want of serious consideration. But when persons are grown to maturity, we might well expect them to feel so obvious a truth. They see that multitudes are cut off at their age; and they know that with the termination of the present life all oppor- tunities of preparing for eternity must cease : yet they not only do not lay these considerations to heart, but they will not hear of them, or endure to have them presented to their view. Nor are tJiose loho are more advanced in life at all more thouglitful on this subject. Engaged in worldly business, and occupied in providing for their families, they put the thoughts of eternity as far from them as they did amidst the more plea- surable pursuits of youth. And even ivhen they attain to old age, they are as far from reahzing the expectations of death and judgment as ever. They know, in a speculative way, that they are nearer to the grave than they were in early life, and that they may at no distant period expect a change. But still these views are no more influential on their minds than they were at any former period of their lives. A condemned cri- minal, who has but a few days to hve, feels that every hour brings him nearer to the time appointed for his execution: but not so the man who is bowed down with years : the very habit of living puts at an indefinite distance the hour of death ; and days and months pass on without ever bringing at all nearer to his apprehensions the time of his dissolution. Even the sick labour under the same mental blindness. They attend to the fluctuations of their disorder; and one single symptom of con- valescence does more to remove the expectation of death from them, than many proofs of augmented debility do to bring it home to their feelings with suitable apprehensions : they are still buoyed up with hopes from the skill of their medical attendant, when all around them see that they are sinking fast into the grave. Whatever be a man's age or state, it is God, and God alone, that can " make him thoroughly to know and feel how frail he is."]
Nevertheless the view here given us is truly just — [The life of man is so short, as to be really " nothing before God." The comparison of it to " an hand-breadth" is peculiarly deserving of our attention ; because by that image every man has, placed as it were before his eyes, " the measure of his days:" he cannot look upon his hand without calling to mind how frail he is, and how soon his present state of exist- ence must come to an end. Let him divide his life into the periods of youth, manhood, and old age ; and let him in his own apprehension divide his measure also ; and it will bring to his imagination, in a very forcible way, the truth which he is so backward to contemplate. A great variety of other images are used in Scripture to convey this truth: life is compared to