All our anxiety will be about the future. Oh ! with what force will that question press upon the mind, " Am I ready? Am I prepared to meet my God?" How different will our feelings then be, according as we have given up ourselves to God in our early youth, or put off the work of our souls to a dying hour ! and what an unfit season will that be to begin that work ! Go one step farther : follow the soul into the eternal world : view it standing at the judgment-seat of Christ: What will be its feelings at that day ? I need not say : your own consciences will tell you. At this moment, even though you choose not to live the life of the righteous, you are saying inwardly in your hearts, " Let me die the death of the right- eous, and let my last end be like his." Then, as these times must come, let us work while it is day, knowing assuredly, that the night is coming when no man can work, and when we shall bitterly lament, that ever we lost this day of our visitation, and neglected the things belonging to our everlasting peace.]
Address —
1 . The younger part of our audience —
[You are now going to take upon you the vows that were made in your behalf in baptism '^. '" Noiv" therefore more par- ticularly " remember God." Remember, that he sees the way in which you perform this duty : he sees whether you endeavour truly to approve yourselves to him, or whether you only mock him by a thoughtless compliance with an established form. Go to him, and surrender up yourselves wholly to him, as " the first-fruits of his creatures," and you will have reason to bless God to all eternity that ever you were called to perform this solemn service. But, if you go without any sincere desire to devote yourselves to him, you will only harden your own hearts, and increase the guilt you have already contracted. " Let me however hope better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak." Yes, dearly Beloved, we will hope, respecting some of you at least, that we " have not bestowed upon you labour in vain."]
2. To those who have grown to man's estate — [Every argument used with the young, presses with addi- tional weight on you, and says, with greatly augmented force, " Remember now thy Creator." If in your earlier days you were led to comply with this advice, I will venture to ask. Do you repent of liaving done so ? Is not the chief matter of your regret, that you did not give yourselves up to him at a yet earlier period, and that you have not adhered more steadfastly to the engagements you entered into ? If you have, on the contrary, advanced in the Divine life, and grown from babes to young men, or from young men to fathers, does not that afford
^ Confirmation.