it is that hath kept you back: Some of the following hinderances have, it is very likely, kept you thus back.

1. The negligent performance of holy duties. Duties have a great influence upon the state of our hearts and lives. Look what Christians are in their sacred duties, you shall find them much after the same rate in their ordinary course. If you see a professor that is dead and barren, and careless in his life, follow him into his closet, and you will find him as brief, and dead, and heedless in his prayers; and those who neglect their spiritual duties will not prosper in religion. Try if this be not your case.

2. Unprofitable converse with Christian friends. The communion of saints should be improved to the edification of saints. Christians should find other matters to talk of, than their corn and cattle, the weather or the news. What, have you not a God, not a Christ, nor a soul, of which to be reminding each other? Never a word of your country, whither you are travelling? We should come together to get light from each other's candle, to get warmth from each other's fire. If you squander away such opportunities, no wonder if you remain dark and cold. Examine if you be not faulty here.

3. Unnecessary converse with carnal friends. Ungodly company leaves a chill, and a damp, and a deadness upon our spirits. It is not without reason that Christ requires his disciples to forsake the world, father and mother, son and daughter, and much more other carnal friends, if they seek to draw our hearts from God. If we cannot forget these, they will quickly help us to forget our God, and ourselves.

Yet religion doth not teach us to be unnatural or uncivil: it requires that we give to all their due; friendship, to whom friendship; courtesy, to whom courtesy; and duty, to whom duty belongs : but this it teacheth, that we do not unnecessarily converse with those carnal persons whose society we may avoid, nor unwarily with those whom we may not avoid. With whomsoever your dwelling be, let your delight be in the saints. If God cast you among others, let them be your fear, rather than your familiar friends; and keep such at a due distance, as that they may neither hinder you in your duties to them, nor prejudice you in your duty to God. Examine how it hath been with you upon this account,

4. Overbusying yourselves about the affairs of this life. It may be, you find so much work to do abroad, that you let all lie at random within. It may be, the reason why your heart is so cold, is, because you have so many worldly concerns: you have so many fields to look to, that your garden is all over-run with weeds.

5. The remaining guilt of some unrepented sin. Israel cannot prosper, while there is an accursed thing in the camp. Enquire is there not some unmortified lust, under the power of which you live, and of which, perhaps, you take no notice? You have, it may be, a proud heart, or an angry, fretful heart, or an envious, revengeful heart; and this may cause you to pine away. An unmortified lust in the heart is like a moth in the garment, which eats out its strength, and mars its beauty. Pride in the heart is as proud flesh in a wound; whatever medicines be used, the wound remains uncured till the

proud flesh be taken off. An angry, fretful heart, is like a wolf in the breast; whatever be applied, it will prey upon and devour it, and the body will pine away, till the fretting humour be cured. And so any other prevailing lust will have the same effect; as a man in a consumption, who is wasted to skin and bone, whatever cordials or restoratives he takes, his flesh will never be gotten up, his strength will never return, till the corroding rheum be stayed. If there be any prevailing lust in thy soul, especially if thou indulgest it, in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured, till that lust be subdued. Thou mayest pray, and fast, and complain all thy life long of thy deadness, and barrenness, and languishing state, and yet still be pining away, whilst there is any iniquity to which thy heart gives indulgence. Search diligently, and see if this be not thy case.

6. Slothfulness. The field of the sluggard is a barren field. He that will not plough, nor sow, nor weed, nor watch, nor work in his field, is likely to have but a poor crop.

7. Contentedness with thy poor, and low, and barren state. Some who are born poor, live poor all their days, and take up with their state, and never look after riches. For ought thou knowest, thy heart might have been in much better case, if thou hadst intended riches it is the covetous Christian, who is the rich Christian.

:

Thus

it is with worldly men, the covetous of the earth; these are the rich men of the earth; these are the monied men, the landed men, that have laid house to house, and field to field: and it may be, if thou hadst been spiritually covetous, thou mightest have laid grace to grace, comfort to comfort, and have been a man of great possessions before this day; but thou hast been a narrow-hearted, poor-spirited creature, that never hadst any ambition, nor any design to grow great and rich towards God; and hereupon it is that thou art as thou art.-Christian, though none of the former causes, may have had a hand in bringing poverty upon thee, or holding thee under it; yet it may be that this last, a contentedness with little grace, is that to which thou owest most of thy pining disease. This is too common a case. We have not large hearts towards God; we are not panting after holiness; we are too well contented to be babes in Christ, to be children in the grace and knowledge of God. Where shall we find a Christian who is resolved to be rich, to seek great things for himself,-the great things of eternity, I mean,— and to bring forth much fruit? It is no wonder that there are so many barren fig trees in Christ's vineyard, so, many starveling souls among the professors of religion, when there are so few who seriously design fruitfulness. We might have gotten double to what we have obtained if we had earnestly sought true riches.

Brethren, consider how it is with you; and if you find this to be your case, that your souls are in an unthriving state, search narrowly if some of the fore-mentioned particulars be not those that have kept you back; and when you have found out the cause of your disease, rest not till it be removed; for be ye well assured, that what hath hindered will hinder, till it be taken out of the way.

ON TIME.

TIME is limited duration, successive and divisible. In all these respects it differs from eternity, which is unlimited, fixed, and indivisible. Time is said to be in eternity, as an island in a boundless, shoreless ocean. Time has its beginning, continuance, and end. Eternity has had no beginning, and will have no end. Time is divisible into ages, centuries, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds. Eternity is that in which all these are swallowed up, as a drop in an unfathomable sea. Time, as applied to the human race, had its commencement, when God formed man out of the dust of the earth, breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul; and it will have its consummation, when "the mighty angel shall descend from heaven, and placing one foot upon the sea and the other upon the earth, shall lift up his hand to heaven, and swear by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things which are therein, that there shall be time no longer." During this period the purposes of God in creation, providence, and redemption, are brought out and accomplished. Nations are planted and plucked up; kingdoms rise and fall; empires are born and perish. The generations of our race rise into being, fulfil their course, and in rapid succession vanish, amid the shades of the unseen world. The whole scene will close amidst the solemnity, and grandeur, and terror, and glory of the last judgment.

2. But time, as applied to us, is the period of our earthly existence. It limits the term of our sojourn here. So long as we are in this world, we are in time, but when we quit it, all beyond is vast eternity. Death then to us is the end of time. It is that which closes our connection with all earthly scenes, terminates our state of probation, and fixes our destiny, in one or other of those great regions which are separated by an impassable gulf, and distinguished from each other by the extremes of happiness or woe!

"A point of time, a moment's space
Removes me to that heavenly place,
Or shuts me up in hell."

The period of our life may not be the most important in the world's history, but it is the most important to ourselves. It is that portion of duration which is allotted to us for the most important of all purposes; during which we acquire those moral qualities which will accompany us into the world of spirits, where "he that is unjust must be unjust still, and he that is filthy must be filthy still, and he that is righteous must be righteous still, and he that is holy must be holy still." With many of us the greater portion of life is already past, and the return of a New Year reminds us, like the mile stone on the road of the traveller, of the progress we have made in life's short pilgrimage: with us "it is high time to awake out of sleep; the night is far spent, the day is at hand, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light."

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3. With all, whether young or old, time is short, and is rapidly passing away. Of the time allotted us in the present state, Dr. Johnson observes, When we have deducted all that is absorbed in sleep, all that is inevitably appropriated to the demands of nature, or irresistibly engrossed by the tyranny of custom; all that passes in regulating the superficial decorations of life, or is given up in the reciprocations of civility to the disposal of others; all that is torn from us by the violence of disease, or stolen imperceptibly away by lassitude and langour; we shall find that part of our duration very small of which we can truly call ourselves masters, or which we can spend wholly at our own choice." Let us listen to a greater than Johnson, "But this I say, brethren, the time is short; it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy as though they possessed not; and they that use this world as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passeth away." Historians, poets, philosophers, moralists, and divines, have all descanted upon the brevity of time. It is not as we view it in the prospect, but as we see it in the retrospect, that the mind becomes impressed with the rapidity of its flight. "It advances like the slowest tide, and retreats like the swiftest torrent."

"Time in advance behind him hides his wings
And seems to creep decrepit with his age,
Behold him when passed by, what then is seen,
But his broad pinions swifter than the wind."

The sacred writers often refer to this subject, and to impress it the more deeply upon our minds, they employ the most striking emblems. To what do they compare the life of man? To the fading leaf; the withering flower; the perishing grass; the vapour that appeareth for a moment and then vanisheth away. "Thou hast made my days as an handbreath, and my age is as nothing before thee. As for man his days are as grass, as a flower of the field so he flourisheth, for the wind passeth over it and it is gone, and the place thereof knoweth it no more. O how swiftly days, weeks, months, and years fly away, and carry with them the fashions, pleasures, riches, power, and grandeur of this vain world. O how soon will all who now live upon the earth, with all their cares, hopes, joys, and fears,

"Be carried downward by the flood,

And lost in following years."

4. Time is not merely short, it is also uncertain, and may more speedily terminate than we anticipate. We speak of time past, but that is time no longer; millions of ages cannot bring back one hour. We speak of time to come, but that is not yet born, and we may never see its countenance, or hear its voice. Boast not of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." The present is all that we possess; even that is on the wing, and we cannot arrest its flight

"The fugitive moment refuses to stay."

And, "like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires." How many who entered upon the year 1844, with all the advantages of

youth, beauty, bloom, strength, vigour, and health, are now no more! Before it was noon the flower faded; whilst it was yet summer the leaf fell from the tree; and whilst yet blooming in all the pride of vernal beauty, the grass was cut down and withered.

"Not worn by slowly rolling years,

But broke by sickness in a day,
The fading glory disappears,

The short-lived beauty dies away."

And what has been will be again. Of those who have entered upon the New Year, myriads will not be permitted to see its close: before its weeks and months are completed, death will extinguish many a bright eye, stiffen many an active limb, and lay many a rosy countenance pale and shrouded in the silent dust.

5. And yet time so short, so swift in its flight, so uncertain in its continuance, is of all things the most precious, and should be by all men the most carefully improved. Not all the wealth of worlds could purchase an instant of time, and

"The man's unborn that duly weighs an hour.".

One of the greatest of men said: "Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom;" and one of the wisest of men said; "What thine hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest." And he who was more than man said; "I must work the work of him that sent me, while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work.' And he who was not behind the very chief of the apostles said; "See that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Time is the warp of life, the web of which we must be careful to weave aright. It is a mine which, if we work it well, will yield unsearchable riches, and treasures which will last for ever. It is an estate which, if we rightly cultivate it, will produce a luxuriant harvest of everduring blessings; but which, if sown with evil actions, will bring forth sorrow, shame, remorse, and a fearful retribution. If we would have a just impression of the value of time, let us remember that though fleeting in itself, yet in its results and consequences it is lasting as eternity. "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap: if he sow to the flesh, he shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Death-beds can tell the worth of time. To purchase for us an accepted time, and a day of salvation, the Saviour paid down the price of agony and blood. If there be any riches in peace of conscience, any sweetness in the consolations of religion, any attraction in the beauty of holiness, any value in a title to heaven, any grandeur in victory over death, any sublimity and glory in the rewards of eternity, all this results from time well spent. If there be any shame in guilt, if any bitterness in remorse, if any sting in death, if any gloom in despair, if any terror in the last judgment, if any indignation and wrath, any tribulation and anguish in the final doom of the wicked, remember, all this is the fruit of time mis-spent. Ask a dying sinner fully awake to the misery of his condition,-what