342 1 Thessalonians, V. 1—8. [2203.

they never walk in the way thither, or seek to obtain favour with their offended God. But let it not be thus with any who desire happiness beyond the grave. If ever we would behold the face of God in peace, we must improve our present hours in turning to him, and in labouring to perform his will. If the prize held out to those who wrestled, or ran, or fought, could not be obtained without the most strenuous exertions, much less can the glory of heaven be obtained, unless the acquisition of it be the great object of our lives. It is true indeed that f the Son of Man must give unto us the meat that endureth to everlasting life ;" but still we must "labour for it" with all our heart, and mind, and soul, and strength. To expect the end without using the means, is to reverse the decrees of heaven, and to deceive ourselves to our eternal ruin. We must " watch and be sober." It is an inordinate attachment to earthly things that keeps us from the pursuit of heavenly things. The cares, the pleasures, the honours of this life, engross all our attention, and leave us neither time nor inclination for higher objects. This grovelling disposition we must resist and mortify. We must set our affections on things above, and not on things on the earth ; and must not only keep heaven constantly in view, but must so run as to obtain the prize. The men of this world affect darkness rather than light, as being more suited to the habits in which they delight to live. t: They that sleep, sleep in the night ; and they that be drunken, (if not lost to all sense of shame,) are drunken in the night :" but we, if indeed we are of the day, shall delight to " come forth to the light, that our deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God." We should study the Holy Scrip- tures, not merely to acquire a critical knowledge of them, (though that is good and necessary in its place ;) but to find what is the will of God, and what is that way in which he has commanded us to walk : and instead of being satisfied with doing what shall satisfy the demands of an accusing conscience,