What an unspeakable interest does this truth attach to this our earthly state, which would otherwise appear so insignificant and even ridiculous! What an important being is every individual of the human race! What a serious part has man to act! Of what immense consequence is the use that he makes of the short time allotted to him here below! How unlike a being is he to that trifling animal, which, under a different supposition, I had represented him to be! Every thing now becomes of moment; all his thoughts, words, and actions, his habits, his character, and his pursuits; they are all matters of the deepest concern. Scarcely any thing is insignificant to him who stands on the narrow boundary between two eternities, between heaven and hell; who must so soon enter into the one or the other, and of whom the utmost circumspection is required, lest he should deviate into the path that leads to ruin. Now he is, not the gazing stock that I formerly described, to beings who might watch with the interest of mere amused spectators, his short-lived frolics and his eccentric wanderings, but a spectacle of God, and of angels, and devils, who observe with anxiety (if I may venture so to speak) the perils by which he is surrounded, and the course which he pursues, of friendly spirits, who assiduously endeavour to direct his feet into

the path of happiness and peace, and of hostile demons, who use all their art and influence to divert him from the right way, and to thrust him into the dreadful abyss of misery and perdition. Only consider, my brethren, in what a condition your birth has placed you, and what an awful responsibility it has entailed upon you! for (I have made the same remark before, but I cannot too often repeat it) either this representation is absolutely true, or religion is nonsense, and not deserving of a serious thought; either it is absolutely true that happiness or misery without end will result from the manner in which you shall spend your day of trial and probation, and then the business of life is a most stupendous concern, or these hopes and fears of eternity are all a fable, and in that case it is immaterial how you spend the few years of so useless and valueless an existence.

But I shall address you, not as if I thought you had any doubts on this subject, but as professed believers in the solemn doctrines of the gospel; and as such, I invite and entreat you to take this opportunity of examining whether your practice is consistent with your belief, whether you are so impressed with the conviction that the one grand purpose of life is to prepare for an eternal state, as to make that persuasion a ruling

principle of action, a sentiment which enters into all your views, and exercises a prevailing influence over the general turn of your conduct. For in real truth and sober reason it ought so to be. Do not set this down as mere professional language, belonging peculiarly to the pulpit; for it is the plain language of common sense, which deserves the attention of wise and prudent men, wherever her voice is heard; it is common sense tells you that if you actually believe that you will

hereafter have to answer at the bar of God's judgment for the use made of your present lives, the uppermost consideration of your minds ought to be how you may best hope for a favourable sentence on that great day. It is common sense that tells you, that if your portion, either of joy or woe, in another world, is to be eternal and unalterable, and the decision is to depend solely and entirely upon what you shall have been in this your time of trial, then it is the very extreme of folly to let any other subject possess a rival interest in your hearts. Oh! look upon these things as realities, and you will embrace the maxims of common sense. What! my brethren, shall the believer in an eternal state think any thing of more importance than to prepare for it? Shall he fall into so senseless an error as to regard the world, through which he is but passing, as his

settled home? its pleasures, as his chief good? its possessions as his richest treasures? its honours, as his highest ambition? its interests, as worthy of his most lively anxiety? And shall heaven the while be either entirely excluded from his view, or (which is quite as bad) occupy but an inferior and secondary place in his affections? Shall earth and its vanities call forth all the energies of his mind, and command his most zealous services, and heaven be but an object of occasional aspirations, of feeble hopes, of lukewarm desires, of languid exertion, of reluctant labours? Are we sent into the world, think you, to be rich, to be great, to be learned, to be finely clothed and sumptuously feasted, to excel in the arts and professions of life, to prosper in business, or to indulge in ease and enjoyment? Alas! how many there are, who begin and end their course with no other views than these! How many there are, who are "careful and troubled about many things," to the neglect of the one great end which alone is needful to be studied, and alone worthy to be attained! How many, who so far from "seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," not even seek them at all, but devote their whole time, and thought, and strength, to subordinate and infinitely less important objects! I speak not now of those whose

vicious and irregular lives consign them at once to that wretched class of men who are altogether "without hope and without God in the world," but of those whose respectable characters, and honest occupations, and innocent diversions, seem not to put a decided barrier between them and heaven, and yet who in real truth have not a more reasonable prospect of its happiness than the others, because they do not aim at it. Their employments may be praiseworthy, may be absolutely necessary, their pleasures not culpable, their virtue unimpeachable, according to human estimation; but suppose that with all this they have actually no solid principles or lively impressions of religion; suppose all their views are earthly, all their desire to succeed in business, to amass a fortune, to acquire a reputation, or to enjoy the easy repose, and the elegant accommodation of polished life; suppose the love of God forms not the ruling principle of their minds; suppose the care of their salvation gives not the bias and direction to their general course of thought, and system of conduct; suppose in short, that they are only men of respectability, or only men engaged in useful and laudable occupations, or only men of refined taste and polite manners, and fashionable accomplishments. I will charge them with nothing worse, but suppose