too light, too short afflictions, as our carnal hearts would desire; neither will he send us too many, too heavy, too long afflictions, as Satan would suggest; but He will send us what is truly expedient for us: his omniscience will see all, his wisdom will direct all, his great love will inspire all; and thus believing, trusting, and hoping, we would look into next year, and thank God for the past, and take courage when we gaze into the future.

But there are those in every place, who are not the people of God, whose hearts are not changed, who are still in their sins. The past year was given to you to prepare for God. It has passed away just as it began; you began it without religion, you have closed it without religion. Your responsibilities are increased, your privileges. are continued, your progress is nothing at all. But recollect, that if you have not made progress in religion, you have not been stationary. There is no such thing as standing still in the whole universe of God. Every thing is in action; every thing is in movement; and if a man's heart is not loosening from the world, spiritualized, sanctified, by the constant action of a preached gospel, by the blessing of the Spirit, that man's heart is hardened, his sensibilities become deader, his sensibility of impression becomes less. The man who has braved the appeals of Christianity last year, will brave them still more easily in the next. So then, while you have not made progress in the gospel, you have not been stationary, you have been retrograding; and last year has gone like a messenger to the skies, depositing there its record of what you were, what it found you, and what it has left you. Let me beg you to recollect this day this truth, in the retrospect of the past, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin;" and let me impress. upon you this day for the year that is to come, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all other

things shall be added unto you." I need not tell you that, speaking after the manner of men, the probability that you will die next year is much greater than it was that you would die previously. Suppose a pebble is laid in one of a hundred holes; and suppose that you have searched fifty, and have not found it; the probability is vastly increased that you will find it in the next; and if you fail to find it there, greater still that you will find it in the next. Again, some of you have seen ten, twenty, thirty, forty years; few only now remain. The probability is therefore vastly increased, that next year that stroke may come which lays the body in the tomb, and wafts the soul to the judgmentseat. I ask you, are you prepared for that day? Realize this great fact, that each soul on earth will glow for ever with the glory of heaven, or burn for ever in the misery of hell! Do we feel this solemn fact, that the soul of every man is a bud that will unfold itself in perpetual blessedness or in perpetual wo? that it is a spark from heaven, that shall burn with celestial splendour, or blaze with the flames of a fire that is not quenched for ever and ever? And then from thunder, and voices, and tempest, from revolution and a great earthquake, from affliction and prosperity, from all points of the compass-ten thousand voices shout, what I pray God may imprint upon all our hearts, "What shall it profit a man if he gain"-what is very problematic-"if he gain the whole world, and"-what is very certain— «lose his own soul?" Many have an idea that seventy years is the period of man's life. What a great mistake is this! It has been calculated that the average number of years given to every man for active exertion, are twenty years. Some twenty years you spend in childhood, boyhood, and preparation; the great majority are cut off before fifty years; and if you live to that age you have only had about twenty years for positive, active exertion. A

year therefore in a man's biography is a very large portion of it indeed, and the departure of one portion so large, and the advent of another portion which will be still more momentous, should solemnize every one that knows these. things, and lead him in prayer to that throne of grace, from which alone saving and sanctifying influence can come. I know that we calculate in this way, that we have a stock of life. Men are so accustomed in this great commercial city to calculations and commercial arrangements, that they apply to things to which they are totally inapplicable, the principles of their commerce. A young man will tell you, "I have a stock of life." You can lay up as much money as will last you for a year; but you cannot lay up so much life. There is no such thing as a stock of life. It is, "Give us each day the daily supply." God gives to a man life for to-day, but not one particle of life for to-morrow. It rests with the sovereignty of God. There is no such thing, therefore, as a capital or stock of life. And thus does the Holy Spirit say, "Go to now, ye that say, Tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow." 1852 may probably summon some in this assembly, as 1848 has done, to the judgment-seat of Christ. I ask you, are you realizing it? are you feeling this? How does it stand with you this day? Shall 1852 be treated like its predecessors? Shall you be rich, and increased in goods, and poor toward God? Shall the kingdom of God be the secondary thing, and the kingdom of this world the great, the absorbing object of your life? Fix your heart upon spiritual things first, and you will find, that instead of expending upon them energy that you might employ upon temporal things, you will have more energy for the temporal when you have first made sure of the eternal. True religion is not asceticism: God

does not desire that his creatures should be unhappy. On the contrary, God delights to see his people happy. Happiness is as much the fruit of the gospel as holiness; and I am certain that no young man will so faithfully discharge the duties of his office, and no old man so well meet the difficulties that surround him, as he will whose heart and treasure are beyond the skies, whose faith is in the Lamb of God, and whose life is the life of Christ in his heart.

"The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sins." There is not one soul that reads this that need not at this moment realize it. There is not one sin in one sinner's biography from which it will not cleanse. Have recourse to it. Let the prayer arise from each heart, "Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world," take away mine. Holy Spirit who givest a new heart, give me a new heart. Teach me to do thy will, and, by thy grace, if past years have been wasted, future shall not. If I have forgotten thee in the past, I will cleave to thee in the future. Make the experiment. Go out to do Cæsar's work in Christ's strength, and you will find that you are sufficient for all that lies before you in the world.

These words were addressed to my people, as they indicate, at the close of 1848. What a year of trembling and fear of heart was 1849! What a startling trumpet-voice was uttered forth by the Romish aggression of 1850! What a year of brilliancy, I hope not a brilliancy that precedes decay, has 1851 been! The year 1852 is now approaching as a strong man to run a race. Who dares conjecture, as he foresees its complicated questions and parties, especially abroad, what portentous events it is big with? This however is our peace-the Lord reigneth in 1852.

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LECTURE XX.

THE LAST RECKONING.

For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth and hid his lord's money. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.-MATT. xxv. 14–30.

THERE is a somewhat analogous parable in Luke xix. 11 -27; "And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and