LECTURE I. IMPROVEMENT OF TIME. PSALM XC. 12.-So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, W Hy are we so very dear to you? Why do you give us such a kind salutation! We are most of us strangers to you, and you to us, why then do you call us your dear young friends? Because I love your souls; your immortal never-dying souls! I would not, for ten thousand worlds, that one of your precious souls should be for ever lost! But this must be the case, unless your hearts are holy, except they are renewed by the Holy Spirit, and you are saved by divine grace. Time is short, very short indeed! Eternity is long, very long, it has no end, it will last for ever! Youth and beauty are but fading flowers: You are now in the spring time of life. The summer soon will open before your eyes in all its variety, beauty, and abundance. The season of youth, the period of education, presents you with an opportunity of gathering a rich and plentiful harvest of useful knowledge, solid piety, and real pleasure. See then that you do not neglect an opportunity so promising and important. Time is pictured before us by the ancients, as an old man who has only a single lock of hair left upon his head; intimating to all, but especially to you, my young friends, that we should improve the present moment; for when once that is past, it cannot be recovered. He has also an hour glass in one hand, and a scythe in the other; these are to remind us that our time is constantly passing away, that our lives are very short, and that all our earthly comforts must soon be cut down and destroyed. A |