approach to our latter end, the more " abundant let us be in supplication and thanksgivings."]
Application —
[To the elder part of this assembly one would think it should be needless to add any thing on this subject : for they who have already lived out half their days, must feel (one would imagine) that their " time is short." But, alas ! even the aged need to be reminded of this obvious truth, and to be stirred up to improve their few remaining hours. Yes, even they often become more worldly with their advancing years, and manifest as great a backwardness to spiritual duties as they did in the earlier part of their existence. If one of this character be present, may God impress upon his mind a sense of his guilt and folly, and awaken him from his slumbers, ere
it be too late ! ■
To the younger part, who dream of months and years to come, it is more obviously necessary to repeat the warning in the text. You are apt to think and say, " It is time enough yet for me to seek after God." But " have you made a cove- nant with death?" have you been assured that neither disease nor accident shall cut you off in the bloom of life ? Look around you, and see how many of your own age are gone within your remembrance k. And what if death had seized on you, instead of them ; where had you been at this moment? I entreat you, if you have any regard for your own souls, con- sider this. Put the question to your conscience, and answer it faithfully in the sight of God : and then look at the direction given you by God himself: " Be sober," and moderate in your attachment to the things of time ; and " watch unto prayer," that you " may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory."
k Here any recent deaths may be adverted to, and the circum- stances of them, if peculiar, be specified. *