2. To live in daily expectation of the future judg- ment—
[Ask yourselves, not merely, What do I think of this or that conduct? but. What would God say to it, if I were in- stantly summoned to his tribunal? Such a question as this would often lead you to a very different estimate of yourselves from that which you have formed ; and the consideration of his recording every thing in order to a future judgment would tend to keep you vigilant in all your conduct. Walk then as in his sight, and be satisfied with nothing which you are not well assured will satisfy him.]
THE sluggard's VINEYARD.
Prov. xxiv. 30 — 34. I went hy the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding : and, lo, it urns all groum over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone loall thereof teas broken doivn. Then I saw, and considered it tvell : I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a
808.] THE sluggard's VINEYARD. 235
little folding of the hands to sleej): so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.
IF we have an observant eye, and a mind open to receive instruction, there is not any thing in the creation which may not afford us some useful les- sons. We may learn as much from what we see, as what we hear ; and as much from what is evil, as from what is good. Indeed it is a mark of true wisdom to exact a tribute, as it were, from every thing which comes within our reach, and to suffer nothing to pass without contributing its quota to our stock of useful knowledge. Solomon has set us a good example in this respect : he saw a vineyard that had been shame- fully neglected : and instead of turning away from it, as incapable of affording either pleasure or profit to his mind, he set himself to " consider it well, and to derive instruction from it." Surely then we cannot be unprofitably employed while we consider, I. The sight which he observed —
It is not uncommon to see ground ill cultivated, or business neglected ; but as persons reprehensible for inattention to their worldly concerns are compara- tively few, we apprehend that the remedying of the evils arising from it comes rather within the province of private admonition than of public discussion. We shall therefore take occasion from the text to speak of a vineyard which all ought to cultivate, but which all are too prone to neglect. This vineyard is the soul ; which, with the generality, lies,
1. Uncultivated —
[A man possessed of a common vineyard, ought to procure good plants for it, and to water it regularly, and to weed it carefully, in order that it may yield him its fruits of increase*. And we have the same labour to perform for our souls. We ought to get it filled with the choicest graces from heaven. We should water it with prayers and tears, and seek to have it nourished with the influences of the Holy Ghost, which when duly sought, will descend on it as the dew, and distil upon it as rain upon the new-mown grass. We should be daily occu- pied in pulling up the thorns and nettles that spontaneously
a Matt. xxi. 33.