of reckoning, we find this command given to the destroying angel,-"Thrust in thy sickle and reap; for the harvest of the Earth is ripe." But-what is still more to my purpose-in the passage from which the text is taken, the metaphor is most clearly and fully developed. We have there the Saviour himself, expounding a parable to his disciples: and, in the course of that exposition, declaring that "the Harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels."

Christian Brethren, for this event so prefigured, so insisted on, are we preparing? Are we living with a view to Eternity? What is the standard by which we regulate our actions? Do we ever anticipate how they will ultimately appear to us? In entering upon any important enterprise, or determining upon any peculiar line of conduct, do we ever submit it, previously, to this test, and ask of our own heart-" how will this affect my ETERNAL WELFARE? Shall I dare to own my present motives, or avow my projected undertaking in the day of Judgment?"

Not will it tend to my secular interest? not--will it promote my present advantage?

not will it advance me in the eye of man? But what will be its operation, its effect, when I stand as a trembling criminal before the tribunal of Christ?

These, then, are the feelings, thoughts, associations, with which we would have you view the present season. From objects seen and temporal, carry up your thoughts to those which are unseen and eternal. From what is, at best, perishing and unsubstantial, elevate your views to that state which will endure for

ever.

Gaze upon the fields, "white already to harvest," and ask thyself, aged Christian, am I prepared for my final change? Do I so live as to encourage the hope that "I shall come to my grave in full age," ripe and matured for Heaven, "as a shock of corn cometh in, in his season. See the chaff winnowed from the wheat, and scattered to the winds, thou thoughtless and impenitent trifler, and in it behold an emblem of thy fate. Thus shall the wicked be summarily severed from the just, and driven to never-ending punishment, by the blast of God's displeasure. Cheer thee amid thy sorrows, bereaved and drooping mourner,

and, as thou gazest on the face of Nature, bethink thee for thy comfort, that "they who sow in tears, shall reap in joy." Dwell upon

the promises, afflicted and faint hearted Christian, recal thy Redeemer's sufferings, and stay thee upon thy God. He may try thee; he may prove thee; he may sift thee as wheat; but his tenderness is equal to his majesty: and, if his attributes be fearful, fathomless is his love. His tender mercy, if thou trust in him, shall bear thee up, though the winds of adversity may gather, and the billows of affliction rage around thee. "He knoweth whereof we are made;" and 'mid his severest chastisements" remembereth that we are but dust." By affliction he may sift thee, to use the words of the prophet Amos, like as corn is sifted in a sieve still not one, no, not one good man shall perish; for "not a grain shall be lost."*

Fellow Christians! we press upon you the solemnity of the day of judgment, the certainty of its approach, the scrutiny which will then be made, and why? Because the consequences of that day are irretrievable. "We may sigh over the desolations of an earth

*Amos, Chap. ix. 9.

quake; we may think of mouldering cities,of Babylon the great, and Rome the powerful, and mourn over the strange havoc that laid them low but what are ruined cities to a ruined soul? The flaming temple at Jerusalem is said to have forced tears from the eyes of its Heathen conqueror: but what was the fall even of that splendid structure compared with the everlasting destruction of an undone sinner? The Lord would not so much as stretch forth his arm to save the one. He sent his only begotten son to the cross to redeem the other."*

These, then, are the reasons, pressing and unanswerable, for which we urge you to think of, and prepare for, that final consummation of all things; that harvest of which the reapers are the angels; that harvest in which the wheat will be separated from the tares; that harvest at which the good shall be gathered into God's granary, while the chaff shall be burnt with unquenchable fire.

Bradley.

SERMON XII.

INTRODUCTORY.

WHEN we are told, on the one hand, that "there is much Popery in the Church of England;" when J. K. L. declares, on the other, that, in the Protestant Church there are "the mere shadows of sacraments," and that those are slurred over in a manner which proves that they who administer them "are aware of their emptiness and insufficiency;" when, as it has been well remarked, by a keen and competent observer," a clergyman is watched by many eyes, is assayed by a high standard, is contrasted with others of his own profession, confided in, resorted to, or neglected, in a very marked and distinguishable manner; when his industry, his morals, his acquirements, his command of temper, his purity, his address in the sick room, what he projects, and what