praise, and see beyond that grave, the prospect of salvation.

We spend our years as a tale that is told; that is, we live so as to banish reflection; we do not enter into any serious computation of the progress we have made in godliness; we do not balance the increase of virtue, against the waste of life; there is. no care that the soul should be more pure, because the body is more frail; that the inward man should be more fit to live with Christ, as the outward man is more ready to fall down into his native dust.

To stop this easy, and fatal flow of life, and to extract religious wisdom from years, we must have recourse to self-examination; another year of my life is gone; am I better by that year? is there one bad passion which I have conquered, reduced, or even attacked? am I more respectable in my own eyes? am I more the child of grace? do I feel an increased power over sin? can I fairly say, for the year that is past, that I have done something? that I have advanced a single step towards the

prize of the high calling; or must I say, after the sun has carried light, and heat through all the nations; after nature has gone through her great circle; and the bud, and the leaf, and the fruit, have once more appeared, that I am, where I was before, still sinning, and resolving; still weeping, and offending; a feeble contrite being, unable to attain the virtue which I seek, and sure of being punished for the sin which I cannot avoid?

Let us first remember, in discussing the utility of self-examination, that it must be done at repeated intervals when it is profitable; or it must be done once for all, when it is too late; if you wish to moderate those reproaches, which an human being makes to his own heart, give them their entrance now; hear them at this time in obedient silence, or they will rush in, when the tale is nearly told, and visit you with such anguish as might well be avoided, by a life of moderate wretchedness; if you love difficulty better than despair, and are not willing to purchase a respite from present pain, at the expence of eternal affliction; do this now, that you may not hereafter be compelled to do worse

Judge, or God will judge; repent, or he will punish.

To avail ourselves of such a period as this, for the purposes of self-examination, is more necessary, in this great city, than in any other situation, because there are fewer blanks in our existence here, than there can be any where else. We struggle here, not only for wealth, and power, and pleasure, but for the greatest wealth, the highest power, and the keenest pleasure. If the game of life is played elsewhere with attention, it is played here with passionate avidity: the sun goes down too soon; and we chide the morning star till it brings us back to the world. It is not here that men are ever driven back into their own hearts; men never see their own hearts; they know not what dwells there; whether it be the powers of darkness, or the angels of God.

It is not merely the want of leisure, in great cities, which makes it necessary to enter into that voluntary self-examination, to which we should never be impelled from

the circumstances in which we are placed,
but that according to the common notions
of men, there are no objects, in great cities,
which can inspire solemn, and religious
ideas. And yet, where is God more visible
than in great cities? Can we see infinite
wisdom, and power in torrents, mountains,
and in clouds, and not discern them in this
wonderful arrangement of rights, appetites,
and pretensions ? Is God not visible in
laws, and constitutions? Is he not visible
in refinement? Is he not visible in reason-
ing?
Are not poets, and orators, and
statesmen more stupendous creations of
God than all the depth of the vallies, and
all the strength of the hills? If we are
to be lured to God, by all we see of his
greatness, and his power, here are his
noblest works, and here his sublimest
power; here he is to be felt, and honoured,
and adored.

An important reason for dedicating such periods as these to the duties of self-examination is, that our deficiencies must necessarily be perceived; we cannot shelter ourselves under a belief, that the shade of improve

ment is too delicate to be sensible ; the year has either made us better, or it has not; we may not go away from such an inquisition satisfied, but we can scarcely go away deceived: the very doubt itself is an answer: If the seventieth part of our rational existence has glided away, and left us doubtful whether we have gained upon any one vice, the hesitation itself is almost decisive of our failure.

Self-examination is important if lifeeternal is important; it is not one of those exercises to which any notion of degree can be applied; it is not more or less useful, but it is indispensable, it must be; without it there is no Christ, no righteousness, no life hereafter; for it is not pretended, that any man is born to continued righteousness; no man, from an original sweetness, and felicity of creation, goes on doing well, from the beginning of his days to the end: And if sin is universal, inquisition must be so too; and the duty of self-examination never be forgotten, or excused.