in his enjoyment of them, " liis modera- tion should be known unto all men." This is the direction given by St. Paul ; and it is founded on the very consideration that is suggested to us in the texf.]
Just as this sentiment is in reference to the things of time, it is still more so,
IL In reference to the things of eternity —
In the view of eternity, a thousand years may be represented but as " the twinkling of an eye." How long then have any of us to live,
1. That we should neglect our eternal concerns ?
[Have any of us made a covenant with death ? or has God said to any of us, as to Hezekiah, " I will add vmto thy life fifteen years ? " Is it not, on the contrary, almost a certainty that God has said concerning many who are here present, " This year thou shalt die?" How then can we think of con-
f 1 Cor. vii. 29—31.