some, whose prospects were brighter, yesterday, than any that can rise to your view? and where, to-morrow, will the admirers of other look for them but in the grave? Be entreated then, I beseech you, to pause, and answer the apostle's question, "What is your life?" But you are laying up property: by industry and frugality you hope in a few years to become rich. But where are these few years, on which you count with so much assurance? Remember, death is no respecter of wealth, in possession or in prospect. He can unclench the firmest grasp. Nothing, it would seem, delights him more than tearing away the worldling from his home, and blasting the fairest prospects which spread themselves out in his golden slumbers. But I turn to another class of my hearers. And what, my young friends, is your life? It appears to most of you, I doubt not, like a great estate, or something far better than that, in almost certain reversion. Your fancy collects the brightest colors, and your imagination paints the landscape in the most charming hues. It spreads over it the life, and beauty, and fragrance of spring. It is a delightful elevation, at which you aim, which rejoices in the bright visitation of your morning without clouds, and to your ardent gaze every thing brightens still as you advance. Former disappointments avail nothing. The ambush of disease you do not suspect; and even death stalks about unheeded, though in plain view, and threatening at almost every turn to cross your path. You live in the elysian future. Whoever may fall short of the goal, you expect soon to be there, and to be greeted by a long train of obsequious delights. Cruel officiousness! you may be ready to say, which would darken such a prospect. But I must, though it were at the hazard of your displeasure, deal truly and faithfully with you, For what is your life? How much is it worth to the halest and most sanguine youth of this assembly? What is the tenure by which you hold the precious boon? Who has so lately come down from heaven to contradict the Bible, no less than the experience of every day, and to declare that the young shall not die? If you have any such lease of life, produce it, and let me look at the signature. Ah, my young friends, it is at best but a forgery, or a blank. What though you never seriously think of dying; can this stupid presumption save you, when the relentless messenger shall windows? You are young, come up into your many millions have died younger! Consult the first bill of mortality that comes in your way, and ask yourself, What is my life? A mere scratch may but how destroy it-an insect may undermine the frail tabernacle-a very moth may sever some thread on which all depends. It is only to shut out a little air, or to let in a floating atom to rankle for a few moments in your vitals, and all will be over. Your bloom, health, and hopes per ish together. What then, my young friends, is your life? O, be persuaded, whenever you enter the place of graves, to make out the estimate there. Consult the records of the marble planted fields; they will not deceive you. Go from stone to stone, and as you read, say, What is my life? In every view, thus far taken, of the text, we are brought to the same solemn conclusion, that all flesh is grass; that man at his best estate is altogether vanity. But, II. There is another view of the subject, which makes life of unspeakable value. I mean when we consider it as preparatory to an endless existence beyond the grave. In this light, a vapor as it is, our present life is every thing. If all the mountains in the world were gold and silver, they would not be weighed against it. Their value would be nothing in the comparison. Think, O think, if you can, what are the interests which are suspended by the most brittle thread! God has sent us to stay a few days here, and for what? To prepare for death. For death, not on account of its intrinsic importance, but as the gate of eternity. Here then we are put on trial, and here the momentous question is to be decided, whether we shall go to heaven or hell-whether we shall dwell with angels or devils-whether we shall rise and shine, and shout in glory, or sink and wail in the blackness of darkness for ever. Yes, my hearers, the grand question is to be settled here, and settled soon, and settled finally.. In this point of view, the length of one person's life, compared with that of another, makes not the least difference. Be it longer or shorter, it is all. It may be ten, or fifteen, or twents years-it may be a little more, or it may be less. But there will be no other state of trial. The young man or young woman who lives in sin but twenty years, and then dies impenitent, plunges as surely into the lake of fire and brimstone, as the hoary-headed sinner of four score. There is, therefore, no equal portion of our existence, no conceivable duration in eternity, which can for one moment be compared with the present life in point of importance. There, a thousand ages of joy or wo will decide nothing as to the future. Here, one day may decide every thing. A million of years, then, after death, may be of less moment to the man who is now on his death-bed, than the few moments which he still has to live. Upon that short period, a whole eternity may be suspended. Does this point need illustration? Suppose, then, that a kingdom were offered to a man, and that he must comply with the conditions in an hour, or lose it forever; how much more would depend upon that hour than upon all the rest of his life! Suppose that one of you had been condemned to suffer perpetual im prisonment, in chains and in a dungeon, and an hour was granted you to sue for pardon, and upon the most humble confession to obtain your liberty-how much more valuable would that hour be than fifty subsequent years of night, and solitude, and chains! But how inadequate, how poor is every possible illustration, to set forth the amazing value of a life which in every other point of view is nothing! "Great God! on what a brittle thread The subject suggests many solemn inferences and remarks; among which are these: 1. If human life is so short and so uncertain,—if it is but a momentary vapor,-let all who hear me, make out their estimates, and lay their plans, and conduct all their concerns accordingly. You know you must die; O that you would lay it to heart. You know that the present breath is all that you are sure of. As for the past, what is it? I appeal to you, whether it appears most like a reality or a dream. As for the present, you see, continually, the dying and the dead. But O, tell me, are you not living as if life never closed? You are, unless you are actually striving to enter in at the strait gateunless you are working out your salvation with fear and trembling. How little do many of you think, in the hurry of business, in the pursuits of literature, of gain, and of pleasure, in the strength of manhood, in the heedlessness of youth-how little do you think of the hour of death, of the darkness, and the worm,-the dust and oblivion to which you are hastening! O, my dying fellow sinners, pause, I beseech you, pause and think, What is your life? Strive to live every day and hour under the impression that it is even a vapor. Let all your worldly schemes be based upon this great truth-that you know not what shall be on the morrow. 2. Is life, when contemplated in connection with eternity, of such amazing importance?—is it a state of trial? and is all beyond, a recompense of rewards ?—are the eternal interests of your souls de. pending on the few sands that remain ?—is heaven to be won or lost, on this foot or two of earth, and in this inch or two of time?—is a crown of glory to be soon gained or lost forever, by each individual before me?—and are you rational beings? Do you know all this? Has God told you that "Now is the accepted time?" Does he expostulate with you, "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart?" Does he admonish you, “Boast not thyself of to-morrow?" -and yet can you waste in unprofitable care or speculation that precious time which to each sinner in a state of probation is worth more than millions of worlds? Be astonished, O heavens, at this! Thousands there are, who will not be persuaded to seek the salvation of their souls, to secure the pearl of great price, though God from above warns them-though hell from beneath is moved for them— though justice frowns from her awful seat, and mercy pours out her heart over them like water! Is not this the case with some of you? Are you not wasting life, and wearying divine forbearance, and slighting heaven, and braving the terrors of damnation? And what will you do when the scene closes? Will you not then curse your present infatuation? Will you not cry out, A world for an hour! A world for an hour? But where will be your world to offer? And if you had a million, what would the offer avail ? Is there, fellow sinner, one thing between you and the grave, which you can cling to, with any confidence that your hold may not in a moment be broken? And then, O eternity! eternity! Have you thought of eternity? And in this view have you ever attempted to estimate a day, an hour of probation? Have you made your peace with God? Have you been convinced of your perishing condition as a sinner? Have you fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before you in the gospel? Is your soul washed in a Savior's blood? Is it meet for the society of angels ?-of the just made perfect? What if death should enter your room this night, and you wake up to-morrow in another world? For what world, I ask, would you be fitted? O, think, What is your life? When you lay your plans, and hopes rise before you in endless prospect, think, What is your life? When God calls, and the tempter says, to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant-think, What is your life? Ah! it is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. Then, though you call the world your own—or though you understand all knowledge-without the favor of Immanuel, you are undone for ever! SERMON CLVIII. BY REV. WILLIAM NEVINS, BALTIMORE. SOLEMN VIEWS OF PROBATION. James iv. 14—"What is your life?" This weighty question which the apostle asks with a particular allusion, I propose to ask and answer with a more general reference. The subject, always appropriate, is peculiarly so at this season. It is not necessary, I presume, to expatiate on the manifold importance of a correct estimate and a careful consideration of human life. The soul is influenced to its determinations and actions by motives presented to it. Man operates on man by these; and they are among the most important means of the moral government of God. Now, the consideration of human life in its various accidents, relations and bearings, supplies some of the most powerful and prevailing of motives. How frequently is this class of motives introduced and urged in the Bible. And that knowing the time, that it is now high time to awake out of sleep. Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end. Go to, now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." What is your life? Oh On this subject I purpose to submit a series of observations, which, I hope, will prove neither uninteresting nor uninstructive. If we implore the blessing of God to accompany them, I am sure they will not I adopt this question, not for any object of curiosity, nor with a view to attempt a philosophical definition of life. Philosophy has in vain endeavored to trace out and detect the vital principle. It has eluded every research. It defies analysis. We know that it is, for we see |