SERMON III.

On the IMPROVEMENT of TIME.

GENESIS, xlvii. 8.

And Pharaoh faid unto Jacob, How old

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art thou?

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'IME is of fo great importance to man- SERM. kind that it cannot too often employ religious meditation. There is nothing in the management of which wisdom is more requifite, or where mankind difplay their inconfiftency more. In its particular parcels, they appear entirely careless of it; and throw it away with thoughtless profufion. But, when collected into fome of its great portions, and viewed as the measure of their continuance in life, they become fenfible of its value, and begin to regard it with a serious eye. While day after day is

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SERM. wafted in a course of idleness or vicious pleafures, if fome incident fhall occur. which leads the most inconfiderate man to think of his age, or time of life; how much of it is gone; at what period of it he is now arrived; and to what proportion of it he can with any probability look forward, as yet to come; he can hardly avoid feeling fome fecret compunction, and reflecting seriously upon his ftate. Happy if that virtuous impreffion were not of momentary continuance, but retained its influence amidst the fucceeding cares and pleasures of the world! To the good old Patriarch mentioned in the text, we have reason to believe that fuch impreffions were habitual. The question put to him by the Egyptian monarch produced, in his anfwer, fuch reflections as were naturally fuited to his time of life. And Jacob faid unto Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage. But the peculiar circumstances of the patriarch, or the num

ber of his years, are not to be the fubje& SERM, of our prefent confideration. My purpose is to fhew how we fhould be affected in every period of human life, by reflection upon our age, whether we be young or advanced in years; in order that the queftion, How old art thou? may never be put to any of us without fome good effect. There are three different portions of our life which fuch a queftion naturally calls to view; that part of it which is past; that which is now prefent; and that to which we fondly look forward, as future. Let us confider in what manner we ought to be affected by attending to each of these.

I. LET us review that part of our time which is past. According to the progress which we have made in the journey of life, the field which past years present to our review will be more or lefs extenfive. But to every one they will be found to afford fufficient matter of humiliation and regret. For where is the perfon who, having acted any time in the world, remembers not many errors and many follies in his past behaviour? Who dares to fay, that he has improved,

for

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SERM. improved, as he might have done, the various advantages which were afforded him; and that he recalls nothing for which he has reafon either to grieve or to blush? When we recollect the feveral stages of life through which we have paffed; the fucceffive occupations in which we have been engaged, the designs we have formed, and the hopes and fears which alternately have filled our breaft; how barren for most part is the remembrance; and how few traces of any thing valuable or important remain! Like characters drawn on the fand, which the next wave washes totally away; fo one trivial fucceffion of events has effaced the memory of the preceding; and though we have feemed all along to be bufy, yet for much of what we have acted, we are neither wifer nor better than if fuch actions had never been. Hence let the retrofpect of what is paft produce, as its first effect, humiliation in our own eyes, and abasement before God. Much do human pride and self-complacency require fome correction; and that correction is never more effectually administered, than by an impartial and ferious review of former life.

But

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But though paft time be gone, we are SERM. not to confider it as irredeemably loft. To a very profitable purpose it may yet be applied, if we lay hold of it while it remains in remembrance, and oblige it to contribute to future improvement. If you have gained nothing more by the years that are past, you have at leaft gained experience; and experience is the mother of wisdom. have seen the weak parts of your character; and may have discovered the chief sources of your misconduct. To thefe let your attention be directed; on these, let the proper guards be fet. If you have trifled long, refolve to trifle no more. If your paffions have often betrayed and degraded you, study how they may be kept, in future, under better difcipline. Learn, at the fame time, never to truft prefumptuously in your own wifdom. Humbly apply to the Author of your being, and beseech his grace to guide you fafely through those slippery and dangerous paths, in which experience has fhewn that you are fo ready to err, and to fall.

In reviewing paft life, it cannot but occur, that many things now appear of inconfider