and they speak well, who say, " Let us eat and drink, for to- morrow we die." But this world is a mere passage to a better; it is an inn, at which we sojourn for a night, in our way to a better comitry. A person tarrying only for a few hours is not greatly elated, if his accommodations be good ; nor greatly depressed, if they be bad. He considers, in either case, that it is not his home; that his comfort or discomfort is very transient; and that it will be time enough to look for unmixed enjoy- ments, when he shall have reached his Father's house. More- over, this world must be considered as a state of preparation for a better ; every thing that is done here being an occasion of increased happiness or augmented misery to all eternity. In this view of the world, every pain and every pleasure acquires a new aspect. The things that are so highly prized by ungodly men lose their value ; and every thing is esteemed good or bad, according as it quickens or retards us in our Christian course. Hence true wisdom says, " Love not the, world'*," " neither be of it';" but " be crucified to it, and let it be as one crucified to you^"]
2. To follow the footsteps of the saints of old — [There are those who have gone before us, whose ways were not folly, though they might be esteemed foolish by those who were themselves blinded by Satan. " Abraham went out from his kindred and his country, not knowing whither he went':" Moses refused all the wealth and honour that Egypt could afford, that he might participate in the lot of God's persecuted and despised people™: many saints " took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance " : " Matthew left his lucrative employment to follow Christ°: Paul suffered the loss of all things for Christ i'; and after having engaged in the Christian course, attended to nothing but his progress in it, straining every nerve to win and secure the prize 'i. All of these would be thought by the world to carry religion to a very culpable excess : but they acted with consummate wisdom, each in the part he took: they all " chose the good part, which could not be taken away from them." Let any one who reflects on the present state of these eminent saints, say, whether " their way was folly?" If it was not; if, on the contrary, it accorded with the dictates of true wisdom, then lei all not only " approve their sayings" but imitate their doings also, and " be followers of them, as they were of Christ."] Advice —
1. Guard against the influence of bad example —
'' John ii. 15, 16. ' John xvii. 14, 16. ^ Gal. vi. 14.
1 Heb. xi. 8. m Heb. xi. 24—26. " Heb. x. 34.
0 Matt. ix. 9. P Phil. iii. 8. q Phil. iii. 13, 14.