make the blush of shame rise where it ought to rise; not in his face who is doing his duty to his God, and to his Redeemer; but in his, who is basely deserting, or audaciously setting them at nought. Let each do his part, that the guests at the Lord's table may become more numerous than those who "make excuses:" that these latter, becoming conspicuous, may be ashamed to quit all their brethren assembling round the altar; that, in a word, seeing the good work, they may repent, and return, and join in glorifying our heavenly Father, through His Son Jesus Christ our Saviour. SERMON LII. THE END OF THE YEAR. THE PRAYER. O ALMIGHTY GOD, with whom do live the spirits of just men made perfect, after they are delivered from their earthly prisons; teach us, in the daily spectacles of mortality, to see how frail and uncertain our own condition is; and so to number our days, that we may seriously apply our hearts to that holy and heavenly wisdom, whilst we live here, which may in the end bring us to life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, thine only Son our Lord. Amen. THE VOICE SAID, CRY. ISAIAH xl. 6-8. AND HE SAID, WHAT SHALL I CRY? ALL FLESH IS GRASS, AND ALL THE GOODLINESS THEREOF IS AS THE FLOWER OF THE FIELD: THE GRASS WITHERETH, THE FLOWER FADETH: BECAUSE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD BLOWETH UPON IT: SURELY THE PEOPLE IS GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERETH, THE FLOWER FADETH: BUT THE WORD OF OUR GOD SHALL STAND FOR EVER. THE last of this series of Sermons for the year is now to be offered to the meditations of those, who may have been pleased to have attended to the instructions and admonitions of the "DOMESTIC CHAPLAIN." If, feeling difficulty in the choice of a subject which might harmonize both with the general tenor, and also with the conclusion of his work, he were to ask, with the prophet in the text, "What shall I cry ?" "the voice" of the expiring year, to which the series is devoted, suggests, both to him and his readers, a theme of obvious and universal interest."All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." - Brethren,-fellow heirs of frailty and mortality, candidates for the crown of everlasting life through Christ Jesus, if you have followed me in this series of Sermons, and have, as it were, held converse with me as a messenger of God on each Lord's day of a whole year, bethink you well on the meaning of that word-YEAR. It is a division of time. Yes! and it is a division of my time, and your time. It is not a mere human and arbitrary division invented by man; nor is it to be looked at only as a convenient method of noting time for the operations of human science, for the arrangements of worldly business, and the schemes of worldly pleasure. A year, in the eyes of a Christian, has another origin, and other relations. It is a division of time which originated with the handy-work and arrangement of that great Artificer, who set lights in the firmament of heaven, and ordained them for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years ; nay, more, who hath given to man his appointed time, who hath assigned to him his threescore and ten years, his labour and sorrow, and then soon to pass away and be gone. It relates also to a science far more important than the proudest attainments of human knowledge, to a crown beyond all comparison more glorious than the brightest visions of human ambition, and to pleasures which not only surpass, both in exquisiteness and endurance, all earthly enjoyments, but "which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive." With that great Being, with those all-important interests, is every passing year of this our transitory life connected. Years are degrees," traced by the finger of Almighty God Himself upon the dial of human existence. When the ever moving shadow, which, though the sun itself go backward, never goeth backward, is passing over one of those brief but precious divisions of our time, surely the considerations suggested by such an event are too obvious and too interesting to escape our notice. It matters not, that these reflections may be common place; it matters not that year after year similar reflections may have been suggested to you. It is not because that which "one day telleth another, and one night certifieth another 1," is the same, that it must therefore cease to be interesting, or important, in the estimation of the Christian and the mortal. It is neither the repetition, nor the novelty, but the magnitude, and the universal concern, of those subjects, which should establish the estimate of them in the mind of the reasonable and the religious. We are too apt to forget the things that are not seen, in our fierce chase after the objects which are seen, and which immediately tempt our desires and passions. Every season, which abstracts us for a while from the latter, and directs our thoughts and faith to the former, should be carefully and profitably applied; and none more so, than the recollections naturally excited. by each departing year. No frequency of their recurrence, no familiarity of the subjects, can diminish their awful interest. Time, eternity, death, and judgment! can these ever be made trivial considerations with mortal and accountable beings? Let the hopeless infidel, let the seared reprobate, past feeling, and given up to lasciviousness, let the fool, the brute, the madman, despise them-but the Christian cannot. To him each departing year echoes the warning of his Master, "Watch, therefore, for ye know not at what hour your Lord doth come." The voice speaks to him in the events of that year. "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as 1 Ps. xix. 2. Liturgy. 2 Matt. xxiv. 42. |