To seek reconciliation with him then is our true wisdom —
[The world may account it folly, and may stigmatize all serious piety as needless preciseness : but we hesitate not to de- clare with David, that " the fear of the Lord is the very begin- ning of wisdom';" and that the Prodigal's return to his father's house was an evidence, not, as his ungodly companions would say, of weakness and follv, but of his having attained a sound- ness of mind and judgment : for it was ** when he catne to him- self he said, I will return, and go to mv father." Who that reflects upon the inconceivable weight of God's anger, and on the misery of those who are exposed to it, would continue one moment obnoxious to it, when God is offering him pardon,
and ^ Rev. xiv. 10, 11. ' Ps. cxi. 10.
and beseeching him to accept of all spiritual and eternal bless-^
ings
But add to this the shortness and uncertainty of human life : Who that considers this, would delay to deprecate God's wrath, and to avail himself of the present hour to secure the protfered mercy ? O beg of God to impress your minds with a sense of the shortness of time, and to " teach you so to number your days, that you may without delay apply your hearts unto wis- dom." Obvious as this lesson is, you can never learn it, unless you are taught of God. You will be ever calculating upon months and years to come, when " you know not what a single day may bring forth." You may even, like the rich fool, be promising yourselves " years of ease and pleasure," when God may have said, " This night shall thy soul be required of thee ^J" To turn unto God instanth/ is true wisdom : to put it off to a
more convenient season is foliy and madness " To-day,
if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts ^"]
But to this work you must " apply with your heart," your whole heart —
[It is not by seeking merely, but by " striving, to enter in at the strait gate," that you are to obtain acceptance with your God™. You must "apply your heart" unto wisdom: and *' what your heart findeth to do, you must do it with all your might"" ]
Address,
1 . Those who make light of God's wrath — [There are, alas ! too many who do this. " The wicked," as David says, *' through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous : thy judgments are far above out of his sight : and as for all his enemies, he ptiffelh at them°;" and, with Atheis- tical impiety, *' says in his heart, God will not do good ; neither will he do evil p." But consider, Brethren, whether you will think so lightly of God's judgments when you shall have begun to feel the weight of them ? Think whether, on first opening your eyes in the invisible world, and beholding the face of your incensed God, you will not bewail your present supineness, and curse the day when you listened to the dictates of flesh and blood, instead of attending to the counsels of true wisdom ? Oh ! think, " Who can stand before his indignation ? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger''? Who can dwell with ever- lasting burnings'"?'' I pray you to number your days, not as the world does, but as God directs you : and to consider every dav as
if
' Luke xii, 19,20. ' Ps. cxix. 60, Heb, iii. 7, 8.
" Luke xiii. 24. " Eccl. ix, 10. ' Ps. x. 4, 5.
P Zeph. i. 12. "J Nah. i. 6. ' Isai. xxxiii. 14.
399.] god's beauty imparted to his people. 311
if it were to be your last. This, with God's blessing, will stir you up to redeem the present time," and will put energy into your exertions in " fleeing from the wrath to come." VVliatever be your age, my advice is still the same: for " you know not whether your Lord will come in the evening, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning." " Knowing the ter- rors of the Lord, 1 would persuade you*}" and "what I say unto one, I say unto all. Watch."]