now, seize it, while it lasts; for NOW, and not hereafter, "is the accepted time, NOW is the day of salvation."

There are some important reflections, which naturally force themselves upon the mind from the whole subject.

I have shown you that there is reason to believe that we are now living in "the last days," "the last time." Then I say―

1. It is a time for immediate repentance. It is of little use to bewail the troubles, which, we may imagine, are coming on us, if we cherish those sins which have provoked them. Sin, if persisted in, is sure, sooner or later, to bring down punishment. But God does not delight in punishing. For when we read,

in scripture, of a judgment's being denounced against any nation, as often as that nation humbled itself before the Lord, he remitted, we are told, his anger. We ought, there

fore, to set ourselves with anxious diligence to discover why God is laying his hand upon us. Joshua and the Israelites acted so, when their attack upon Ai had been unsuccessful. They perceived that the Lord was displeased with them, and they humbled themselves before him, and "Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord, until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel." And they sought out the accursed thing, and destroyed it from And then the Lord was among them.

intreated of them, and lifted up again his gracious countenance upon his people. We

should, with as deep repentance, make as diligent inquisition for sin, to put it away from among us; we should cut off the right hand, and pluck out the right eye, which have caused us to offend. And therefore, I say, "repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

2. It is a time for persevering prayer. Our hope must be in God. And blessed be his name, "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," not for his worthiness, but for the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ. Thus terrible judgments have been arrested. Abraham interceded for Sodom, and would have

been successful, could ten righteous men have been discovered therein and to the supplication of Paul, when on his way a prisoner to Rome, were given, as we read, the lives of all the company that were voyaging with him. I believe it is through the prayers of Christian men, of those whom the world despises and ridicules, that judgments are frequently averted; thus, to the very persons they mock, are the wicked, under God, indebted for his long forbearance. What an argument for the Lord's people to be earnest in their prayers and supplications, to wrestle mightily with God, and not to let him go except he bless them!

3. It is a time for resolute decision.

He that sees a tempest coming, if he be wise, prepares for it. Even the Egyptian, when the plague of hail was at hand, "made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses." No man, when war was in the land, but would put himself upon his guard; and surely he that apprehends a season of trial should get him to "the rock that is higher" than he. Trouble is the time to prove the sincerity of faith. There are many, in whose heart the seed of the word springs up, and abideth for a time; but no sooner is the sun arisen with a burning heat, than it withereth, because it hath no root. It will be so in the judgments of the last days. Many, in that season of tribulation, will "make ship

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