it is hoped we may usefully consider. What is implied in the state of readiness here enjoined, and why should we immediately attain that state of readiness?

I. What is implied in a state of readiness for the event of death? They are not in that state who brought to the end of life, make a virtue of necessity, and affect a willingness to die, a resignation to an allotment which they would, but cannot resist. They are not ready, who think they are, because they have never sufficiently attended to the subject, to know what preparation is requisite. They are not ready, who are reposing in the delusive notion, that all in some way or other will be made meet for heaven, whatever may have been their character and life up to its close. I observe then,

1. That such readiness implies previous solemn attention to the reality and unspeakable importance of the event. Before any such attention can have been given to the subject, there must have been a deep conviction of the worth of the soul, of the amazing character of the world of retribution, and of the difficulty and necessity of making the needful preparation. But such a conviction will keep the mind familiar with the event, will make it assume the character of reality, and will give it a greatness and importance, infinitely surpassing any other occurrence in time. To the dying man, and, which is essentially the same case, to the man who keeps death habitually in view as near, how insignificant appear the brilliant vanities, and stirring events which attach and agitate the world. To him there is more of impressive reality, more of deep and thrilling interest, more of absorbing importance in that approaching breaking up of this earthly tabernacle, than his mind can conceive of throughout the whole remaining range of time. If his mind has been given to the contemplation of death from a conviction of the soul's value and danger, he will be concerned to see how he has lived, how his course of life must appear when displayed in the light of eternity along side of the holy requirements of God; and how

his secret thoughts and aims, as well as his conduct, will bear the test of that trying day, when every man's work will be tried of what sort it is. Now can it be,

that any one thinks of his soul that can never die, of a state of retribution that will never end, and of a day which is to seal the soul's everlasting destiny, and yet feels no solicitude to ascertain the state of the soul, and to learn what is likely to be the consequences of death? Are not many of us entirely strangers to such solicitude? Then most assuredly we are not READY TO die.

2. To be thus ready, implies that there has actually been much earnest endeavor to be in a state, safely and comfortably to exchange worlds. They who give a solicitous attention to the reality of approaching death, from a conviction of the infinite worth of the soul, and the infinite dangers which threaten it, will not only feel this conviction and give this attention, but will put forth honest and continued endeavors to be safe in the final day. Now what must be the result of a faithful inquiry into the heart and life, as in view of a dying hour?Will it be to assure a man, that his state of heart and course of life have been such, as to merit the approbation of a holy God? Surely not. It will be to convince him, that in all things he has offended, and come short of rendering the requisite obedience to the law of God, and that he is justly liable to the penalty of disobedience. He will be humbled and alarmed. He will see the necessity of a radical change in the temper and tendencies of his mind. He will see the propriety, of repentance for sin, and feel anxious to be filled with godly sorrow. He perceives his need of a righteousness not his own-of a Saviour apart from himself, or an arm of flesh. He contemplates objects and pursuits in a new light. He ceases to labor for perishable sustenance, and begins to labor for that which endures unto everlasting life. A sense of want and helplessness, of guilt and misery, endears to him the Saviour who is Christ the Lord,-a Saviour who can deliver from

the love and power of sin, as well as from its merited punishment. Nor does he hesitate willingly and joyfully to commit his soul into the Saviour's hand, assured that he is able to keep it safely through death and through eternity. In short, before any one can be READY TO DIE, there must have been a conviction of guiltiness and ruin, a solicitude about the way of salvation, a perception of the suitableness and adequacy of Christ as a Saviour, a deliberate acceptance of him as such, and a settled intention of renouncing whatever is inconsistent with it. Now I am doubtless speaking in the presence of those who never felt their sinfulness and ruin, never sincerely repented of sin, never relied on the merits of Christ, never renounced one sin because it was offensive to the Saviour, and never devoted themselves to his service. Let all such remember, that at present they are not READY TO DIE. However fair their pretentions to a correct moral deportment, however useful their acts of benevolence, and however extended and distinguished their worldly reputation, unless they are the fruits and evidence of faith and love which are in Christ Jesus the Lord, they must still be without the one thing needful to fit them for death.

3. To be ready to die, implies that the event be kept habitually in view. The man that is truly awake to eternal things, will be in the habit of measuring actions, not by the standard of worldly opinions-not by their seeming propriety and necessity, but by the test of a dying hour. He will inquire of his own heart, what he shall think of men and things, of actions and events, when he shall be called to breathe his last. He will set the Lord always before him, as acting beneath his holy and omniscient eye, making his glory the end, and his word the rule of his conversation. This is a practical, heartfelt, spiritual readiness to depart. A man may say he is concerned to be ready, has faith in Christ, repents of sin, and denies himself, and yet not be apparently at all awake to the event. Many professed

christians are not practically ready, because the reality and importance of it, are not kept distinctly and steadily before them. O, if it were so, how cautious would it make them in word and deed-how diligent in keeping their hearts-how temperate in all things-how just in their dealings with men-how fervent in their devotions-how zealous for God-how careful to redeem time and how dead to the world and its enjoyments. Ah! they would then live as becomes their profession— live as becomes the dying-live as those who are teaching earth what heaven is-live as those who have begun to live the life of God! To live thus, would make the dark valley of the shadow of death smile before us. To live thus, would bring us not trembling, but exulting to the verge of our mortal being. To live in this manner, would make us ready and waiting for our last change.

These are some of the marks of a readiness for a dying hour. Do they belong to us? Have we honestly and seriously looked into our state with respect to eternity? Are we convinced that heaven is an unspeakably blessed reality, for which we are naturally unprepared? Has this shown us our need, and brought us to accept of Christ as our Saviour? Are all our hopes centered in him? Are we able in the review of the past, to detect some growing conformity in our temper and actions to the word of God? If not, I know not how we can think of death without terror, or approach it without risking the loss of all that can be of any worth to us forever!

II. I now come to consider the other principal inquiry suggested by the text-Why should we immediately attain a readiness for death? That this attainment should be made before a man dies, every one, who believes in a coming world of happiness or misery, must admit. That it should be immediately made by all who have hitherto neglected it, might be fairly inferred from the fact, that the Saviour and Judge of the world en

joins it. We ought to be immediately ready to die, since it is necessary in order to be properly ready to live. No man lives as he ought, who does not live prepared to go to heaven at death. But I will confine my

self to those motives by which our Saviour enforces his own exhortation in the text-FOR IN SUCH AN HOUR AS YE THINK NOT, THE SON OF MAN COMETH. Our Lord is speaking here of his coming to take men away by death. It may, therefore, be observed,

1. That the words imply the certainty of death in the case of every individual. This truth is one of revelation and one of experience. It is appointed unto man once to die. No one hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit, neither hath he power in the day of death, and there is no discharge in that war. Only two individuals of our species are known to have escaped this common lot of man. No one expects to escape it, when the subject is viewed in the light of scripture or experience. Yet how many there are, whose conduct with a loud tongue, tells that they have no expectation of death. Though every day they live, there are opened on earth ten thousand graves for our dying race, they anticipate no such event to themselves. Their calculations respect no such event. The day of death has no place in their calendar. But their refusing to think of it and to prepare for it, neither prevents nor delays it. The event is unchangeably fixed. The bounds of every individual's mortal career is set, and he cannot pass He may come to it so absorbed in his worldly schemes, as not to heed it until he feels its icy fingers. He may float along to it on the tide of worldly ease, affluence, and pleasure, until he finds himself thus floated into the abyss of woe. But he cannot adjourn the day of the Saviour's coming. And what a day it must be to such! What a revelation will then take place of the character of all who neglect to be READY. What disappointment, surprise, and consternation will rush into their departing souls. With what emphasis, then, does the consid

it.