BY REV. JOEL HAWES, D. D.;

PASTOR OF THE FIRST CHURCH, HARTFORD, CONN.

PSALM XXXIX: 4. "Lord make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am."

It was once alleged as a complaint against a certain minister by his hearers, that he did not preach to the times. He replied, that he thought it might be pardoned if, while so many were preaching to the times, one poor servant of Christ preached for eternity. The reply carries in it a weight of meaning which deserves the most serious consideration, and will give a direction to my thoughts in the present discourse. I wish to lead your views away from time, and fix them on eternity; to annihilate, as far as possible, the distance between this and the end of your earthly course, and bring directly before you the scenes of that invisible world, in which we must all very soon take up our everlasting abode. For the present hour, then, let the world with all its too absorbing concerns, be curtained from our view, and let us walk together in solemn, thoughtful step, on the shores of that vast ocean "which we must sail so soon." If the prospect be less inviting than some others that might be presented, it may, nevertheless, be more useful in its influence, and leave us, at the close of this service, better prepared to go back to the duties and cares which we have to meet in this state of our probation and temporary abode.

"O! eternity! eternity!" exclaimed an infidel, as he lay in despair upon his death-bed; O! eternity, eternity! Who can paraphrase the words for ever and ever? I feel the difficulty. There is a meaning in them which our limited powers cannot fathom. The finite cannot comprehend the infinite. As we stretch our minds to take in the boundless prospect, we sink back in conscious weakness, and feel that it is but a glimpse that we can get of the illimitable scene which lies before us, and which we designate by the term eternity. If we go to the Dictionary, we find that term defined to be duration, without beginning or end. In this view, we

may be said to occupy a certain point in eternity. We look back upon a duration that never began, and forward to a duration that is never to end. God is the only Being of whom eternity, in this sense, can be predicated. He is without beginning of days or end of years; the same yesterday, to-day and for ever. He inhabits eternity, it is his proper dwelling-place; past and future have no meaning in application to the duration of his being. But in respect to ourselves and our fellow-men, eternity denotes an endless duration to come. We look back a few brief years and reach the period when we were not. We came into being, as it were, but yesterday, and to-morrow we cease to be where we now are; we pass from this state of living men, and all that is visible of us is laid in the ground and turns to dust. And if this were the end of our being, eternity could have no meaning in relation to us. It could only be said of us, as of the beasts that perish, that we lived and moved a few days upon earth, and then passed into a state of non-existence.

But though the body dies and falls back to its original dust, the spirit lives, and lives for ever; so that eternity, absolute eternity, viewed in relation to the future, is predicable of every one of us. We have entered upon an existence which is never to end. Our future being is to run on parallel with that of God himself. Immortality does not, indeed, belong to us as an essential or independent property of our souls. As we derived our being from God, so we are dependent on Him for its continuance. All the arguments for the soul's immortality, derived from the nature of the spirit, seem to me of little weight. My faith in the endless existence of the soul depends on the testimony of Him who made and holds me in being. That testimony is contained in his own blessed word of truth; and on the ground of it we have the fullest assurance that there lies before each of us an endless existence-a state of being which is never to terminate. The heavens and the earth are to pass away, and all the monuments of art and works of man cease to be; but the soul has received from the Creator the impress of eternity. It is to exist for ever.

But this is a very imperfect view of the eternity for which we are destined. It is not simple duration of being that we are called to contemplate; but the duration of all our powers of action, and of enjoyment, and suffering. There is to be eternal consciousness, eternal thought, eternal feeling, eternal reason, eternal memory, eternal living, active mind. And more; we have reason to believe that the powers of the soul will not only continue in being in another world, but will acquire, on entering that world, new activity, strength and expansion, and go on increasing for ever in capacity for enjoyment or suffering. This belief is justified both by philosophy and religion; and what an affecting, glorious, awful prospect does it open before us? We are now but in the infancy of our being just ushered into existence in a state of extreme imperfection and weakness; our minds cumbered with a gross material body; our faculties most imperfectly developed, and all our views

obscure and clouded. But O! the scene which spreads before us! In a few days we drop these tabernacles of clay; are born into a new world, entirely unlike that which we now inhabit; and our immortal spirits, emancipated from the thraldom of earth and sense, enter upon a state not only of endless being, but of endless advancement in all the capacities of thought, of feeling, of enjoyment and suffering. Who can estimate the value of a soul possessing such a nature, and with such prospects before it? And what significancy does this view impart to the question propounded by our Saviour:-"What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his soul; or what shall he give in exchange for his soul ?"

From this general view of eternity, let us pass to notice some circumstances connected with it, in which we all have a deep personal interest. And

1. It is very near. But a step, and we pass into the unseen world, and are fixed in an everlasting state. It may seem otherwise to us. Amid the busy cares of life, we are very apt to forget that we are mortal. Like the rich fool in the parable, we are prone to delude ourselves with the thought that we have goods laid up for many years, shall live to accomplish all our plans, and realize all our pictures of earthly happiness. But the summons comes, and we are hurried away. The stream of time, on which we are embarked, is bearing us silently but swiftly to the end of life's voyage. As we pass down the current, we may sometimes imagine that we stand still, and are wont to amuse ourselves with looking at the objects on either side, and with plucking here and there a flower from the shore; but ere we are aware the roar of the ocean is heard, and we are off upon the unknown deep! O! that we were more regardful of the notes of warning which God is continually addressing to us, that there is but a step between us and eternity! Indeed, we are all standing at the very door of eternity! Those before us are fast pressing through-we as fast pressing after them soon we shall have passed within, and the gate closes upon us for ever. Every time the pulse beats, a soul passes into eternity; and more than eighty thousand every day. Since the last New Year, upwards of thirty millions of immortal beings have finished their earthly course, and become inhabitants of eternity! In twenty years, in ten years, where will the most of us be? In eternity, dwelling beneath the smiles of God, or lying under his righteous condemnation. Some will remain awhile longer; but the longest life is but a span, and it ends in eternity.

2. Our passage into eternity is hung about with scenes of solemn and affecting interest. I speak not here of the pains and troubles, of the disappointments and sorrows, which we shall meet with on our way. I speak of the passage-"It is through sickness, death, and the grave." There is no other way into that invisible world to which we hasten. Enoch was, indeed, translated that he should not see death. Elijah was taken from the earth and