this world, partly for those of the next. 2 Let each of these occupys ín the distribution4 of our time, that space which properly belongs to it. Let not the hours of hospitality 5 and pleasure interfere with the discharge of our necessary affairs; and let not what we call necessary affairs encroach6 upon the time that is due to devotion. To every thing there is a season, and a time for every pur pose under heaven. If we delay till to-morrow what ought to be done to-day, we overcharge7 the morrow with a burden which belongs not to it. 3 We load the wheels of time and prevent them from carrying us along smoothly. He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day and follows out that plàr, carries on a thread which will guide him through the labyrinth9 of the most busy life, 4 The orderly arrangement of his time is like a ray of light, which darts itself through all his affairs. But, where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidents, 2 all things lie huddled together in one chaos,3 which admits neither of distribution nor review. 2. 5 The first requisite for introdu cing order into the management of time is to be impressed with a just sense of its value. Let us consider well how much depends upon it, and how fast it flies away. The bulk of men are in nothing more capricious4 and inconsistent, than in their preciations of time. ap When they But think of it, as the measure of their continuauce on earth, they highly prize it, and with the greatest anxiety6 seek to lengthen it out. when they view it in separate parcals,7 they appear to hold it in contempt, and squander it with iaconsiderate profusion.8 While they complain that life is short, they are often wishing its different periods at an end. Covetous of every other possession, of time only they are prodigal.9 They allow every idie man to be master of this property, and make every frivolous occupationt welcome that can help them to consume it. 6 Among those who are so careless of time, it is not to be expected that order should be observed in its distribution.2 But, by this fatal neglect, how many materials3 of severe and lasting regret are they laying up in store for themselves! The time, which they suffer to pass away in the midst of confusion,4 4 Capricious, a whimsical, fanciful. tion, s valuing great care. 7 Parcels s small bundles. exuberance. 9 Prodigal. a spendthrift. + Occupon,s business, em. ployment. 2 Distribution, s the act of distributing. 3 Materials, & substance of which any thing is made. 4 Confusion, # disorder. astonishment, bitter repentance seeks afterwards in vain to recal. Old 7 What was omitted to be done at its proper moment, arises to the torment of some future season.. Manhood is disgraced5 by the consequences of neglected youth. age, oppressed by the cares that belonged to a former period, labors under a burthen not its own. At the close of life, the dying man bes bolds with anguish that his days are finishing, when his preparation7 for eternity is hardly commenced, 8 Such are the effects of a disorderly8 waste of time, through not attending to its value. Every thing in the life of such persons is misplaced. Nothing is performed aright, from not being performed in due season. 9 But he who is orderly in the distribution of his time, takes the propar method of escaping those manifold9 evils. He is justly said to redeem the time. By proper management he prolongst it. He lives much in little space; more in a few years than others do in many. can live to God and his own soul, as at the same time attend to all the lawful interests 2 of the present world. He looks back on the past and provides for the future." He 10. He catches and arrests the hours as they fly. They are mark ed down for useful purposes and their memory remains. Whereas, those hours fleet by the man of confusion like a shadow. His days and years are either blanks of which he has no remembrance,4 or they are filled up with such a confused and irregular successions of unfinished transactions,6 that tho' he remembers he has been busy yet he can give no account of the business7 which has employed him. 4 Remem brance, a recol. lection. 5 Succession,s rightful inher 6 TransactionsTM - The mortifications of Vice greater · than those of Virtue. ས་ + Condition, terms of agree ment 2 Greater, a larger. 3 Labor, work. 1. Though no conditiont of human life is free from uneasines, yet it must be allowed that the uncasiness belonging to a sinful course, is far greater than what tends a course of well doing. If we are weary of the laborss of virtue, we may be assured, that the world, whenever we try the exchange, will lay upon us a much heavier load. It is the outside only, of a licentious4 life, which is gay and smiling. Within, it conceals toil and trouble, and deadly sorrow.— Eor vice poisons5 human happiness with poison. 4 Licentious, @": presumptuous, unrestrained. 5 Poison, to infect or kill in the spring, by introducing disor- der into the heart. 2. Those passions which it seems to indulge, it only feeds with imperfect gratifications;6 and thereby strengthens them for preying, in the end, on their unhappy victims.7 6 Gratification • pleasure. 7 Victims, & It is a great mistake to imagine sacrifices. that the pain of self-denial is confined to virtue. Ile who follows the world, as much as he follows Christ, must take up his cross;" and to him assuredly, it will prove a more oppressive8 burden. Vice9 allows all our passions to range uncontrolled; and where each claims to be superior,2 it is impossible to gratify all. 3. The predominants desire can only be indulged at the expense of its rival. No mortifications4 which virtue exacts are more severe than those which ambition imposes upon the love of ease, pride upon interest, and covetousness upon vanity. Self denial, therefore, belongs in common, to vice and virtue ;5 but with this remarkable, difference, that the passions which virtue requires us to mortify, it tends to weaken ;* whereas, those which vice obliges us to deny, it at the same time strengthens. 4. The one diminishes the pain 8 Oppressive, cruel, overwhelming, 9 Vice, & op posite to virtue Uncontrolled part not controlled. 2 Superior, a greater, higher 3 Predominant a prevalent, 4 Mortification humiliation, 5 Virtue, 9 moral goodness, *Weaken, v to make weak, enfeeble, injure |