reminds them by the pains, infirmities, and sorrows of life, that the grave is their house, in which they must lie and crumble to the dust. It is certainly reasonable for those whom God so solemnly and continually admonishes of their frailty and mortality, to die daily, and familiarize themselves with the thoughts of taking up their long lodging in the grave, which is their house.

3. They should do this, because it is necessary in order to their forming all their worldly schemes with wisdom and propriety. So Moses thought, when he prayed in the name of his fellow mortals. "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." How differently would most men form their worldly designs, if they constantly bore in their minds that the grave is their house, and they know not how soon they may be lodged in it! It is certain, however, that men will form their designs for futurity unwisely, if they banish the thoughts of death from their minds; and that this event will in some way or other frustrate their purposes, and pain them with regret and disappointment. Dying creatures should form all their purposes under a proper impression of the frailty and uncertainty of life, and that it is only if the Lord will that they shall live, and do this or that. This is their duty, as to their general course, and as to their daily conduct. Though they are not to expect, while they are in health and apparent safety, that every day will be their last; yet they should feel and act as though it might be their last.

4. It is necessary for every one to keep in his mind the frailty and mortality of himself and of others, in order to form a just estimate of the world and its inhabitants. As soon as men are lodged in the grave, the world and all that is therein will no longer be of use or service to them. When they die, all the world will die with them. The habitual thoughts of death cannot fail to influence the opinion which men form of the world. A dying world does not look like a living world. This all know, when the thought of death strikes their mind, and they realize that every one is hastening into eternity. When this truth is realized, their false notions of the glory and importance of the world vanish, and they view these objects in all their emptiness and vanity. Hence it is of very great importance to maintain an habitual sense that we are dying creatures, and live in a dying world.

5. Men ought to live habitually sensible that the grave is their house, in order to prepare them to endure the trials and afflictions of the present life with patience and fortitude. Job derived great support and consolation under his trials and afflic tions, from the habitual sense of his approaching dissolution,

when he should lie in the silent and peaceful grave. He felt weary of life and loathed it, and with satisfaction said to himself, "When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return." The troubles and distresses and sorrows of life seem light, when life seems short, and death seems near. It is, therefore, a point of wisdom as well as of duty, for the living, while they are passing through this evil world, to maintain a lively sense that their lives and their troubles are coming to a speedy end. Thousands have lived, and are still living joyfully, amidst all their trials, in the full belief of this consoling truth. Each says with Job, "The grave is my house," in which I shall silently and peacefully rest. The grave is a happy asylum to those who are prepared and waiting for death, "as a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work." There is still,

6. Another more important reason for maintaining an habitual sense of mortality; and that is, because it will have a direct tendency to prepare men for death when it comes. Very few have ever been prepared for death without having a realizing sense of the frailty and uncertainty of life. Thousands have been awakened by a realizing sense of their mortality, to attend to the things of their everlasting peace, through fear of their soon being hidden from their eyes in the grave. And those who have made their peace with God have been greatly excited to prepare for a peaceful death, by making the thoughts of it habitual and familiar. This we know was the case with saints of old, who took peculiar care to set their souls and houses in order, when they had a presentiment that they were drawing near to the house appointed for all living. And there have been many instances, from age to age, of those who waited for death, and who stood with their loins girded, and their lamps burning, in joyful expectation that the time of their departure was at hand. The children of God cannot take a better method to prepare for a serene and happy death, than to meditate much upon their dying hour, and anticipate what it will be to leave their bodies in the dark and silent grave. This will powerfully tend to detach them from the world, remove the sting of death, and prepare them to pass through the dark valley with fortitude and joy.

IMPROVEMENT.

1. If it be the important duty of all, to keep up and maintain a realizing sense that the grave is their house, then we may well conclude, that every way of thinking and acting is sinful,

which tends to banish the thoughts of death from their minds. In the view of this subject, we may easily determine, whether several ways of spending precious time are not really sinful and displeasing to God, though they are often thought and said to be entirely innocent and harmless. Many seem to imagine that there is little or no harm in loving and pursuing the things of the world supremely. They say, that they are commanded to labor six days in the week, and to do all their work; that they are forbidden to be slothful in business; and that they are required to do whatsoever their hands find to do in their lawful callings, with activity and diligence. All this may be done, and ought to be done, without loving and pursuing the world and the things of the world supremely. It is a supreme love and attachment to the world which banishes the thoughts of death from the mind, and the love of God from the heart. Worldly-mindedness is inconsistent with spiritual-mindedness. No man can serve two masters at the same time. Supreme love to the world always banishes supreme love to God. And, for this reason, the apostle forbids any man's loving the world supremely. He says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." There is nothing more stupifying than worldly-mindedness, or that has a greater tendency to exclude all thoughts of death and the grave from the human heart; and therefore it is highly sinful and displeasing to God..

The neglect of religious duties, though very common and fashionable, is very criminal. Those who cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God, and never call upon him in secret, in private or public, take the direct way to forget that they are dying and accountable creatures. Those who neglect to read and hear the word of God, pursue the same sinful and dangerous course. It is an old and true adage, that praying will make a man leave off sinning, or sinning will make a man leave off praying. Can you find any person who neglects religious duties, that appears to be mindful of death and eternity? No such person can be found. Why do any neglect these duties? The reasons they need not tell. It is because the performance of these duties would necessarily carry their thoughts to the grave, and the solemn scenes which lie beyond it. Their neglect of religious duties is a neglect of all their spiritual and eternal concerns. It is living without God, without Christ, and without hope in the world, and running the awful risk of being suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy. Though many imagine that they may innocently spend their time in vain and trifling conversation and amusements, yet their opinions and conduct cannot stand the test of this subject,

which enjoins upon them the important duty of maintaining an habitual sense of their dying condition. Neither the young nor the old, who realize that they are hastening to the grave and eternity, can help feeling their obligation to regard the apostolic admonition: Let evil speaking, foolish talking, and jesting which are not convenient, be put away from you, and let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers. There is hardly any thing which has a more effectual tendency to stupify the hearts and consciences of all classes of persons, than that levity which they are so apt to indulge even on the Sabbath as well as on other days. The great and general levity among the rising generation especially, is a visible and alarming evidence of their disregard to God, and to their own eternal good. "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end." A deep and habitual sense of their continually walking on the sides of the grave, and the borders of eternity, would effectually convince them of the absurdity, criminality, and danger of appointing times and employing means to increase their levity, and hide the grave from their view until they find themselves dropping into it. This fatal effect of their levity and vanity is stronger than a thousand texts and arguments to prove, that the way which seemeth pleasant and right in their eyes is the way to eternal death, and consequently absolutely criminal, and infinitely dangerous.

2. If all men are certainly hastening to the grave, which is their house, then it is very unreasonable for any to entertain the thought that they shall never lie in that dark and silent mansion. Though none are willing to allow that they really harbor such an absurd thought, yet God, who knows their thoughts better than they do themselves, has told us that this is the secret hope and expectation of the men of the world. Because God delays to execute the sentence of mortality upon them, they are ready to imagine that he never will execute it. The Psalmist says, "They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother- that he should still live for ever, and not see corruption. For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations. This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Like sheep they are laid in the grave, death shall feed upon them: and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their beauty shall consume in the

grave from their dwelling." Though the living see death reigning every where, and cutting down the young as well as the old, the rich as well as the poor, and the wise as well as the unwise, they often cherish the thought that they shall escape his fatal stroke, and never see corruption. But this their way is the extreme of foolishness. It is absurd in youth to cherish this thought. It is more absurd in those in the meridian of life to cherish this thought; and it is most of all absurd in the aged, who have seen so many go before them to their long home. Job was not guilty of this folly. He said, "If I wait, the grave is my house." He maintained an habitual sense of his dying condition, and the longer he had escaped death, the more he expected its near approach. Our Saviour spoke a parable to convince the most stupid of the amazing danger as well as folly of putting far away the evil day of death. "The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying,"-to himself and not to others,-"What shall I do? because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do; I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?" God knows what men think and say to themselves. And those who think and say to themselves that they shall live for ever, and not see corruption, have peculiar reason to think that there is but a step between them and death. They abuse the patience of God to their own ruin.

3. If all men are certainly going out of this world into the grave, which is their house, then however valuable this world may be to him who made it, it is of but little value to them who live in it. The earth is the Lord's, which he has made to answer his own important purpose of preparing rational and immortal creatures for another and eternal state. Men have nothing here which they can call their own. They are only tenants at will, and liable every day and every moment to be stripped of all earthly things, and consigned to the dark and narrow house of the grave. As they brought nothing into the world with them, so they can carry nothing out. This whole world is continually changing its inhabitants. The present possessors are all travelling to the grave, where they must bury all their earthly possessions, distinctions and enjoyments. They are vastly more interested in the world to which they are going, than in the world they are about to leave. It is of little importance whether they are rich or poor this side of the grave;