or for toil. He could multiply cattle by thousands, and "fill his barns with plenty, and make his presses burst out with new wine," Prov. iii, 10. He might "find (beneath the earth) all precious substance, and fill his house with (mineral) spoil," Prov. i. 13. He, his wife and children, might be clothed in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day, Luke xvi. 19. He was a prince, a patriarch, and a priest, and, no doubt, by the consent of man, and the blessing of God, his "dwelling was the fatness of the earth, and the dew of heaven from above," Gen. xxvii. 39.

5. He dwelt in the midst of his brethren, receiving and reciprocating proofs of relative attachment and social harmony. He loved and was the object of love in return, nor did death intrude his grim visage in the family circle, inspiring fear and threatening disruption. Centuries elapsed and no sick and dying bed summoned the weeping and foreboding members from their mirth or their occupation-no knell of departed brotherhood fell hoarsely on the ear-no sights and sounds of mortality awoke the bereaved to a consciousness of loss and desolation. It was not then, as now, when weeks, nay days, of absence or uninterrupted intelligence are sure to supply their narratives of sudden removal or sad reverse, when one is afraid to enquire for the living acquaintance of last year or last month, and when every family history is a daily gazette of losses, sufferings, and death. If comparative exemption from such vicissitudes was happiness, then waters of a full cup were wrung out to Methuselah and his cotemporaries, Ps. lxxiii. 10.

Yet hear the word of inspiration-"Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground, yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward," Job v. 6, 7. With all these advantages Methuselah could not be happy merely as an inheritor of earth and its resources. There was a blight upon the things which should have been to his enjoyment-there was a canker-worm in his own heart which fed upon his sweetest joys and brightest expectations. His fathers's love could not yield him satisfaction, unless he also shared his father's grace. All the wisdom which he could extract

from things, persons, or circumstances, independently of God, was but "earthly, sensual, devilish," Jas. iii. 15. Bodily health and strength, if not employed for Him who gave and preserved them, were rather a sn re, and an element of heart-hardening against God than a blessing, as we see in many instances now, and as such they were not productive of thankfulness and peace. He might roam the world at large, and claim for his dwelling its sunniest spots, but whatever ground his footstep trod, he would still sigh for the "wings of a dove, that he might flee away and be at rest,' Ps. lv. 6; and though sweet were the endearments of kindred, and the old familiar faces of his childhood's home, his heart would tell him that the holiest tie of all had been broken, and that he wandered as a banished one from that consecrated spot where his father's home had been.

III.-But one blessing, at least, fell to the lot of Methuselah, for which he has been envied by millions -length of days to an unparalleled extent was his. He saw the sun rise and set tens of thousands of times oftener than the longest liver among us can expect to do. Had he been born at the Norman Conquest with the same long life before him, he would scarcely be an old man when the great grand-children of the present generation were dying of natural decay. This is surely something for us, the creatures of a day, to covet, and doubtless a lengthened period of existence appears desirable in many points of view.

1. It is declared in the Scriptures to be an expression generally of God's favour. It certainly is to us a token of His long-suffering and forbearing compassion

of His unwillingness that we should perish in our sins; but that we should at length hear the voice of the Redeemer and live, see Exodus xx. 12, Luke xiii. 8, 2 Peter iii. 15.

2. It prolongs the season of enquiry and experience, multiplying our opportunities for seeing the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living," Psalm xxvii. 13.

3. The hoary head is declared to be "a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness," Prov. xvi. 31. God has put honour upon old age by commanding the youth, "Thou shalt rise up before the

hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God," Lev. xix. 32.

4. To the aged especially is awarded the privilege of usefulness. They are permitted to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with freeness-a value is attached to their wisdom and experience-and as they stand, as it were, between the confines of the two worlds, the testimony of God regarding both, issues from their lips with a force and significance that send it home to many hearts. How touching, for example, and how convincing is the language of David, I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread," Ps. xxxvii. 25. How encouraging are the dying anticipations of "Paul the aged:" "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them also that love His appearing,” 2 Tim. iv. 6-8.

An unsanctified old age, however, is something from which even the natural eye turns away with disgust, and from which the heart of even the young reprobate recoils. What a burthen must it be to those whom it afflicts-selfishness, obduracy, defiance of God, are its tokens; disgrace, contempt, mischief, are its fruits. Can any delineation of human infirmity be more humiliating than that of a hoary-headed sinner lingering with tottering step in the haunts of ungodliness, his trembling hands yet grasping the wages of iniquity, and his wasted and cadaverous visage trying to assume the smile of youthful hilarity and glee in the society of his juniors in years and crime, whom, with hoarse and husky voice, he is cheering on in some act of brutal revelry or loathsome excess; or of some decrepid worshipper of mammon clinging to his longcherished place in the counting-house or the exchange, clutching with palsied fingers the glittering dust which he has worshipped from his youth, and which now constitutes the sole idea of his flickering intellect; or, lastly, of some aged infidel who began life by wishing that there was no God, and is ending it by striving to

make others believe the lie which he dare not trust himself with examining in secret, but which he hopes to substantiate by the concurrence of those whom he strives to convince. Like a child in the dark, he seeks to relieve his own growing terror by calling loudly on others to adopt his impious views, and this is the secret spring of that garrulous officiousness with which time and mercy hardened free-thinkers urge their blasphemies upon others. Woe unto those whom a long-suffering God at length abandons to the blasphemous deceits of their own corrupt hearts!

Let me here address myself especially to the old. Observe.-

1. You are either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse to your fellow-creatures, among whom God permits you to linger. "Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom," Job xxxii. 7, and you are, by your example, recommending either Christ or the world as an object of devotion to those who look to you for counsel, and who expect that you have found out the most excellent way.

2. If you are still a worldling, your hatred to God must be very intense to induce you to prefer an idol of whose falsehood and impotence for good you are by this time thoroughly aware and, indeed, often admit, to your Creator, Redeemer, and Provider, and to resist the influence of His long-suffering mercy, and forbearing love, so signally exemplified in your continued enjoyment of life and opportunity for repentance.

3. The most careless and ungodly cf your younger cotemporaries expect from your gray hairs, deadness to the world, soberness, and piety. They know that the world has well nigh done with you, and they arrive at the obvious conclusion that you should be done with the world. To see your fantastic struggles to identify yourselves with them--shocks and disgusts them. The most frivolous among them, while they encourage, condemn, and despise you.

4. You are without excuse either from inexperience, passion-the enticement of earthly hopes--the prospect of a long life-the want of repeated warnings and invitations, or the compulsory engrossment of business. You have tested all the lies of Satan and found that they are lies-you have outlived the delusive feelings and

expectations of youth-your term of earthly existence is drawing rapidly to a close, and it is highly probably that you have listened to the offer of pardon and acceptance through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ times without number. You have had your days of sickness, sorrow and apprehension-you have been disappointed in your long-cherished hopesearthly friendship has failed you in the hour of your necessity; and, perhaps, your children have rebelled against you. You are, it may be, poor, though you once were rich, or you are rich and " your gold and silver is cankered; the rust of them is already a witness against you," that " 'you have sold yourself for nought," Jas. v. 3., Is. lii. 3,-you look back without satisfaction, and you look forward with dread. O, why are you determined to resist God? What more could He have done for you than He has done by His grace and providence? Remember, I beseech you remember, that "their remaineth no more sacrifice for sin " than the all-sufficient sacrifice on Calvry, "but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries," Heb. x 26, 27, and you are one of the most inveterate if you have grown old without a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness.

5. Your increasing bodily infirmities toll in your ears the knell of departing time. The almost daily removal of cotemporaries indicates that your summons is not far off. "Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?" Zech. i. 5. Even good men die, they return to their dust, but "the righteous are taken from the evil to come; they shall enter into peace; they shall rest in their beds, each one walk ing in his uprightness," Is. lvii. 1, 2. But " as for them, they shali behold their Redeemer's face in rightousness, they shall be satisfied when they awake with His likeness," Ps. xvii. 15. What are your prospects within the shadow, as you may be said now to be, of the house appointed for all living? Can you say "I know that my Redeemer liveth?" Is Jesus your Redeemer, your "resurrection and your life?" John xi. 25, and when you depart, are you sure that you will sleep in Him?" 1 Thes. iv 14, and that you shall "awake to everlasting life," at His appearing and

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