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النشر الإلكتروني

A SERIES

OF

LAY SERMONS.

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SERMON I.

GOOD PRINCIPLES.

Why will you bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave?"

MEN and brethren-I address particularly this discourse to my own sex-whether is it better to reflect seriously and frequently on the approaches of old age, or to allow ourselves to be surprised by some remarkable instances of failing, which cannot be disputed? This is a question on which I have often studied, but own to you that I cannot decide it. Frequent and serious meditation on such a subject, one should think, must be very necessary. But then

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the altered features of old age become agreeable to us by looking at them. We flatter our own grey hairs; and find always such freshness along with our fading, as serves to cherish the opinion, that we are younger than we are, and that we shall live longer than it is possible for us to do.

When I look back on my past life, I see nothing but a vain show through all the space that is past; and when I seriously contemplate the future, I am compelled to believe that the termination of my life is at no great distance. And yet, for all the maxims which I have been able to found on this certain and necessary truth, I cannot say that I think more now of the uncertainty and vanity of life than I did thirty years ago. We are old men before we think much of old age, and are never the first to observe our own decline; nor are the hints given us by our friends exceedingly well received. This is owing, in some degree, to the law of

our constitution, which fixes us for a considerable number of years, in the middle period of life, in a state which neither increases nor decays. But it is owing still more to the wisdom of Providence, which has not suffered our relish for life to be destroyed by the certainty of death. Every man has proper seasons for reflection; and, as I am best acquainted with my own thoughts on all subjects, I freely tell you that I have struggled against every suggestion concerning my age; yet I cannot help occasionally stating to myself the probable termination of my life, calculating how many years are likely to elapse before I reach it, and then grasping in my mind the space of as many years which are past. The imaginary period, indeed, is still to come, but I have a standard by which I can measure it; and if I were wise, I might know what it will be. A young man does not possess this advantage. The period of his past life, on which he reflects, is clouded with

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