right and faithful subjects shall have nothing to apprehend. They may remain safe and quiet spectators of the threatening scene. For it is not to be a scene of blind confusion; of universal ruin brought about by undesigning chance. Over the shock of the elements, and the wreck of matter, Eternal Wisdom presides. According to its direction the conflagration advances which is to consume the earth. Amidst every convulsion of the world, God shall continue to be as he was from the beginning, the dwelling-place of his servants to all generations. The world may be lost to them; but the Ruler of the world is ever the same, unchangeably good and just. This is the high tower to which they can fly, and be safe. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness; and, under every period of his government, his countenance beholdeth the upright.

II. LET us contemplate the dissolution of the world as the end of all human glory. This earth has been the theatre of many a great spectacle, and many a high achievement. There, the wise have ruled, the mighty have fought, and conquerors have triumphed. Its surface has been covered with proud and stately cities. Its temples and palaces have raised their heads to the skies. Its kings and potentates, glorying in their magnificence, have erected pyramids, constructed towers, founded monuments, which they imagined were to defy all the assaults of time. Their inward thought was, that their houses were to continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations. Its philosophers have explored the secrets of nature; and flattered themselves, that the fame of their discoveries was to be immortal.

our eyes.

Alas! all this was to be no more than a transient show. Not only the fashion of the world, but the world itself, passeth away. The day cometh, when all the glory of this world shall be remembered only as a dream when one awaketh. No longer shall the earth exhibit any of those scenes which now delight The whole beautiful fabric is thrown down, never more to arise. As soon as the destroying angel has sounded the last trumpet, the everlasting mountains fall; the foundations of the world are shaken; the beauties of nature, the decorations of art, the labours of industry, perish in one common flame. The globe itself shall either return into its ancient chaos, without form and void; or, like a star fallen from the heavens, shall be effaced from the universe, and its place shall know it no

more.

THIS day of the Lord, it is foretold in the text, will come as a thief in the night; that is, sudden and unexpected. Mankind, notwithstanding the presages given them, shall continue to the last in their wonted security. Our Saviour tells us, that as in the days of Noah before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the flood came, and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. * How many projects and de

signs shall that day suddenly confound? What longcontrived schemes of pleasure shall it overthrow ? What plans of cunning and ambition shall it utterly blast? How miserable they, whom it shall overtake in the midst of dark conspiracies, of criminal deeds, or profligate pleasures? In what strong colours is *Matthew, xxiv. 38, 39.

right and faithful subjects shall have nothing to apprehend. They may remain safe and quiet spectators of the threatening scene. For it is not to be a scene of blind confusion; of universal ruin brought about by undesigning chance. Over the shock of the elements, and the wreck of matter, Eternal Wisdom presides. According to its direction the conflagration advances which is to consume the earth. Amidst every convulsion of the world, God shall continue to be as he was from the beginning, the dwelling-place of his servants to all generations. The world may be lost to them; but the Ruler of the world is ever the same, unchangeably good and just. This is the high tower to which they can fly, and be safe. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness; and, under every period of his government, his countenance beholdeth the upright.

II. LET us contemplate the dissolution of the world as the end of all human glory. This earth has been the theatre of many a great spectacle, and many a high achievement. There, the wise have ruled, the mighty have fought, and conquerors have triumphed. Its surface has been covered with proud and stately cities. Its temples and palaces have raised their heads to the skies. Its kings and potentates, glorying in their magnificence, have erected pyramids, constructed towers, founded monuments, which they imagined were to defy all the assaults of time. Their inward thought was, that their houses were to continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations. Its philosophers have explored the secrets of nature; and flattered themselves, that the fame of their discoveries was to be immortal.

our eyes.

Alas! all this was to be no more than a transient show. Not only the fashion of the world, but the world itself, passeth away. The day cometh, when all the glory of this world shall be remembered only as a dream when one awaketh. No longer shall the earth exhibit any of those scenes which now delight The whole beautiful fabric is thrown down, never more to arise. As soon as the destroying angel has sounded the last trumpet, the everlasting mountains fall; the foundations of the world are shaken; the beauties of nature, the decorations of art, the labours of industry, perish in one common flame. The globe itself shall either return into its ancient chaos, without form and void; or, like a star fallen from the heavens, shall be effaced from the universe, and its place shall know it no

more.

THIS day of the Lord, it is foretold in the text, will come as a thief in the night; that is, sudden and unexpected. Mankind, notwithstanding the presages given them, shall continue to the last in their wonted security. Our Saviour tells us, that as in the days of Noah before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the flood came, and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. * How many projects and designs shall that day suddenly confound? What longcontrived schemes of pleasure shall it overthrow ? What plans of cunning and ambition shall it utterly blast? How miserable they, whom it shall overtake in the midst of dark conspiracies, of criminal deeds, or profligate pleasures? In what strong colours is * Matthew, xxiv. 38, 39.

their dismay painted, when they are represented, in the book of Revelations, as calling to the hills and mountains to fall on them and cover them? - Such descriptions are apt to be considered as exaggerated. The impression of those awful events is weakened by the great distance of time at which our imagination places them. But have not we had a striking image set before us, in our own age, of the terrours which the day of the Lord shall produce, by those partial ruins of the world, which the visitation of God has brought on countries well known, and not removed very far from ourselves? When, in the midst of peace, opulence, and security, suddenly the earth was felt by the terrified inhabitants to tremble, with violent agitation, below them; when their houses began to shake over their heads, and to overwhelm them with ruins; the flood, at the same time, to rise from its bed, and to swell around them; when encompassed with universal desolation, no friend could aid another; no prospect of escape appeared; no place of refuge remained; how similar were such scenes of destruction to the terrours of the last day? What similar sensations of dread and remorse, and too late repentance, must they have excited among the guilty and profane ?

To such formidable convulsions of nature, we, in these happy islands, through the blessing of heaven, are strangers; and strangers to them may we long continue! But however we may escape partial ruins of the globe, in its general and final ruin we also must be involved. To us must come at last that awful day when the sun shall for the last time arise, to perform his concluding circuit round the world. They how blest, whom that day shall find employed