there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures-her time is near to come and her days shall not be prolonged." Did Tyre abandon herself to avarice, voluptuousness and oppression; is her sovreign heard crying, "I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas?" Jehovah says, "I am against thee, O, Tyre! I will cause many nations to come up against thee as the sea causeth his waves to come up. I will send a fire on thy wall that shall devour thy palaces. Thy merchandise and all thy company in the midst of thee shall fall. Thou never shalt be any more." What procured the desolation of Jerusalem? In the expostulation of the Saviour, we have an answer, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her brood under wings-and ye would not-Behold your house is left unto you desolate." Rome, once the mistress of nations, while practising the sterner virtues, was invincible; but she fell beneath the pressure of her inordinate self-valuation, her ambition and her luxury. The Divine Majesty may bear, as he has borne, with offending nations. He may say, "the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full :" but as assuredly as his throne is immutable-as that throne is established in righteousness, persevering transgression will be succeeded by ultimate overthrow. I rank our missionary Institutions, our Bible Societies, and our Sunday Schools among the bulwarks of brass which promise our safety. One of the Captains of Charles V requested the favour of a discharge from public service. The Emperor demanded the reason. The thoughtful officer replied, "There ought to be a pause between the tumult of life and the day of death." It is said this circumstance had a powerful effect in inducing Charles to abandon his throne, and retire to a convent. That pause, we entreat you, at least, this sacred Sabbath, to make. The decease of our venerable and beloved friends addresses us in tones the most solemn. ter spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, neither doth God respect any person." "Surely every man walketh in a vain shew, surely they are disquieted in vain." "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of." "All nations before him are as nothing, and they are accounted to him, less than nothing, and vanity." We have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God. In the language of Job, we may say, "Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so doth the grave, those that have sinned." Protracted age is no security against the invasions of "We must needs die, and are as wa death. Adam, the common parent of us all, lived 930 years, and yet he died. Who of us can hope to surmount his ninetieth, his eightieth year? Existence so far prolonged, is the privilege of few-very few. On the bridge of human life-to use an allusion of Mr. Addison's elegant Vision of Mirza-on the bridge of human life, which we are now crossing, are innumerable trap-doors that lie concealed, through which the passengers drop into the tide below, and disappear. No one in this assembly is warranted to use the language of David to Jonathan-"Truly, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death." There may be ma but since each step ny steps, there may be but one: is the step of jeopardy, how much is it the wisdom and duty of every man, to be well prepared for the final plunge? While on earth we are permitted to continue, let us have our eye continually fixed on the duties of our respective stations; whether the niche allotted us in the temple of society, be depressed or exalted. Let us seek refuge in the arms of the atoning Redeemer, and, sanctified by his Holy Spirit, may it be ours, amid the dread catastrophe of a perishing Universe, to find this corruptible put on incorruption, this mortal, immortality. |