SERMON. 1856. PAGE. DCLXVIII.-The Speed of Life Impressing Probation, Isaiah xxxviii. 16, ང 23 36 DCLXXI.-God, Nature, Man, in the Light of Christianity, Colossians ii. 3, By Rev. G. Thurston Bedell, D.D., DCLXXVIII.—Family Worship, Acts x. 2, John v. 28, 29, By Rev. Jonathan Brace, DCLXXX.-The Sources of the Blessedness of Christians, Heb. xii. 22, 24, By Rev. Richard S. Storrs, D.D., DCLXXXI.-True Element of Ministerial Devotion and Success, 1 Cor. ii. 2, By Rev. J. De Forest Richards, By Rev. J. N. Danforth, D.D., 53 59 70 77 86 95 107 117 DCLXXXII.-Acquaintance with God, Job xxii. 21, By Rev. Edmund B. Fairfield, 128 The Spirit of Christ, Rom. viii. 9, DCLXXXIII.-Life-Its Changes and Lessons, 2 Sam. ix. 3, By Rev. T. S. Clarke, D.D., DCLXXXIV. Fretting: Its Nature, Its Causes, Its Evils, and Its Cure, Ps. xxxvii. 8, By Rev. T. S. Clarke, D.D., 138 141 150 DCLXXXV.-Study to be Quiet, &c., 1 Thess. iv. 11, By Rev. T. S. Clarke, D.D., 157 DCLXXXVII.-Christ before the world was, John viii. 58, DCLXXXVIII.-A Funeral Discourse, Amos iv. 12, By Rev. David H. Coyner, DCLXXXIX.-Christ the Head-the Church the Body, Ephesians i. 22, 23, DCXC.-Christ All, Col. iii. 11, The Lame Man Healed, Acts iii. 13, DCXCI.-The Family Institution-Its By Rev. A. T. Chester, D.D., By Rev. Hollis Read, 173 183 189 200 211 213 224 233 235 238 246 254. Sacredness and Significance, By Rev. Samuel M. Woodbridge, DCXCII.-The Resurrection of Christ, 1 Cor. xv. 17, By Rev. E. F. Rockwell, Jeremiah xxxi. 1, The Eleventh-Hour Worker, Desire of pre-eminence, Puritan Recorder, Watchman and Reflector, DCXCIII.-Lydia's Conversion and its Consequences, Acts xvi. 13, 15, By Rev. T. S. Clarke, D.D., DCXCIV.-No Communications from the Dead to the Living, 2 Cor. xii. 1, 4, DCXCV.-A Faithful Saying, 1 Tim. i. 15, By Rev. Mark Tucker, D.D., DCXCVII.--The Law of Influences, Genesis iv. 9, By Rev. Joseph McKee, 261 271 THE SPEED OF LIFE IMPRESSING PROBATION. "O Lord, by these things men live; and in all these things is the life of my spirit." -ISAIAH XXXviii. 16. THESE are the words of Hezekiah--a part of his reflections after his miraculous restoration from sickness, when the fifteen years had been added to his life. Going back, in imagination, to the hours of his suffering, and expressing the emotions that then crowded to his mind, he cries out,*. In the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave, and be deprived of the residue of my years. No more shall I see God in the land of the living; I shall behold no more the inhabitants of the world. Mine earthly dwelling is plucked up and removed from me, as a shepherd's tent; and my life is cut off like a weaver's thread. He is wearing me away with pining sickness; from morning till night he is making an end of me. Mine eyes fail with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed-I am weighed down with my sorrows. Do thou-O do thou undertake for me!" And then as this earnest prayer for relief is answered in the announcement by the prophet, that he should not die, but still live fifteen years, he turns from the plaintive to a joyous strain, and cries out, "And now what shall I say? How shall I express my deep gratitude that God has not only promised deliverance, but has no sooner promised than he has granted it? I will walk humbly * Paraphrased from the Hebrew. before him all the days of my life." And then, passing, in thought, from the divine dealings to their intended spiritual influence, he exclaims, "O Lord, by these things do men live, and in these things is the life of my spirit." Reviewing his sickness, and recognizing in it the hand of God, he felt that the Divine dealings, as sanctified, were promoting his spiritual good; that they had wrought out, and were still working out in him, and for him, their intended design-the intended result of probation. As the physical system lays hold of its proper food, and makes life ont of it, so was his heart enabled, by grace, rightly to lay hold of his afflictions so as from them to make to itself spiritual lifelife eternal. And in this sense it is that he exclaims, in all the fulness and certainty of personal experience, “O Lord, by these things do men live, and in these things is the life of my spirit !" That this is not only the intended design, but the actual result of all affliction and trial, every real christian has felt; for God is too kind and faithful to his children to leave them entirely without it, and its needed discipline; and when it comes, not to sanctify it to their good. But the same is true of the onward progress of the rapid flight of time, including in its flight what it brings with it to discipline, and mould us for another state. And this, in fact, seems to have been the prominent thought in the mind of Hezekiah. The burden of his monody is not so much the severity of his sufferings, as the brevity of his days-the swiftness of their flight; and even his afflictions, keen and trying as they were, seem most to have impressed him, because they made him so deeply feel that his life was speeding like the wind. This, then, is the thought on which I would fix in the passage before us, and to which I would ask your attention, THAT THE SPEED OF LIFE IM PRESSES OUR PROBATION. The speed of life would not, indeed, prove our probation, if there were no other evidence of its reality. But when God has revealed and declared it, as he has done in his Word, then the speed of life-the swiftness of its flight-is fitted most deeply to impress it. This seems to have been the thought of Hezekiah when, of the swiftness of time, and of his afflictions as impressing this, he declares, "By these things do men live, and in these things is the life of my spirit:" that is, that their tendency is to impress us with the true nature of our earthly state, and to lead us to seek and secure for ourselves the great ends that God designed in our probation. In this sense it is that we speak of the speed of life as impressing probation, loudly admonishing of its nature deeply impressing its importance-solemnly calling us to improve it. In endeavoring to illustrate this thought, let us notice first, the fact that life is fast speeding away; and secondly, that its speed is fitted to impress, and does impress, our probation. And, I. The FACT that life is fast speeding away.-On this point it is needless long to dwell, for it is a truth that is often pondered by |