to be able to say it is good for me that I have been afflicted. For all this he seeks the Lord, and what the Lord said to Paul he may apply unto himself, " my grace is "sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in "weakness."

Death is a time of need. And it is an unavoidable one-other times of need may come, but this will come. It is indeed the last time of need, but it is also the greatest. It is new and untried. It settles every thing for ever. It is awful to let go our hold of earth, to give up the soul into the hand of God, and enter eternity. The enemy also now uses all his force to distress; for there are two seasons in which he is peculiarly busy-when we are coming to Christ for grace--and when we are going to him for glory. Now others may endeavor to banish this subject from their minds, but the christian must think of it. And he will be concerned to die safely-as to consequences; honorably as to religion; comfortably-as to himself; and usefully-as to others. And what can be done here without grace to help-to help in this time of need! If many christians who are now cast down, were but assured that their sun would set without a cloud, they would be filled with strong consolation, bear cheerfully their trials, and look forward to every future scene with pleasure. Well grace can do this, and has done it for many, and even for many who were once walking mournfully before the Lord. When the time of need came, then came the grace-suffering grace for a suffering hour, and dying grace for a dying hour.

Now if this be our errand in prayer-if we are to pray-that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need, does it not follow, as a fair inference from the subject-that a prayerless person is destitute both of the mercy and grace of God? This is an awful truth, and it leads me, before I conclude, seriously to ask youFirst. Have you come to this throne ? Have you ever prayed? Perhaps you have sometimes dragged

through the duty as a task-but did you ever feel it to be your privilege and your pleasure? Perhaps you have engaged in it occasionally-but has it been your habitual employment? Perhaps you have called upon God in the hour of sickness and danger-but as health returned, have you not dropped prayer by little and little, till you have lived entirely without him in the world? You have frequently attended public worship --do you pray much in your closet; or in the duties of your calling do you send up many a desire to God, saying, Lord help me? You are fond of hearing sermons --but while you so often hear from God, does God ever hear from you?

Secondly. Do you design to come? or, have you resolved to restrain prayer before him?

Do you imagine you can acquire these blessings in any other way than by prayer? This is impossible. "For all these things, says God, will I be inquired of. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find ; "knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

Or, do you imagine these blessings are not worthy of your pursuit? Alas, strange as it may appear, I suspect that this is the case. You are not prepared to estimate these advantages: you do not feel your need of mercy and grace. Otherwise surely you would deem them worth asking for. If you could gain a fortune by prayer-would you not pray? Or health-would you not pray ? But what are these to mercy and grace These comprise every other blessing-and nothing else can be a blessing without them.

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Or, do you imagine they are not to be gained? There is no ground for such despair. He "waiteth to "be gracious, and is exalted to have mercy. Come, "for all things are now ready." None are excluded; all are welcome yet if one class of petitioners could be more welcome, and successful than another-it would be the young. "I love them that love me, and "they that seek me early shall find me."

DISCOURSE XV.

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SUMMER AND HARVEST.

He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.-Prov. x. 5.

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WHAT a scene of desolation was presented to the eye of Noah, when he opened the door of the ark. No human face appeared. The earth was stripped of all its beauty; and no trees, no plants, no grass were to be seen. The effects of the deluge were every where awfully visible; and every cloud, every wind, excited alarm. In this condition he offered a sacrifice. accepted it—and to dissipate his fears, and to draw forth his confidence, he said, "while the earth remain"eth, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease." Each of these periods is not only useful, but instructive. We cheerfully part with the dreary hours of winter, to embrace the reviving spring, and as readily resign the growing hours of spring to welcome in the joyful harvest. When under divine providence this season arrives, "the year is crowned with his good66 ness; the earth is full of his riches"-and the husband-man is called forth to secure the golden produce. He is reasonably expected to make every concern give place to this, and to exert all his diligence to improve the short but all important period. Hence the reflection of Solomon. "He that gathereth in summer is a "wise son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that "causeth shame." Common sense readily acquiesces in all this-but let us accommodate the subject to moral

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any?piritual purposes. Let us represent your harvestseason and enforce upon you the necessity of diligence in using it.

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I. God affords you opportunities for good; he favors you with seasons which be considered as your harvest. In this view we may regard the whole period of life. While you are continued in this world, you have "space for repentance: and the long-suffering of 66 our Lord is salvation."

You are blessed with a season of gospel grace. While many are sitting in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death, upon you" hath the light shined, to 66 guide your feet into the way of peace." You not only live in a country where there is a written revelation, but your "eyes see your teachers, and your ears hear a "voice behind you saying, this is the way, walk ye in it, แ when ye turn aside to the right hand or to the left." Though the preaching of the word is neglected by some, and despised by others, it is an invaluable privilege. By this the scripture is explained to the mind, and enforced on the conscience: by this you are warned of your danger and encouraged to flee for refuge: you are called upon to draw nigh, and assured that "all "things are now ready. Faith cometh by hearing; "and hearing by the word of God."

And this reminds us that you have a season of civil and religious liberty. You have the bible in your hands, and are not fined for reading it: you may assemble together in public, and hear the word of life without danger; your devotions are sanctioned by law, and you may "sit under your own vine, and under your 66 own fig tree, and none make you afraid." What advantages do we possess above many of our ancestors who suffered for conscience sake? They labored, and we have entered into their labors. "They took joy"fully the spoiling of their goods. They had trial of "cruel mockings and scourgings, yea moreover, of "bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the

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"sword: they wandered about in sheep skins, anu bat "skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented: of whom "the world was not worthy: they wandered in deserts, "and in mountains, and in dens, and caves of the earth." Some are living in a religious family where they have the benefit of instruction, prayer, and example. Some, like Timothy, have been trained up by a mother and a grandmother of unfeigned faith, and "from a child have known the scriptures which are "able to make us wise unto salvation.'

Who in passing through a vale of tears has not experienced a day of trouble? From such a period many have had to date their saving acquaintance with divine things. Affliction is favorable to religion, it abstracts, it softens, it awes the mind; it strips the world of its attractions, and starves us out of the creature into God.

Where is the person who does not know what we mean by a season of conviction? Conscience has sometimes forced you to stand. Like Felix you have trembled under the power of the world to come. You have sometimes been pleasingly affected, you have wept, and prayed, and sighed, "now Lord what wait I for? my "hope is in thee."

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But O! can I forget another season? or can I forget urge the admonition of wisdom and friendship—“ re"member now thy creator in the days of thy youth, "while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them!” -Never, never, my young friends will you have a scason in which your hindrances are so few, or your helps so many as the present. Every thing now invites, every thing constrains "behold now is the acceptyou: "ed time; behold now is the day of salvation.” II. I would enforce upon you the necessity of diligence to improve your reaping season.

And first consider how much you have to accomplish. You have the work of a husband-man in harvest -and will this allow you to be drowsy and idle? Does it not require you to rise early, and be active all the