Preached in the Scotch Presbyterian Church in Cedar-street, New-York, by the Rev. MR. J. MCELROY, pastor of that Church. [Continued from p. 301.] PRACTICAL SERMONS. No. XI. "We spend our years as a tale that is told."PSALM XC. 9. In attending to relations of this character, we attach but little importance to the several particulars they include. Occupied exclusively with the general thread of the narrative, we give but little heed to those sentences in The THIRD great principle which dividually of which it is composed. the Psalmist inculcates in the text is, One after another of these are sufferthat time steals unperceived away.ed to pass away unobserved, until He directs our attention to the insi- the whole tale is told, and then perhaps we are surprised at its unexpected termination. dious character of its noiseless march; to the little sense which mankind have of its unutterable importance; and the little notice that is taken of the rapid flight of its successive periods. A tale is generally considered the most worthless species of history, if indeed it at all deserves the name.The only purposes which it is supposed to subserve are those of mere curiosity or amusement. Aware of its fictitious character, we relate or listen to it, not for the sake of acquiring information, or of deducing from it principles which may be of use to us in after life; but merely for the sake of a temporary gratification; and when this has once been attained, it loses even its power to please, and becomes wholly insipid and useless. VOL. I.-42. Thus it is, says the Psalmist, that we spend our years. Not only is it as certain as the declaration of eternal truth, and the uncontradicted history of every age can make it, that our time on earth will come to a close-not only is the hour at hand which shall terminate our existence here forever-But even this little, uncertain period, says he, we dream away. Day after day, year after year, we suffer to escape from our possession, without ever calling them up, and making one serious reflection upon their importance, or once asking ourselves for what purpose were they given? We permit the several portions of our life to glide away with as little sense of their value, as we thought, it might appear that such would cherish with respect to the va-persons are not so insensible to the rious sentences of an acknowledged fiction. march of time, as the text would seem to indicate But it is a mistake.Scarce ever do we reflect, at the There are none amongst the sons of close of one period, on the vast ad- Adam, more deeply sunk into the ditional worth which its expiration sleep of death, than these very indihas cast on what remains. Such is viduals; none who, with respect to all the mode in which we live, according the great objects for which they were to the testimony given by the inspi-given, spend their years more comred author of this song of Zion.-pletely as a tale that is told. There And has he fallen into any mistake? is, however, another class, who find Has he given a distorted view of the no difficulty in beguiling away their manner in which men in general regard their time, as it hurries past them? Where is the man who would adduce his own conduct as a refutation of the position here advanced by this man of God? How many are there in this assembly, who would Idare to do so? Would to God that the conduct of men did not, so fully as it does, justify the declaration now before us! Most devoutly were it to be wished, that such were the conduct of believers themselves, as to show that it is not, to a lamentable degree, applicable even to them. hours; whose time, like that of the philosophers of old, is one continual fit of laughter, and whose days and nights are utterly engrossed by scenes of pleasure and amusement. With regard to such characters, no reflecting man can be mistaken. They spend their years as a tale that is told. And in addition to these, there are your men of business-your men who are immersed in the cares and bustle of this present life-who rise up early, sit up late, and eat the bread of sorrows-not that they may make Cast your eyes around upon the their peace with God-not that they world at large, and see how many you may secure a happy immortality-but will find who give any evidence that that they may heap up wealth, augthey make a proper estimate of time. ment their worldly influence, or make Reflect upon your own feelings and to themselves a name, and a praise, views individually, and consider what which shall pass down through sucpretensions you have to be acknow-ceeding ages. How do they spend ledged as exceptions to the doctrine of the text. "We take no note of time," says a celebrated poet, "but from its loss." But it can never be sufficiently regretted, that in most cases, it is not the loss of a part that will make the soul start up alarmed, and recognise it as the signal that demands despatch.With respect to many, the whole series must be gone, before they can be brought to consider seriously the fact that it is going. We meet with some, indeed, who complain that time hangs heavy on their hands, and whose minds are chiefly occupied in devising ways and means for killing it. And to the man of superficial their years? With the declaration of the Psalmist before them, I shall leave it to their own consciences to answer the inquiry. But, in the LAST place-The Psalmist, in these words, reminds us that time once gone, can never be recalled.— That our years once spent will never return to us again; this his expostulation in the text evidently implies. There would have been no ground for his complaint, if, after the tale had been told, it might be repeated-if, when our years had once been spent, they might be lived over again. But such an idea never entered the Psalmist's imagination. His very language utterly disclaims it. which he is now performing, eternal ages shall make no change, should banish every thing like levity--it should freeze the warm blood at its very fountain, and make his hair stand erect. Oh! if he disregard, or refuse to attend to this considerationthen, for the sake of consistency, let him banish every care. For there is nothing else remaining that is worth a moment's thought. Would you learn, my friends, the importance of this consideration, study it in the dying scenes of those persons who, till then, have been the most regardless of it. Behold the man whose course is To talk of our years being finished, while yet we have many to live, would be an absurdity which it were slander of the grossest kind to charge upon the Psalmist himself, to say nothing of the Spirit under whose direction he wrote. His declaration takes for granted, that our time once gone, is gone forever-that if there has been any thing amiss in our application of it as it passed, it must remain so, throughout eternal ages-we shall But let him take it as the voice of never have an opportunity of rectify-eternal truth, that the day is coming ing the error. If we have improved on apace, when, on this subject, his it to the purpose of working out our views will be unspeakably differown salvation-of obtaining an in-ent. terest in Him who is the way to the Father, and the truth and the life; who delivers from the horrors of the wrath to come-it is well; we have no reason to wish for its recall. The period will shortly arrive, when we shall receive a gracious ac-finished-whose time on earth has ceptance, and most glorious reward. But if, on the other hand, we have devoted it to the service of the world under any of its alluring forms-if we have spent it in the ways of sin, and in performing the drudgery of the father of lies-here also our reward is certain. We have committed a mistake which rejects all remedy, however much we may afterwards lament the fact, however anxiously we may wish that we had acted otherwise, or that we had our respective parts in life still to perform; it is all in vain our years have gone beyond recall, and carried with them their re-dy, lies in ruins, in scattered fragport. Oh! remember it, friends, whilst yet the application of a part of your existence here remains within your power-remember it, I say, that time affords itself but once to our improvement. This is a consideration whose importance none of us can fully estimate at present. To the man who is spending his years as a tale that is told-who never once adverts to their bearing on that eternity which is just before him-it is of unutterable moment; the very thought that on the character of the actions reached its closing hour-behold him, if an impenitent sinner, writhing under the anticipated anguish of the second death-and there learn the importance of the fact, that time once gone returns no more. Hear him, in the immediate prospect of an appearance at the bar of that God, who, to all the workers of iniquity, is a consuming fire-hear him then exclaim, "Had I ten thousand worlds at my disposal, they should all be sacrificed for the glorious prospects of the humblest Christian"-Hear him in that hour, when his soul, like his bo ments of broken thought-when remorse for the past casts them forward on the future, and worse dread of the future strikes them back upon the past-hear him then burst forth into the frantick exclamation, "Oh! for a year, a day, or even an hour, though an age were too little for the much I have to do!" Consider these things, and then judge of the importance of the truth, that the scenes of our life can never be reacted. At that solemn hour, when nothing remains but to give in our account to the God who made us, how differently will we see our former actions, and the scenes which lie before us, from the light in which they now appear? the world? If so, my friends, how should our hearts sink within us, at the retrospect! How should we lament the fatal prostitution! It is true, they are gone beyond redemption. Our sorrow and remorse can never make them any thing else than what they are. It can neither "My principles," said the unhappy infidel already alluded to, "my principles have poisoned my friend-my extravagance has beggared my boy-blot them out from the book of God's my unkindness has murdered my wife! and is there another hell! oh! thou blasphemed and insulted, yet indulgent Lord God! hell itself is a refuge, if it hide me from thy frown!" Thus, my friends, have we endeavoured to lay before you, some of the great principles contained in this portion of the Eternal's message.We have seen that our time is not only limited but short; that with respect to many of us, its flight, though rapid, is wholly unperceived and disregarded; and we have seen, that when once gone, its loss is irreparable.What then, is the improvement which we are called upon to make of these principles? Let us improve them in the First place, as a mirror, in which we ought to contemplate that part of our lives which is already gone, and the actions which we have performed.What have we done with these years? What has been the character of these actions? They have escaped from our command forever. Over them we have no more controul, than over those of Adam. Just as they now stand, they are reserved to appear as witnesses, either for us, or against us, at the judgment day. To what extent, then, have we employed them in glorifying the God who made, and who upholds us? How much of them have we devoted to the purpose of working out our own salvation with fear and trembling? Has any considerable portion of them been spent in the service of our Maker, and for the good of our souls? Or have they been chiefly, if not entirely occupied in the slavery of sin, of satan, and remembrance, nor in the least degree change their intrinsic nature. But it may, if genuine, avert their awful consequences. If truly penitential, it may save them from proving the ruin of our souls forever. Be it our endeavour, then, to obtain a just sense of the folly and ingratitude of our former course of conduct, and mourn over it with a godly sorrow, which worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of. But, in the Second place-With these principles before us, let us examine those schemes which we have formed for the employment of that part of our time which yet remains. That which is past is gone to return no more.— But that which is future, is still within our power. The question is yet to be decided, whether, after it has passed away, it shall be a source of remorse or of complacency? What is the purpose, then, to which you design to apply it? Is it your determination that to-day, or to-morrow, you will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and get gain?-That all the energies of mind and body shall be directed to the amassing of wealth?-to the adding of field to field, and house to house? Are your imaginations occupied with endless scenes of mirth, frivolity and dissipation?-or with prospects of rank, of title and equipage? And are there no objects more excellent than these, to whose attainment your pursuit might be directed? Has the Lord Jesus Christ-have the blessings he has purchased, not sufficient worth to command at least a portion of your time and your resour ces ? Have you no desire to obtain | gone, is irrecoverably lost. All the the pardon of sin, peace of consci- business of our lives is to be crowded ence, peace with God, and an inheritance of the saints in light? into the narrow space of three-score years and ten, or four-score years at most; and, with respect to many of us, into a space much narrower still. How important and extensive, then, does this business appear, when com Oh! remember, that the great object for which time was given is, that of preparing for the eternal world; and that every moment which passes away without this object being accom-pared with that point of time in plished, is worse than lost. Whatever which it must be transacted! How else may be the pursuit in which you urgent and imperious is the call upon have employed it-and whatever may us to be active in our day; and to have been your success in this appli- redeem, with the utmost care, the cation-still, if you have neglected moments as they pass! That amount this one thing needful, you have been of action which belongs appropriately doing nothing; you have been spend- to each particular period of our lives, ing your time in vain, and your labour is amply sufficient for it; so that the for that which satisfieth not. man who puts off till to-morrow, what ought to be done, and could be done to day, burdens futurity with a weight not its own, and one which it is utterly unable to support. The employment of each day must be attended to, whilst the day itself continues, or it shall remain forever undone. Beware then, my friends, how you suffer day after day to pass away, whilst your calling and election are left in doubt. Suffer not, then, I entreat you, the year over whose threshold you have just stepped, to be fooled away as those have been which preceded it. Guard against the disposition to procrastinate. Be assured, that by indulging it, you run an infinite hazard. You leave to the mercies of an uncertain moment, the vast concerns of an eternal scene. Forget not how nearly unperceived your years already past have stolen away. And recollect that without the utmost circumspection, those which still remain will glide by equally unnoticed; and thus the tale will be told before you are aware. Be assured, that acting thus, it is much more than possible you may at last have to take up the lamentation, "the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." May God of his infinite mercy Lastly-Let us contemplate the avert a catastrophe so dreadful. And work that we have to do, in the light during the year on which you have which these principles throw upon it.just entered, may he crown your lives In what a striking point of view do they set the wisdom of the wise man's injunction-"whatsoever thine hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is neither knowledge, nor device, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest!" Had we centuries of ages at our command, over which we might disperse the work we are called to perform-with some degree of reason might we then look upon it as trifling. But so far from this, we spend our years as a tale that is told. Our time is short, uncertain, and when once with his goodness. May he grant For the Magazine of the Reformed REFLECTIONS ON JOB V. 7. "Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upwards." "Behold! I was shapen in iniquity," says the Psalmist: man is born in sin and therefore "born unto trouble." |