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"and be weary, and the young men shall

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utterly fall: But they that wait upon "the Lord shall renew their strength :

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they shall mount up with wings as

eagles, they shall run and not be weary,' " and they shall walk and not faint."

A second reflection from the same lofty contemplation, proves to us the unstable condition of those who oppose the laws of God and of goodness. Their triumph, however great it may sometimes apparently be, is only for a time; there is a power which they must yet encounter, before which they can never stand; and which even now, in the midst of their greatest prosperity, calls to them, in the secret of their hearts, and says, "thou hast trusted "in thy wickedness; thou hast said, none "seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy know

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ledge, it hath perverted thee, and thou "hast said in thine heart, I am, and none "else besides me therefore shall evil

"come upon thee, thou shalt not know "from whence it riseth; and mischief "shall fall upon thee, thou shalt not "be able to put it off; and desolation "shall come upon thee suddenly!" These are the prophetic denunciations which ever hang over the wicked man, and which, speaking in the voice of conscience, inflict a sting upon him that all the smiles of fortune, and all the flatteries of the world, would in vain seek to assuage.

Such, my brethren, seem to be the leading reflections which we may derive from this great contemplation, and surely they are powerful ones to incline us to adopt that good part which shall not be taken from us, and to avoid every evil way. In the Gospel, the final consummation of the Divine plan is disclosed to us. There we see the power of God calling the dead into life, and all the inhabitants of the

tombs rising from their slumbers at his command, and receiving their ultimate doom. To that day, so encouraging to the hopes, and so alarming to the weakness of our nature, that day on which, indeed," God shall speak once, and twice "shall we hear this, that power belongeth "unto God;"-let us look forward with holy resolution," pressing on to the mark "of our high calling, and putting our "trust in one who is mighty to save," that when we "awake from the dust of "the earth," it may not be to "shame " and everlasting contempt," but that we

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may shine as the brightness of the fir"mament, and as the stars, for ever and "ever."

DISCOURSE XXVI.

ON NATIONAL PRESUMPTION AND DESPON

DENCY.

MARK, xiii. 7.

"And when ye shall hear of wars and ru"mours of wars, be ye not troubled; 'for such things must needs be; but "the end shall not be yet."

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THESE words, my brethren, form a part of our Lord's wonderful prediction concerning the fall of Jerusalem,—a predic

* Preached on 11th March 1818, the day of a General Fast.

tion fulfilled in so many minute particulars, that we cannot but regard it as a very striking proof of his Divine authority. It is in this view, indeed, that it is now chiefly valuable. Yet our Lord constantly mingles general instruction with his allusions to the most particular incidents, and perhaps on this day, when we are called to contemplate, not the history of former ages, but the events of our own times, inferior to none in magnitude and in awful consequences, it may be wise in us to sit down with Him and his disciples, on the Mount of sacred Meditation, and, while we gaze with anxious eyes upon the Temple of our Country, to listen to his words of admonition, and to inquire into "the signs of the "times."

If I am not much mistaken, there is in the opening of this prophecy a view of human nature, and of events not inap

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