Page. LECTURE XVIII. THE HISTORY OF JONAH. JONAH i. iv. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarsish LECTURE XIX. THE INCREASE OF FAITH. LUKE Xvii. 5. The Apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith 185 198 PSALM XC. 9. We spend our years as a tale that is told LECTURE XXIII. THE CONTEMPLATION OF HUMAN LIFE. ECCLESIASTES viii. 9. I applied my heart unto every work that is 206 217 . 227 237 ROMANS X. 2. For I bear them record, that they have a zeal of LECTURE XXVII. THE WRATH OF MAN OVERRULED. PSALM lxxvi. 10. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. 271 282 "What particular, and to dwell on it a few moments,-" that was, before, a very painful consideration-now, . . . ." "This, again, made me sad, and justly so—now, . . . .!" shall I render to God for the mercy of his granting my prayer for all-sufficient aid? I will render to him, by his help, a still better year next." And let us observe, as the chief test of the true application of the text, that it will be a true sentence, if then we shall have good evidence that we are become really more devoted to God. We, and our life, are for Him, or all is utterly cast away! In detachment from Him, think how all is reduced to vanity and wretchedness! The sense of this has often inflicted anguish on a reflective spirit sensible of a sad deficiency of this devotedness. "Here am I, with faculties, and an infinite longing to be happy. Why am I not? I have an oppressive sense of evil, from which there is no escape. I have intense dissatisfaction, in myself and all things. Oh! it would not be so if I ‘dwelt in God, and God in me.' My life, my time, each year, spite of all I do and enjoy, seem a gloomy scene of emptiness and vanity. It would not be felt so, if it were for God that I lived; if my affections, my activities, my years, my months, were devoted to Him." My friends, without this, no year is good in its progress or its end. A high degree of this would have made our former years end nobly; would have made the last do so. It is little more than putting the same thing in more general terms to say-the end will be better than the beginning, if we shall by then have practically learnt to live more strictly and earnestly for the greatest purposes of life. If we can say of it,-" It has been more redeemed from trifling and inferior uses. It has been more employed to purposes which always present their claims to me the more conspicuously the more seriously and religiously I think more to the purposes of which I am the most secure against all repentance—the purposes which I can the most perfectly feel place me in a right element,--and concerning which I can the most confidently look to God for both approbation and assistance." To this may be added, that if we shall have acquired a more effectual sense of the worth of time, the sentence, "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning," will be true. Being intent on the noblest purposes of life, will itself in a great degree, create this "effectual sense." But there may require, too, a special thought of time itself— a habit of noting it-because it is so transient, silent, and invisible a thing. There may be a want of faith to “ see this invisible," and of a sense of its flight. For want of this, and the sense too of its vast worth, what quantities reflection may tell us we have wasted in past years-in the last year! And, at the very times when we were heedlessly letting it pass by, throwing it away, there were, here and there, men passionately imploring a day-an hour-a few moments-more. And at those same seasons some men, here and there, were most diligently and earnestly redeeming and improving the very moments we lost!-the identical moments, for we had the same, and of the same length and value. Some of them are, in heaven itself, now enjoying the consequences. Where do we promise ourselves the consequences of those portions of time lost? The reflection on our waste and losses, in the past year, from our little allotment of this most precious material, should powerfully come in, &c. The rule of its value is, the consideration of what might be done in it. Think of its separate portions in this light. How important to have a powerful habitual impression of all this! And if, this year, we shall acquire much more of this strong habitual sense,-if we become more covetous of time,-if we cannot waste it without much greater pain,-if we shall, therefore, lose and misspend much less,-then the text is true. It will be again true, if, with regard to fellow-mortals, we can conscientiously feel that we have been to them more what Christians ought-than in the preceding year. They must be, in a measure, admitted into the judgment on the case, at least as evidence. There cannot be a very material improvement quite independently of their experience. It will therefore be happy to be able to call them to witness, at the term we are referring to, while a man shall say : "I am become more solicitous to act toward you in the fear of God.-I am become more conscientiously regardful of what is due to you, and set a higher importance on your welfare.-I have exerted myself more for your good. On the whole, therefore, I stand more acquitted towards you than I have at the conclusion of any former season." Another point of superiority we should hope the end may have over the beginning of the year, is that of our being in a better state of preparation for all that is to follow. Is it not the case, sometimes, that certain things presented to our thoughts, as what may take place, excite a consciousness that we are not well prepared for them? What then? Should we be content carelessly to stand the hazard ? Or trust in the vain refuge of a hope that we may never be so tried ?-Stupid self-beguilement! the folly of childhood, without its innocence.-A mortal is to look with certainty for a number of things which will put his best preparation to the trial. Who was ever too well prepared for sudden emergencies of trial ?-too well prepared for duty, temptation, or affliction ?-too well prepared for the last thing that is to be encountered on earth? Now, did we close the last year quite as competently prepared as we would desire, for whatever may ensue? on." So that here at the beginning we can say, "Here now are a wisdom, a faith, a conscience, a vigilance, a fortitude, to venture boldly The answer, in most instances at least, would be, 'No; I wish I were far better disciplined for the great Master's service.-I wish that I could say-I am quite willing to leave, in perfect uncertainty, all events to him, being, I hope, by his grace, in a habit of mind fitted to meet them, whatever they may be; but it is not yet so with me."-Here, then, is a most important improvement to be aimed at during this year. Just once more. It will be a great advantage and advancement to end the year with, if we shall then have acquired more of a rational and Christian indifference to life itself. (But indeed, there is no distinction between "rational" and "Christian," in this case.) An earnest clinging to life is rational, except under the favour of Christianity, and there it is not. But notwithstanding this sovereign and only remedy for the fear of losing life, what an excessive attachment to it remains! It were well that this were less,—and that it lessened with the lessening of the object; so that each year expended should have reduced the passion at least as much as it has diminished the object. Has this been so the past year? "My property in life is now less by almost 400 days; so much less to cultivate and reap from. If they were of value, the value of the remainder is less after they are withdrawn. As to temporal good, I have but learnt the more experimentally that that cannot make me happy. I have therefore less of a delusive hope on this ground, as to the future. The spiritual good of so much time expended, I regard as transferred to eternity; so much, therefore, thrown into the scale of another life against this. And in addition, some of my valued friends are transferred thither also; so that another scene has been growing rich by the losses of this. Besides, the re |