close of every day call ourselves to an account how the day had been spent, and what God had recorded concerning us in the book of his remembrance, we should certainly abstain from many sins, which we now commit without thought or remorse. Even if the Sabbath alone tvere spent in this holy exercise, we should be kept from rushing into perdition as the horse into the battle. But we are like a spendthrift, who, never considering how great his debts are, or how he shall discharge them, runs on from one extravagance to another, till he has accumulated a debt which involves him in disgrace and misery. Yea, we resemble a man on the eve of bankruptcy, who, knowing that his affairs are ruined, cannot endure to examine his accounts, but proceeds in the best way he can, till the fatal hour arrives, and his insolvency is declared. But, oh ! what madness is it thus to " treasure up wrath against the day of wrath !"]
4. It will certainly issue in long and painful reflec- tion—
[We may shake off reflection here ; but the time is coming when we must and shall consider. God has said, " In the latter day ye shall consider it perfectly1. Yes, as soon as we come into the eternal world, we shall have a perfect view of all our past wickedness : we shall see it, not as we do now, through the medium of prejudice and self-love, but as God sees it, in all its enormity and with all its aggravations. The sins of thought as well as of act, the sins of omission as well as of commission, will all be open to our view ; and there will be no possibility of diverting our attention from them. God bids us now consider ; and we will not : but what shall we do in that day when he shall answer our cries with this severe rebuke, "Son, remember"1?" 'Remember the sins committed; remember the warnings neglected; remember the mercies abused ; remember the opportunities lost.' O sad remem- brance ! O dreary prospect of unalterable irremediable misery ! Were it not then better to consider in time, when the most painful reflections will be salutary, than to protract the period of consideration till it shall be ten thousand times more pain- ful, and altogether unavailing?]
Advice —
1. Call your past ways to remembrance —
[However long since any sins may have been committed, they are as fresh in God's memory, and as hateful in his sight, as if they had been committed this very hour. Endeavour then to get the same view of them as he has. Collect them all together: and what a dreadful mass will they appear! If
1 Jer. xxiii. 20. m Luke xvi. 25.