it is " a secret which the Father has reserved in his own bosom." This only we know concerning it, that it will come suddenly and unexpected to all them that dwell on the earth : and therefore it is our wisdom to be always standing prepared for it. We believe indeed that it is yet far distant from us, be- cause there are many prophecies which yet remain to be accomplished previous to its arrival : but to us the day of death is as the day of judgment ; because as death finds us, so shall we appear at the bar of judg- ment ; and " as the tree falleth, so will it lie" to all eternity. We shall therefore speak of death and judgment as, in effect, the same to us; and we shall notice in succession,
I. The uncertainty of the period when death shall
arrive —
II. The character of those who are prepared for it —
III. The duty of all in reference to it —
I. As to the uncertainty of the period when death and judgment shall arrive, the idea is so familiar to our minds, and the truth of it so self-evident, that, as the Apostle intimates, ye have no need to have it brought before you. Yet though universally acknow- ledged as a truth, how rarely is it felt as a ground of action in reference to the eternal world ! We look into the Holy Scriptures, and there we see this truth written as with a sun-beam. We behold the whole human race surprised at the deluge in the midst of all their worldly cares and pleasures ; and all, except one little family, swept away by one common destruc- tion. A similar judgment we behold executed on the cities of the plain : and these particular judgments are held forth to us as warnings of what we ourselves have reason to expect. Our blessed Lord says to us, " Be ye also ready ; for in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh :" yet we cannot realize the thought, that death should ever so overtake us. Nay, we even try to put the conviction far from us, and, in every instance of sudden death that we hear