yr expe'rienco' ihau i his word, that '• man that is born of a woamn is - few days." When you shall die is his secret, bt so emphatically is 'the truth uttered, so deeply ir pressed upon the things with which you are mo familiar, that you can scarcely turn your eyaup' an ohj-H't in' nature tisat does not remind you oft! brevity of human life. The flower that bloonis ". i\\i'. w'lVsiJe, and tlu^ grass upon which you tre.-- the falling leaf, and I lie.shadow in the sunshine, ;"- emblemn^of man's fiaij^fy. " He cometh forth as Slower, a^ld is cut down "— '' His days are as gra: — ^' In the' morning it llourisheth and groweth u}\^ the evtming it is cut ilown an(f v/ithereth." — " V< alt do f;tde^is a hviT/' and man in the glory • f f Wisdom and his strt-ngrli " Beeth ali;o as a shado\ and rontmuelh nol." The eliangiug seasons renu' iiH that a soleinn change awaits us not far hen- The (dosing year, shses with the speed of the hghtiiin;^. Job says, '* my da,ys are swifter than a weavi'i's shuttle" ever mov- ing, 3'et so rapidly that you cannot kco}> your eye iipon it. Again lie f-ays, " my days are swifter than a post ; tiicy fire parsed away as ih^^ swift ships — as the eagle thj^t hasteth to its prey " — the^ koTig's messenger that broxiks no delayt — the ship driven by mighty winds — the hungry eagle darting upon its victim. The testim\>ny of the Psalmist i& (hat " we sp Mid our years jvs a ta^e that is told." And net only so, but what is more tincerUt!n Mian hfe ? Wiio has the assurance of one lionr hence? V*ui may be young, and lookit^g forward to years iji the. future, but upon what are your calculation,; i)a.sed ? Has He who holds your l^o in flis hand, told you that you sliall reacli old age, or that you shall not die this year, that this night your boul shall not be required of you ? No. Docs the his- ttion ? Go into any" cemofcry, i*ead upon liie tombs th-e ages of those wlio sleep beneath them, and how does the iiumber diminish as you go from childhood to yonth, t(» tiitwihood, to middle hfe, and thence to old age ; }iud as it is with tiie living, so is ir \yth tlie dead. I'ut here and there one who reached l4^lhree f;cor« \ ears and ten. The mf)st vigorou.s con.Jtitut.ioh, the M.iost careful pieservalion oi health furnish uocer tain safeguard- against the inroads of disease and death. If not exposed to one form, you are to an- otlier. If sickness does not pale yonr cl/eek^ and waste your strength, you are still surrounded by the ministers, of the destroyer. There are clouds for the fairest raorning, and around the brightest prospects of a mutual lifa is hmig the drapery of tlie tomb. " But what if life were secured to yOti, and yon could know *hat you showld reach the limit ap- pointed to man, three score years and ten, it is still a short time that you have to live. "What are they, or four score years, or a century ? You will soon be there, and what then? Like him whose words strggest these thoughts, you will find yourself dying by inches, sense after ^^nse departing, and death n©. less dreadful when he does- his work by piece meal,- Of thi?, liowever^^there is no nssurance, and tlie probabilities preponderate the other way. Our hearts teach us a different lesson — our tears witness against oar })ope— the air is pliglited with the siglis of the living for the early dead, and every heart confesses to the experience of the royal preacher that life is the perfection of vanities. How long have I to live? 2. A VERY LON© TIME. It is a wonderful thought that man shall Hve forever — that he must live and Uve a^id oullive all i-n nature that shall perish. This Wb is but tlie first step in yaw exis- tence, but the infancy of your being. True, the body shall die — *' The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and tlie spirit to Goibwho gavG it." Our lirst parents, and, Cain, the Hrst murderer, and Abel tlie first victim, are living yet, and Enoch and Noah, and the wicked 'people of liis day, and Abraham, and David, and Paul, and Pilate, the dead of every age, the evil and the good, are living now just over the line that crosses every human path, and shall live forever more. The idea of an eternnl existence involves more of interest to man than all other thought? combined. It associates with it that ot perpetual enjoyment or sulTering. When I am told that I am destined ever to live in the possession of my faculties and sensi- bilities, and that as a spiritual being, they are to be refined to a degree of which, in my present ctate, I can form no conception, it becomes a matter of mo- mentous importance to nie, and should awaken jn- teii^e solicitude. God and his attributes are at once the objects of cautious contemplation. As an im- mortal being, bearijig to him the relation of a crea- ture, it greatly^ concerns me to know what He is, and what is ryy destiny. Heaven and Hell rouse my hopes or my fears, as they could not, but £or the persoi al interest v/hich my deathless nature gives me in them; To one or the other I hasten, there to begin an unknown life. Eternity ! What is it. Haw bhall we define it. With what shall we com- pare it. Who ean grasp the thougiit conveyed in tiiat singhi word. Earthly dialects are all too mea- gre to describe it, and our minds too contracted to receive it. Gould I cohimand the tongue of every nation nml oi every tribe, and use tbe boldest fig- ures, and group around me images the most extrav- agant, it Avould be less tlian the feeble struggling oi an ant beneath tlie tread of a mammoth. Eterni- ty I It is the life time of God, the destiny of every human being. ~ It is an affecting thought, my fellow pilgrim to eterniry, that in a little while you will be dead. The wnid will be sighing through the gra^^s upon your grave its mournful dirge , your voice will be heard no more; your form forgotten,, and your name unbreathed, for tliose that love you will i3e dead too. But whelii careless feet shall tread up- on your dust, and the mould cover the"inscription chiselled upon your tomb, you shall still live — where, oh, where, und how 1^ AH thiirgs connected with this life have an end. Your, joys and your sorrows, they shall end. Your cares and your pursuits, your prosperity and your afflictions, there is a point. Avhere they all terminate. The heart, britnfull of sorrow, shall cease to ache; the eyes that weep, wjll shed their last tear, and the weaiy will rest. Ambition, and avarice, and pleasure shall end, and all beneath the sky. Death will seize his last vic- tim, and have no more work to do, and Time itself shall be no more; But Eiernity knows no waste, no end. Its future duration shall be your own. Here- man lives for a brief season, and U seen n-j more, there his existence is stable as the Ihione (jf its sovereign. Here he wears the bonds of death, there the robe ol immortality. . From tliis view a most interesting question, aik] oTie wlileh my lea.lfr liaa probahly nnticipr«fpd, nriL^e3. If this existence is to be mine, what is Ui 1)6 my state. . The gospel reveals two coiiditionR, one of bli^s, the otfier of wrei-cliedness, one of glo- !•}% the other of despair. To one or the other you are an heir. Heaven or liell is yours. If to Cal^ vary you have gone, and laid the burden of a guil- tt nature at the feet of Him w;]io bore 'he sins of many — if those lips in the tenderness of divine lovo liave said " go in peace," then yours is tiie inheri- tance of the saints in light. Be faithful unto death and He wuU give you a crown oT life — a crown that shall sparkle with gems richer than the diamonds of Kings — niDre precious than th'e most costly jewelry of earth. But if Christ be not your hope — if you have not been washed in his blood which cleau^eth us from nil sin — if you have not made your peace with Gotl through faith in His Son, an Eternity of unulteru- • ble agony is yours. The ])angs of the second deatli await you, and "you cannot escape them biii. by ma- king the cross of Jesus the refuge of your soul. I come to invite you to go WMth me there, and be a child of God. ' Which of these states shall bo ymirg and nYine, dear reader, will be'settled soon. There is a last year that we; shall live. Tliere is coming, if it has not come already, a last- Sabbath. You will soon liear the last sermon. The preacher will soon utter his last admonition, and tiie grave will close over us. Days will dawn and darken, and ije succeeded by other days, and yon r3 will pa????, ami we sliall sleep in onr lonely chambers, but this immortal O^j^ where shall it dwell. What shall he its state. God help us here to live for Ciirist, that hereafter \\'e may hvc loith Christ forever. Hollinger Corp. pH8.5