work them off, but in old people they remain, and are carried to the grave. Jacob had hardships at Padanaram, the heat by day, and the frost by night; but he forgot them in a little time; not so after having lost his beloved Rachel. A garment was brought to him covered with blood! Is this, or any thing like it, the condition of the reader? So much the more necessary the petition.

4. Old age is a time that ought to command respect, and does so among dutiful children, and all serious christians; but it is often known to be attended with neglect. This is the case especially where they are poor and dependent. It has been the case where public characters have lost their youthful vivacity, and the brilliancy of their talents. In these cases also, how fit is the petition: Cast me not off in the time of old age, forsake me not when my strength faileth!'

5. It is a period bordering on death and eternity. The enjoyments of life are more than half gone, and the remainder hangs upon a thread more than half broken.

But it may be worth while to enquire, in what cases there are grounds to hope the blessing will be granted.

Not all old men enjoy God's favour and presence. There are some tottering on the grave, who are yet wicked; yea, ripe in wickedness-mercenary, deceitful, crafty, and oppressive. Even those sins which they can no longer act, through a failure in their natural powers, they will recal in their defiled imaginations, and repeat in conversation, to the corrupting of youth. Ah, wicked old man! God will cast you off. Age itself entitles you to no respect from man, nor will you find mercy from God. Think particularly of two passages. The sinner, a hundred years old, shall be accursed-God shall wound the hairy scalp of him who goeth on still in his trespasses.' Isai. lxv. 20. Psal. lxviii. 21.

Who then shall be found sharers in this blessing?

1. It is certain, if we have been God's servants from our youth, he will not cast us off in old age. David pleaded this, in the 5th and 17th verses of this psalm. 'Oh God, thou hast taught me from my youth; and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.' How was this truth also verified in the old age and death of Jacob, Moses, Daniel, Paul, and others!

2. Though we should not have been his servants in our youth, yet in old age, even from thence, if we seek him with all our hearts, he will be found of us. He will not reject us even at the eleventh hour.

3. Though you should never have been his servants to this day, but have grown grey under Satan's yoke, and are now a poor miserable creature, just ready to fall into hell yet if from hence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, with all thy heart and with all thy soul, he will be found of thee; for the Lord our God is a merciful God; and through the death of Christ he can save thee to the uttermost. If with all your heart you only put up this prayer, 'Cast me not off in the time of old age, forsake me not when my strength faileth;' he will not cast you off, but stand your friend when forsaken by the whole world. Deut. iv. 29-31. Heb. vii. 25.

CONSOLATION TO THE AFFLICTED.

The substance of a letter to a friend.

I go to prepare a place for you: and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. John xiv. 2-4.

If our Saviour had been going to some unknown place, where we must not follow him, we might well be unhappy: but whither I go ye know.' It is true we know nothing of a hereafter, beyond what God in his word hath told us but those lively oracles are a light in a dark place, whose cheering beams pierce the otherwise impervious gloom of futurity. When a dying heathen was asked, whither he was going; he replied, Oh my friends, we know nothing of a hereafter! Such also must have been our answer, but for the glorious gospel of the blessed God. As it is, we know whither our Redeemer is gone. He is gone to his Father, and to our Father; to his God, and to our God. He is gone to mount Sion, the city of the living God; to the innumerable company of angels, to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to God the judge of all. Whither he is gone we know, for we have had a foretaste of the bliss. As believers we also are already come to mount Sion. The church below and the church above are only different branches of the same family, so that he who is come to one is come to the other.

But how are we to follow him, unless we 'know the way?' If he 'come and receive us,' he will be our guide. And this is not all: 'the way we know.' Thomas thought he knew not whither his Lord was going, nor the way that led to him: yet he knew his Lord, and believed in

him as the Son of God and the Saviour of sinners. Jesus therefore answered him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life:' knowing me, you know the way to the heavenly world. Yes, we not only know whither our Saviour is gone, but the way that leads to him. The doctrine of the cross, as dear Pearce observed, is the only religion for a dying sinner.

If an affectionate father had resolved to remove to a distant country, he might not take his family with him in the first instance, but might choose to go by himself, to encounter and remove the chief difficulties in the way, and make ready a habitation to receive them. Such in effect was the conduct of our Saviour. 'I go to prepare a place for you: and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.' His passage through the territories of death, was attended with the most dreadful of all conflicts; but having overcome, it renders ours an easy one. Death to us is, Jesus 'coming to receive us to himself.'

The presence of a beloved object is the grand preparative of any place, and that which gives it its principal charm. Such is the preparation of a place in the future world for us. Jesus is there, and that is quite enough. If any thing will operate as a magnet to attract us from earth to heaven, it is the consideration of being 'where Jesus sitteth at the right hand of God.' Think what an accession of joy his triumphant entrance must have occasioned through all the heavenly regions, and what a source of uninterrupted bliss his presence affords. What would some societies be, without certain interesting characters, which are in effect the life of them? And what would heaven be without Christ? The zest of all its bliss consists in his being there, and this is urged as the grand motive to 'setting our affections on things above.' Col. iii. 1, 2.

There also he will gather together the whole family of heaven and earth. His redemption brings multitudes to

glory, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and every one that enters, adds to the enjoyment. In order to connect us together in the closest bonds of affection, God has so ordained, that both in this world and that which is to come, our blessedness should be bound up with that of each other; in seeing the good of his chosen, rejoicing in the gladness of his nation, and glorying with his inheritance. Hence it follows, that every accession to the heavenly world affords an influx to the enjoyment of its inhabitants. Every one that goes before may be said to contribute to the preparing of the place for them which follow after. The pure river of the water of life, has its origin in the throne of God and of the Lamb; but in its progress it passes through various mediums, which swell its streams, and render it more and more delectable. From the entrance of righteous Abel into the new Jerusalem, to this day, it has been rising higher and higher, and will continue to do so till all the nations of the saved are gathered together.

Christ prepares a place for us, in superintending the concerns of the universe, and causing all events to work together and produce the highest ultimate good. Glory awaits the righteous immediately upon their departure from the body, but a much greater glory is in reserve. Innumerable events in the system of providence must remain inexplicable, till the mystery of God be finished. It is impossible for spectators to comprehend the use of all the parts of a complicate machine, till it is constructed and put into motion. And as our Forerunner is now preparing the scenery of this grand exhibition, and hastening it to its desired issue, it is thus that he is preparing a place for us.

From hence we are encouraged to be looking for, and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, and directed to consider it as the period when we shall be fully satisfied.' How solemn, and yet how sweet, is the description of it. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of