thing wherewith to compare it upon eartli. Alas ! the visions of the godly are not so bright ; r.or do their sublimest rap- tures make so deep an impression a§ do the terrors which are ins]Mrod by sudden and appalling daiiger. But, as contrasted witii the feelings of the ungodly, we may conceive in some little measure their bliss. Let us picture to ourselves the rich man, and Lazarus, entering at the same moment into the eternal world, the one beholding the abyss of hell ready to swallow him up, and the other fixing his eyes upon his God and Saviour, whose glory and felicity he is about to share. But]
We shall contemplate these things to more advan- tage, if we view them in connexion with,
II. The effect which the prospect of those events should produce upon us —
This the Apostle sets forth,
I. In a way of candid appeal — [We all look for these events, nor do any of us doubt but that they will come in due season. Let me then ask 'of all who are here i)resent, " What manner of persons ought ye to be ?" Should you not be waiting for that period " in all holy conversation and godliness V Should you not be "looking for it, and hasting unto it" with a holy eagerness, to meet " your God at his coming ?" As for the things of this life, they should be as nothing in our eyes. Being so soon to part with them all, we should sit loose to them ; as the Apostle says ; " They who have wives should be as though they had none ; and they that weep, as though they v.ept not ; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not ; and they that use this world, as not abusing it : J'oj- ihe fashion of this tvorld passeth away^." I well know, that, when such a state of mind is recommended by us, we appear to require more than is ne- cessary. But I will venture to appeal to every considerate man, whether this be not the conversation that becomes us, when our God is coming to judgment ; and when he has told us that " he will come as a thief in the night ?" Would it not be madness to be dreaming of *' peace and safety, till sudden and everlasting destruction come upon us''?" The wise virgins were not wise in this respect, that, like the foolish virgins, they slumbered and slei)t. Haj^pily for them, they had oil in their vessels with their lamps ; or else, with the Ibolish virgins, they also would have been excluded from the nuptial feast. The true frame for all of us to be in, is that of
ardent •= 1 Cor. vii. 2^—31, * 1 Thess. v. 2, 3.