speculations, or on by-concernments, and still the night should shut in upon us, with our work unfinished, we might with more appearance of reason complain. But this is never the case. Our work, though great,

is soon accomplished, if undertaken with earnestness and pursued with energy. And though a Christian would find something to do, however long he should live, yet the same Being who cuts short his life, cancels at the same time his obligations, so far as they are connected with this world. The truth is that men desire a longer life of God, not for the sake of the work, which he has given them to do, but for the accomplishment of that, which they have cut out for themselves, for the compassing of their own schemes of profit and pleasure. The secret of their complainings is, that they have not time enough for that for which it was never intended that they should have any time. After all, what is the grand business of human life; I say only not the business, because while there is one supreme end, there are subordinate objects, to some of which we may lawfully, if we please, and to some of which we must in duty apply ourselves; but the grand business, which a sinner has to accomplish, that, the doing of which makes him ripe for death, however young he may be in years; safe in dying and secure of immortal life and happiness? It is to ask one practical question, "What must I do to be saved?" And to act agreeably to the answer, which God gives to it, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; enter ye in at the strait gate." For this who can say that he has not time enough? Might he not ask this question, while he

is asking, "Who will show us any good?" And in some of the hours in which he is occupied in the vain pursuit of the good he asks for, might he not successfully strive to enter in at the strait gate? And though it would require a different effort from any he now makes, yet would it require on the whole a greater effort? But, alas! he has no heart to it.

I have been led into this train of observation by the circumstance, which drew forth from our Saviour the words of the text. A certain person asked him this question, "Are there few that be saved ?" Behold here a man enjoying the rare and precious opportunity of an interview with the Son of God, and see what use he makes of it; permitted to interrogate the divine Saviour, and hear what a question he asks, how impractical, how impertinent. What was it to him whether many or few would be saved? Whether there were few or many, would not affect the conditions of his salvation. Why this curiosity on the subject of other's salvation, without any apparent anxiety about his own? He wants to know how many would be in heaven; but not how he might get there. What a foolish man, that he did not avail himself of this opportunity to ask what he must do to be saved, and to draw forth from the great teacher something that he might make a practical use of!

The man that asked this question has long been dead, but the character lives, and it is not among the rarest exhibitions that we see. See what opportunities we have! What privileges are afforded us by the Sabbath, and by the services of the sanctuary ;

and above all by the having in our possession and ever at hand, this volume, containing the record of what the Saviour said, and the history of what he did, and the writings of his immediate and inspired disciples. Have not we too an opportunity of interrogating the Son of God? Does he not answer from this oracle? Yet peradventure we make no better use of our opportunity, than the man of whom we have been speaking, did of his. We carry to the Bible, if not the very same question he put to the Saviour, yet questions as unpractical and irrelevant, or if not in every sense irrelevant, yet premature and of minor importance; and so it is when you have the opportunity of conversing with clergymen and others, for whose theological knowledge, and science in the Scriptures, you have some respect. Your questions are such as these, "what is likely to be the future condition of such as die in infancy?" Cannot you trust them in the hands of God? Are you afraid that he will do them injustice? "What is the probability of the salvation of the heathen?" And why do you wish to estimate that? Is not this one thing clear, that their condition for the present life, and their prospects for the life to come would both be far better, provided they had the Gospel? And is it not manifestly your duty to do all that is in your power to send them the Gospel? What then do you want more? Why expend all your charity in wondering, and wishing, and hoping, and pitying? Let it rather flow forth in its appropriate channel, in action. Do something. Promote foreign missions. That is the way to care for the heathens. Another

is curious to know if we shall recognize each other in heaven. That is taking it for granted that we shall get there. Let us make sure of heaven, before we agitate the question of recognition. And then let us be satisfied with this, if our heavenly Father sees that it will be conducive to the happiness of the children whom he has adopted from earth, that they should recognize each other, and recollect the relations and renew the intimacies of life; it will be so, and if not, it will be otherwise. Another is anxious to know if there will be different degrees of punishment in a future world. Why does he not rather consider what the lowest degree will be, how intolerable; and that whatever may be the varieties of intensity, the duration in every case will be equal, because everlasting. Or his question is perhaps whether the instrument of future punishment will be material fre. Why is he not satisfied with this, that if it will not be literal fire, it will at least be something of which that is the fittest similitude? Others carry to their Bible such a question as this, "When may the millenium be expected to occur? and is it to be presumed that, in that blessed period, all the individuals of the human family will be righteous, or only the generality of mankind ?”

I say not that such inquiries are never under any circumstances innocent, and proper to some extent to be pursued. But I ask what he has to do with them, who has a soul unsaved, and exposed to all the terrors and torments of an imminent perdition, and who has never yet asked what he must do to escape this great impending evil?

There are those who investigate the Scriptures primarily for some historical purpose, or to resolve some prophetical question. Others consult these oracles but as critics; and still others, only as cavillers, anxious to see how much they can discover to find fault with. They wonder what this passage means, or how it is possible to reconcile this part of the Bible with that, or what could have induced our Saviour to express himself as he is reported to have done on certain occasions which they will specify; and the conclusion to which they come, perhaps, after all, is that this is a very strange and unintelligible volume; they can make nothing out of it, Ah! and is it so that they can make nothing out of it? Can they not make out of it what their duty is? Do they not but too plainly perceive that it is something, which they have no disposition to do, and is not this the secret of their fault-finding? What if that passage be obscure, does it render unintelligible this, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish?" What if, with all our efforts, we are unable to dis cern the coherence and consistency between this inspired declaration and that other? Does it follow that they are incoherent in fact, and that the Bible is an imposition on mankind? Were there, therefore, no miracles ever wrought, or was the present extraordinary condition of the Jewish people not foretold some 4000 years ago? Is the Gospel false and nothing worth, and is there no benevolence in the plan of salvation, because there are some things in Paul's Epistles, which are hard to be understood? Or, does it follow that there was no meekness and