lives on ** angels' food," He has grapes of Eshcol alread}'^ by the way : he stands on Pisgah's top, surveying in all its length and breadth the land of promise : he has already an earnest and foretaste of the heavenly bliss : and, when he goes hence, he will change neither his company nor his employ- ment : he is already dwelling in, and with, his God ; and tuning his harp ready to join the choirs above, as soon as ever his attendant angels shall have received their commission to bear him hence.]
Address —
1. Those who are walking by sight —
[You are reputed wise by the men of this world ; but are worse than fools in the estimation of your God. What has the world ever yet done for you ? Has it ever yet afforded you any solid satisfaction ? Possess what ye may, will not a pain, a loss, a disappointment, be sufficient to rob you of all your enjoyment? And what can it do for you in a dying hour ? Will it prolong your life, or assuage your anguish, or pacify your conscience, or take away the sting of death? But, above all, what will it do for you at the bar of judgment? Will it bribe your Judge, or avert the wrath of an offended God, or mitigate your torments in the world of woe ? You think the Christian unwise in having respect to things which his eye has never seen. But who will be found the wise man in that great and awful day ? Not he that neglected God and his own soul ; not he that trampled under foot his dying Saviour, and poured contempt on all the glory and blessedness of heaven ; but he who lived as a pilgrim and a sojourner here, and " looked for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." O, that you '* may be wise, and consider, ere it be too late, your latter end!"]
2. Those who profess to walk by faith —
[We thank our God that there are a goodly number of you who have learned to estimate things by their relation to eternity. O beg of God to " turn off your eyes from behold- ing vanity, and to quicken your souls in his way." Pray to him to " increase your faith," that your discernment of unseen things may be more clear, your enjo3'ment of them more rich, your improvement of them more uniform and abiding. Pray that your faith may be more and more influential on the whole of your life and conversation : and strive, in dependence on the Spirit of God, to walk more and more " worthy of your high calling." St. Paul, in his most assured prospects of glory, *' laboured, that, whether present in the body, or absent from it, he might be accepted of the Lord™." Do ye in this respect
"^ ver. 9.