A New Year's Gift

XXIX.

A NEW YEAR'S GIFT.

" And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."—Rom. xiii. 11.

Time, like an ever-running stream, is perpetually gliding on and hurrying us, and all the sons of men, into the boundless ocean of eternity. We are now entering upon one of those imaginary lines of division which men have drawn to measure out time for their own conveniency; and while we stand upon the threshold of a new year, it becomes us to make a solemn contemplative pause; though time can make no pause, but rushes on with its usual velocity. Let us take some suitable reviews and prospects of time past and future, and indulge such reflections as our transition from year to year naturally tends to suggest.

The grand and leading reflection is that in the text, with which I present you as a New Year's Gift: Knowing the time, that it is now high time to awake out of sleep.

The Romans, to whom this epistle was written, were Christians indeed, in the judgment of charity; they were such whose salvation the apostle could point at as near approaching: Now, says he, is your salvation nearer than when you believed; and yet he calls even upon such to awake out of sleep. Even sincere Christians are too often apt to fall into negligence and security. Now such a state of dullness and inactivity is often represented by the metaphor, Sleep; because, as sleep disables us from natural actions, and blunts our animal senses, so this spiritual sleep indisposes the soul for the service of God and spiritual sensations.

Hence it follows, that to awake out of sleep signifies to rouse out of carnal security, to shake off spiritual sloth, and to engage in the concerns of religion with vigor and full exertion, like men awake. This is a duty proper at all times. There is not one moment of time in which a Christian may lawfully and safely be secure and negligent.

Yet the apostle intimates, that some particular times call for particular vigilance and activity; and that to sleep at such times is a sin peculiarly aggravated. Now, says he, it is high time for us to awake out of sleep ; this is not a time for us to sleep; this time calls upon us to rouse and exert ourselves; this is the hour for action; we have slept too long already; now let us rouse and rise.

The reason the apostle urges upon the Roman Christians to awake at that time is very strong and moving; it is this: Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Or, as he expresses it in the next verse, the night is far spent, the day is at hand. The gloomy, turbulent night of the present state is near over; the dawn of eternal day is just ready to open upon us; and can we sleep at such a time ? What, sleep on the very threshold of heaven! sleep, when salvation is just ready to embrace us! sleep, when the dawn of celestial day is just about shining around us! Is it possible we should sleep at such a time ?

The text implies that Christians should always be growing in grace; and that the nearer their salvation is the more lively and zealous should they be; and since it is nearer this year than the last, they ought to be more holy this year than the last. The nearer they are to heaven the more heavenly they should be.

My chief design, at present, is, to lead you to know the time, and to make such reflections upon it, as its nature and circumstances require, and as are suited to our present conditions.

The first thing I would set you upon, as a necessary introduction to all the rest, is the important but neglected duty of self-examination. Methinks it may shock a man to enter upon a new year, without knowing whether he shall be in heaven or in hell before the end of it; and that man can give but a very poor account of the last year, and perhaps twenty or thirty years before it, that cannot yet give any satisfactory answer to this grand question. Let us therefore resolve, this day, that we will not live another year strangers to ourselves, and utterly uncertain what will become of us through an endless duration. This day let us put this question to our hearts: " What am I ? Am I a humble, dutiful servant of God, or am I a disobedient, impenitent sinner ? Am I a disciple of Christ in reality ? or do I only wear his name, and make an empty profession of his religion ? Whither am I bound ? For heaven or for hell ? Which am I most fit for in temper ? For the region of perfect holiness, or for that of sin and impurity ? Shall I stupidly delay the determination, till it be passed by the irrevocable sentence of the Supreme Judge, before whom I may stand before this year is at a close ?"

If I should push home this inquiry, it will probably discover two sorts of persons among us, to whom my text leads me particularly to address myself: the one, entirely destitute of true religion, and consequently altogether unprepared for a happy eternity, and yet careless and secure in that dangerous situation; the other, Christians indeed, and consequently habitually prepared for their latter end, but criminally remiss or formal in the concerns of religion, and in the duties they owe to God and man. The one sunk in a deep sleep in sin ; the other nodding and slumbering, though upon the slippery brink of eternity. Now as to both these sort of persons, it is high time for them to awake out of sleep. And this exhortation I would press upon them, first, by some general considerations common to both; and then by some particular proper to each respectively. The general considerations are such as these:

I. Consider the uncertainty of time as to you. You may die the next year, the next month, the next week, the next hour, or the next moment. And I once knew a minister who, while he was making this observation, was ^" made a striking example of it, and instantly dropped down dead in the pulpit. When you look forward through the year now begun, you see what may never be your own. No, you cannot call one day of it your own. Before that day comes, you may have done with time, and be entered upon eternity. Men presume upon time, as if it was entailed upon them for so many years, and this is the delusion that ruins multitudes. How many are now in eternity who begun the last year with as little expectation of death, and as sanguine hopes of long life, as you have at the beginning of the present! And this may be your doom.

Therefore, if sinners would repent and believe; if they would obtain the favor of God and preparation for the heavenly state; and if saints would make their calling and election sure ; if they would be of service to their families, their friends, their country, and mankind in general, now is the time for them to awake out of sleep, and set about their respective work. Now is the time, because this is the only time they are certain of. Sinners, you may be in hell before this year finishes its round, if you delay the great blessings of religion any longer. And saints! if you neglect to improve the present time, you may be compelled to shoot the gulf of eternity, and launch away to unknown coasts, full of fears and perplexities.

II. Consider the shortness of time as to you. Time, in its utmost extent, including what is past from the creation, and what is future to the conflagration, is nothing to eternity. But the time of your life is vastly snorter. That part of time which is parceled out to you, is not only uncertain, but extremely short; it is uncertain when it will end, but it is absolutely certain it will end very soon. You cannot hope to surpass the common standard of long lives; and that is but seventy or eighty years. A shorter space than that will probably convey you from this world to heaven or hell. And is it not time then for you to awake out of sleep ?

III. Consider how much of your time has been lost and misspent already. Some of you that are now sincere servants of God may recollect how late in life you engaged in his service; how long you stood idle in his vineyard, when his work was before you and his wages in your offer. How many guilty days and years have you spent in the drudgery of sin, and in the base neglect of God and your immortal souls. Others of you, who have the noble pleasure of reflecting that you devoted yourselves to God early in comparison to others, are yet sensible how many days and years were lost before you made so wise a choice, lost in the sins and follies of childhood and youth. And the best of you have reason to lament how much of precious time you have misspent—how much of it has been wasted upon trifles, or in an over-eager pursuit of this vain world. Does not the loss, upon the whole, amount to many days, and even years ? And a day is no small loss to a creature who has so few days at most to prepare for eternity.

As to many of you, is it not sadly evident you have lost all the days and years that have rolled over your heads? You have perhaps managed time well, as to the purposes of the present life; but that is the lowest and most insignificant use of it. Time is given as a space for repentance and preparation for eternity; but have you not your children and dearest friends may run on in sin, and perish, while it is not in your power so much as to speak one word to dissuade them.

Again: if sinners, who now are in a state of condemnation, would escape out of it; if they who are at present slaves to sin, would become sincere converts to righteousness ; if they would use the means of grace for that purpose, now is the time. There is none of this work in hell: they no sooner enter into the eternal world, than their state will be unchangeably and eternally fixed. All are ripe for eternity before they are removed into it: the good ripe for heaven, and wicked ripe for hell; the one, vessels of mercy afore-prepared for glory; and the other, vessels of wrath fitted for destruction; and therefore they must remain for ever in their respective mansions. In hell, indeed, sinners repent; but their repentance is their punishment, and has no tendency to amend or save them. They mourn and weep; but their tears are but oil to increase the flame. They cry, and perhaps pray; but the hour of audience and acceptance is past—-past for ever! The means of grace are all gone; the sanctifying influences of the Spirit are all withdrawn for ever. And hence they will corrupt and putrefy into mere masses of pure unmingled wickedness and misery. Sinners! realize this thought, and sure it must rouse you out of sleep. Trifle on a little longer, and it is over with you; spend a few days more as you have spent your time past, and you will be ingulfed in as hopeless misery as any devil in hell. Another year now meets you, and invites you to improve it to prepare for eternity; and if you waste it like the past, you may be undone for ever. Therefore, take Solomon's warning, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor wisdom in the grave, whither you are going.

These considerations, methinks, must have some weight, both upon slumbering Christians and impenitent sinners, to persuade them to awake out of sleep. I now proceed to a few considerations peculiar to each.

Upon slumbering saints I would again try the force of the apostolic consideration in my text; awake, for now is your salvation nearer than when you believed. Heaven may be only at the distance of a year or an hour from you; it is, however, nearer to-day than it ever was before. Is not salvation the thing you have been longing and laboring for ? and now can you slumber when it is so near ? can you sleep when the night of life is so far spent, and the day of eternity is ready to shine around you ? Can you sleep on the brink of eternity, on the threshold of heaven ?

Some of you, perhaps, are now thinking, " O! if I were certain my salvation is so near, it would even transport me, and inspire me with flaming zeal and unwearied activity. But, alas! I am afraid of a disappointment. It is true, I cannot but entertain some humble hope, which the severest trial cannot overthrow. But O ! what if I should be mistaken! This jealousy makes me tremble, and shrink back from the prospect."

This may be the case of many an honest soul. But can this be pleaded as a reason or excuse for security ? Alas! can you sleep in such a dreadful suspense ? sleep, while you are uncertain what shall become of you through an endless duration ? If you have not the sure prospect of salvation to awaken you, methinks the fear of damnation must effectually do it; for it is certain one or the other is near you; therefore endeavor, by severe self-examination, to push this matter to some certain issue. Besolve that you will not spend another day, much less another year, in a state of such dangerous, alarming uncertainty. If this point is not yet determined, it is certainly high time for you to awake out of sleep.

Consider, further, how far your religious improvements have come short of your own resolutions and expectations, as well as your obligations. Ye happy souls, who now enjoy a good hope through grace, recollect the time when you were in a very different and more melancholy condition; the time when your spirits bled with a thousand wounds; when the terrors of the Lord set themselves in array against you, and the thunders of Sinai rung the most alarming peals in your astonished ears; when the arrows of God stuck fast in you, and the poison of them drank up your spirits; when guilt lay heavy upon your consciences, and you sunk down into the depth of despondency ; O! what were then your vows and resolutions, if it should please God to deliver you ? Did you then expect you would fall asleep so soon after your deliverance ? Recollect also the happy hour when the face of a reconciled God first smiled upon you, when Jesus appeared to your souls in all the attractive glories of a Saviour; when he delivered your soul from death, your feet from failing, and your eyes from tears; O! what were then your thoughts and resolutions? how firmly did you bind yourselves to be his servants for ever! But how soon, alas! did you begin to slumber! How far short have you fallen of your vows and promises! Eecollect also what were your expectations at that memorable time. O! would you then have believed it, that in the space of ten or twenty years you would have made such small progress in your heavenly course, as you have in fact done ? And can you bear the thought of slumbering on still ? O! shall this year pass by like the former ? Sure you cannot bear the thought.

Let me conclude my address to you with this advice: Begin this year by dedicating yourselves afresh to God; take some hour of retirement—this evening, or as soon as you can redeem the time. Call yourselves to account for the year past, and all your life. Examine yourselves both as to the reality of your religion, and as to your proficiency in it. Conclude the whole by casting yourselves anew upon Jesus Christ, and devoting yourselves for this new year entirely to him.

Let me now address a few considerations to impenitent sinners. Consider what a dreadful risk you run by neglecting the present time. The longer you indulge yourselves in sin, the harder it will be to break off from it; and do you not then run the risk of cementing an eternal union with that deadly evil ? The longer you cherish a wicked temper, the stronger the habits of sin will grow. And are you not in danger of becoming eternal slaves to it? The more you sin against God, and grieve his Spirit, the more you provoke him to withhold the influences of his grace, and in righteous judgment to give you up. And dare you run so dreadful a risk as this ? Alas! the day of your visitation may be drawing fast towards evening, when the things that belong to your peace will be eternally hid from your eyes.

Let me deal plainly and without reserve with you, on a point too dangerous to allow of flattery. If you do not awake and turn your attention to the concerns of your souls, it is but too probable you will go on in carnal security, and at last perish for ever. Blessed be God, this is not certain, and therefore you have no reason to despair; but it is really too probable, and therefore you have great reason to fear. This alarming probability, methinks, must force its evidence upon your minds, upon principles you cannot reasonably dispute. You have lived twenty, thirty, or forty years, or more, in the world. In this time you have enjoyed the same means of grace which you can expect in time to come. You had done less to provoke the great God to cast you off; your sinful habits were not so strong; you were not so much hardened through the deceitfulness of sin; and the lqnger you live in this condition, the more discouraging it will grow. The most hopeful part of your life is over with you; and yet even in that you were not brought to repentance. How much less likely is it then, that you will be converted in time to come?

Suffer me to tell you plainly that I cannot but tremble for some of you. I am really afraid some of you will perish for ever; and the ground of my fear is this : The most generous charity cannot but conclude that some of you are impenitent sinners; your temper and conduct proclaim it aloud; and it is very unlikely, all things considered, that you will be ever otherwise. Since you have not re

Eented in the most promising season of life, it is much to e feared you will not repent in the less promising part of it. And since no impenitent, unholy sinner can enter into the kingdom of heaven, it is much to be feared you will perish for ever; not because the mercy of God or the merit of Christ is insufficient to save you, if you apply to him for it, according to the terms of the gospel; not because your case is in itself hopeless, if you would awake out of sleep, and seek the Lord in earnest; but because it is too likely you will go on careless and secure, as you have done, and persist in it, till all your time is gone, and then your case will be desperate. I honestly warn you of your danger, which is too great to be concealed. And yet I give you sufficient encouragement to fly from it, while I assure you, that if you now lay your condition to heart, and earnestly use all proper means for your conversion, you have the utmost reason to hope for success, as much reason as the saints now in heaven once had when in your condition.

Therefore, now, sinners, awake out of sleep. Instead of entering upon this new year with carousals and extravagances, consecrate it to the great purposes for which it is given you, by engaging in earnest in the great work of your salvation. What meanest thou, 0 sleeper ? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be he will think upon thee, that thou perish not.

Consider, this year may lay you low in the dust of death. How many are now in the grave who saw the last new year's day ! And though I cannot point out the persons, yet, without a spirit of prophecy, I may venture to foretell that some of us will be in heaven or hell before this year performs its round; some gray head or some sprightly youth; perhaps you; or perhaps I. And since none of us know who it shall be, none of us are exempted from the necessity of immediate preparation. O ! that we may be all so wise as to consider our latter end.

I beg leave of my promiscuous auditory to employ a few minutes in addressing myself to my important family, whom my paternal affection would always single out from the rest, even when I am speaking in general terms to a mixed crowd. Therefore, my dear charge, my pupils, my children, and every tender and endearing name! Ye young immortals, ye embryo-angels or infant-fiends, ye blooming, lovely, fading flowers of human nature, the hope of your parents and friends, of church and state, the hope, joy, and glory of your teachers! hear one that loves you ; one that has nothing to do in the world but to promote your best interest; one that would account this the greatest blessing he could enjoy in his pilgrimage, and whose nights and days are sometimes made almost equally restless by his affectionate anxieties for you; hear him upon a subject in which you are most intimately interested—a subject the most important that even an apostle or an angel could address you upon ; and that is, the right improvement of time, the present time, and preparation for eternity. I make no doubt but you will all look upon religion as an object worthy of your notice. You all believe heaven and hell are not majestic chimeras, or fairy lands, but the most important realities; and that you must in a little time be the residents of the one or the other. It cannot, therefore, be a question with any of you, whether you shall mind religion at all! On that you are all determined. But the question is, What is the most proper time for it ? Whether the present or some uncertain hereafter ? And in what order you should attend to it, whether in the first place, and above all, even 305

in your early days ? or whether you should not rather indulge yourselves in the pleasures of youth for some time, and then make religion the dull business of old age. If any of you hesitate upon this point, it may be easily solved. This is the most convenient, promising season for this purpose that you are likely to see; never will you live more free from care, or more remote from temptation. When you launch out into the noise, and bustle, and hurry, and company, and business, and vice of the world, you will soon find the scene changed for the worse. Therefore, now, my dear youth, now in this inviting season, awake out of sleep; awake to righteousness and sin not. I beg you would not now commit sin with a design to repent of it afterwards; for can you be so foolish, as knowingly and deliberately to do that which you explicitly intend to repent of?—that is, to do that which you intend to wish undone, and to lament with broken hearts that you ever did it. Can Bedlam itself parallel the folly of this ? O ! take warning from the fate of your wretched predecessors iu this course. Could you ask the crowds of lost ghosts who are now suffering the punishment of their sin, whether they intended to persist impenitent in it and perish, they would all answer, that they either vainly flattered themselves they had repented already, or intended to repent before they died; but death seized them unawares, and put an end to all their sanguine hopes. Young sinners among them imagined they should not die till old age ; and old age itself thought it might hold out a few days longer, and that it was time enough to repent. But, O! they have now discovered their error, when it is too late to correct it. Therefore, do not harbor one thought of putting off repentance to a sick bed or to old age; that is the most inconvenient and desperate season in your whole life ; and if you fix upon this, one would think you had reviewed your whole life on purpose to find out the most unfit and discouraging period of it for the most necessary, difficult, and important work in the world. Come, then, now devote yourselves to God, and away with all excuses and delays. Remember, that upon the principles I have laid down,— principles that must gain your assent by the force of their own evidence; I say, remember that upon these principles it is extremely likely you will always persist impenitent in sin, and perish for ever, if you waste away the present sea

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