aid against his power. It is not merely a part, but the best part of our Christian vigilance, to foresee spiritual difficulties; and, whilst we enter into suitable resolutions, and form suitable plans for overcoming them, to add likewise our earnest prayers for that help from above, without which our best efforts will be of little avail.

And now, my brethren, I trust it is plain to you all, that, into these few words—" Be sober, be vigilant"'—the Apostle has compressed one of the most salutary and needful admonitions, that can be offered to man. It remains only to remind you, how short and uncertain is the period, within which these essential principles must be admitted to guide and animate your practice.

Let those, then, who are conscious, that they have, hitherto, been too gay, too dissipated, too busily occupied with the gilded baubles of life, to bestow a thought on the one thing needful, learn, if it be possible, to reflect, and to form a truer estimate of the value of things ; before age or infirmity shall force that change upon them, which their own will so obstinately rejects, and render them incapable of the pleasures of this world,

without having prepared them for those of another.

And ; as to those, who are so assured of their own faith and firmness, as to confide that they will be able to proceed smoothly, without let or hindrance, in the way of salvation; let them learn to mistrust this assurance; and to be ever upon their guard, not only against the grosser and more obvious snares of the Tempter, but especially,. against spiritual pride, and an unwarranted presumption upon their own state and calling.

Without soberness of mind, a religious course of life can never be instituted; without vigilance, it cannot long be maintained. The union of both these qualities, by the Divine blessing, will ensure that right judgment in all things, on which alone right conduct can be founded; and will enable us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may serve God in pureness of living.

SERMON XVII.

THE FOLLY OF PROCRASTINATION.

Ecclus. V. 7.

Make no tarrying to turn to the Lord; and put not off from day to day.

Of all the counsels that can be offered by man to man, this is probably the most frequently repeated, and the most obstinately disregarded. Every man's reason admits the danger of procrastination, and yet scarcely any one is able entirely to shake off* this bewitching habit.

Obvious, therefore, as the folly of such a practice may appear, we may still find it amply worth while to retrace the considerations which compelled us to condemn it. Now these are no other, than the universal uncertainty of all human circumstances, and even of life itself. "Thou knowest not," says Solomon, "whtf. a day may bring forth."" No man can promise himself, that a favourable opportunity of acquiring any good, or of repelling any evil, if once neglected, can ever be renewed. The time, it is most manifest, cannot be recalled; and, at the best, whatever advantage may be in view, must, by delay, be obtained so much the later: too late, perhaps, for any good purpose; and, possibly, not at all.

The world, however, as human affairs are actually conducted, abounds with procrastinators; —men, who put off every thing till to-morrow; —who are always proposing to do what is right, but never doing it;—who continually, in idea, assign a boundary to their sins, their follies, their idleness, and their self-indulgence; but unhappily find by experience, that this is a shifting boundary; still flying before them, and never actually attained. The dupes of this postponing and lingering spirit never fail to flatter themselves that they can break their chains, and reform, whenever they may resolve to make a serious effort. They are not aware that while the torrent, which bears them down, will ever be encreasing in force and rapidity,

* Prov. xxvii. 1.

their own power to resist it will be as uniformly diminished. . ..

The man, who drives off every thing—that is, every right thing—from day to day, lives in the continual probability, that not one of those objects, which are, and which he himself allows to be, of the utmost necessity to his happiness, may ever be attained. If a man should put off the study of accomplishments, till he was too old to acquire them; or the payment of customary civilities, till they had ceased to be seasonable; or the undertaking of some journey, till its object was gone by ; or the sale of his merchandize, till there was no longer any demand for it; which of us would fail to condemn such conduct, as absurd or frivolous; as supine or improvident? And yet, a multitude of such follies might be comparatively venial, or even harmless. Unfortunately, where such is the habit of the mind, it is sure to go further: and nothing is so often, indeed, so generally and so preposterously delayed, as that, which it is most needful to take instantly in hand.

The procrastinator, therefore, is one of those> whom the stroke of death, however late it may