formably to its value and the purposes for which it is granted! It may be husbanded; but it may likewise be lavished away: It may be comparatively prolonged; but it may likewise be shortened: It may leave vestiges of its passage behind, which may gladden ourselves and others forever; it may likewise forever be totally lost to us and to them. The former is the aim and the happiness of the wise; this the behavior and punishment of fools. Oh let that be our aim, your most zealous, your incessant aim! Treasure the time, the short, the uncertain, the fleeting, the irremeable, the important time you have here to live; prize each year of it, each day, every hour. Be not prodigal, be cconomical of your time, of which you may have so little left, and of the application whereof you must one day give an account. Let not your time pass unemployed, unimproved away. Let it not elapse in idleness or vice. Beware of trifling or squandering away the hours, the days, that are so great and im portant in their value, and irreparable in their loss. Seize and fructify every moment that is still in your power; mark it with some reflection, with some action not unworthy of a man; and thereby give a certain fixedness and stability to what is so fleeting and vain. Meditate and effect as much good as you always can; and though you cannot thus stop the rapid progress of time, yet make it memorable to you, and the recollection of it a fountain of joy.Procrastinate nothing; since the time is uncertain, it is not in your power. Do and enjoy the good to day, which to day you are allowed to do and to enjoy; since you know not whether you will have time and ability and opportunity for it to morrow. Consider, deem, treat the present, constantly as it is connected with the future. Frequently reflect, that shortly time will be no more to you; the time

for practice and preparation: And the more you have still to do in regard of your improvement hasten so much the more to finish this important business. The farther the day of your earthly life is already spent, so much the more sedulously apply every remaining hour or moment of it to the performance of the task committed to you, that you may not be unprepared when the night comes on wherein no man can work. And then, but only then, though your time pass away like a shadow, it is not lost; it has been that to you which it was appointed to be, and has procured you what it was designed to procure you; and to the time well employed ensues eternity, wherein we shall not lament the faithful use of it, wherein it will incessantly rejoice us!

And may this be the lot of you all; thus important and blessed may time be to you! It is certainly the best wish, at the beginning of this new section of time, I can make for you, in whose welfare I am so much concerned; a wish in which wish in which my heart takes the warmest interest. Yes, long and blessed be your days, my dearest companions and hearers! May cheerful confidence and pious joy be their constant attendants; may hope and reliance on God, and the prospect of a better life, shed light and happiness upon them! Heightened by wisdom and virtue, may they serenely glide away; free from all self accusing sorrows, free from reproaching and anxious cares! May no day of your lives pass by unused and unenjoyed; may none of them cause you perplexity and shame in the solemn hour of death! None witness against you at the day of judgment! But may each of them be marked by useful employments, by some laudable action, by thankful enjoyment of the bounties of heaven, each be fruitful in blessed effects for the future life! Yes,

may

though short and fleeting your days on earth, yet may they be rich in the blessings of God, in the works of righteousness, in the works of beneficence and love, and the memorial of them be as joyful to yourselves as to your contemporaries, your children and your descendants ! And, when at length the last of the days of your life shall arrive, when you are summoned to exchange time for eternity, then the peace of God console and gladden your hearts, then may you take up the words of the triumphant apostle: "I have fought the good fight; I have finished my course. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge shall give me !" I have stood firm to God and to virtue, and shall receive the prize from my judge and my Father!-Yes; teach us, O God, our most merciful Father! So teach us to think and to live, that we may pass through the grave and gate of death, into the bliss of the better, the eternal life!

New year's day, 1783.

SERMON XXI.

The Falue, or the Importance of one Year.

OG GOD who livest and reignest and operatest from everlasting to everlasting, who orderest and rulest all times and worlds according to thy good pleasure, and, far exalted above all vicissitudes and accidents, ever remainest what thou art and whose years shall have no end; we, whose days are like a shadow, whose lives are as nothing before thee, we are here assembled in thy presence to adore thee, the Eternal, the Infinite, and to consecrate to thee, to whom our time and all that we are and have peculiarly belong, the firstlings of the year. May the offering of our reverence and our submission be acceptable in thy sight!— With grateful awe we approach thy throne, O God, and the praise of thy goodness shall be our first employment this day and for ever! What a series of precious bounties and blessings, spiritual and temporal, present themselves to our mind when we look back on the year that is past, and to whom but to thee and thy unmerited favor have we to render thanks for all! Life, health, strength; food, raiment progress and blessing in our affairs; light and instruction; comfort and hope; preservation from sin and from misery; ability to goodness; private and public welfare; delights of the present and of the future life: All proceed from thee, the father of light, the source of felicity; all are gifts of thy bountiful hand. Every day, every hour of the

year gone by testifies of thy kindness and affection towards us. Thy compassions are new every morning and thy faithfulness is very great.-To thee, O Lord, to thee belong glory and honor; thee should all thy creatures praise, for thou hast created them all, thy mercy is over all thy works, and thou never ceasest to bless us and to do us good!

Oh that every day, every hour of the elapsed year could likewise testify of our gratitude, of our love and our obedi. ence to thee, oh that it might not rise up against us hereafter and convict us of the abuse of thy bounty! Lord, thou art righteous, thou art love itself; but to us belongs confusion of face! In shame and trouble we feel the burden, the heavy oppressive burden of sins and guilt which a whole year has accumulated on us, thy sinful people! Ah how many neglected duties, how many omitted acts of goodness, how many inordinate lusts and evil deeds have we not to bewail in thy presence! How great was not the danger of many, perhaps of most of us, of being overtaken by death. and eternity, ere they were ready, and had rendered themselves fit for passing into a better life! O God shew thy mercy upon us! Cleanse our hearts, and take not thy holy spirit from us. After thy great mercy do away our of fences, and let them, like the year we have passed, be sunk in the gulf of oblivion.

And this new year, O God, that thy forbearance has allowed us to begin this day, ah let it not increase our guilt, but promote our perfection and our happiness; let it be more fruitful in truly christian sentiments and actions than the years of our lives have hitherto been. Grant that we may never forget our superior appointment, constantly connect the present with the future, and principally strive after that which is above, where Christ, our Savior, is. Teach us ever to remember that as men we must die, and that the spirit which dwells in us is immortal, that we may thus become wise and capable of a blessed immortality, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, in whose name and words we sum up all our petitions, saying: Our father, &c.