And when the stroke of death has actually fallen upon a relative or friend, we have sometimes seen it overwhelm the soul of a heedless survivor, and bring him to himself, to serious thought and repentance; he began to sit loose to the remaining interests of life; he looked with anxiety to the world unknown, and formed resolutions of devoting his years to a constant provision for futurity; but all to no ultimate purpose; the subject had sued for his attention before, and been rejected. When his affections have had time to cool, he finds that no new importance has really been given to the truth; the evidences of it rest as they did; others have lost friends as well as he; it is the common lot of mortality; and he cannot keep alive the impression for ever; the world must be attended to; and one object after another continues to gain an ascendancy, till his new-born hopes and fears are extinct; till his principles and conduct and views return to their old level, from which they will in future become the more difficult to be raised. It is unnecessary for me to insist, that this is no ideal picture, drawn for the mere occasion of placing the subject in a strong light; your own acquaintance with the world may furnish you with living resemblances of it; and it is unhappily the lot of Christian Ministers, who have more frequent opportunity of witnessing such impressions, to observe, in the end, their repeated and lamentable failure; to perceive how far they fall short of lasting conviction and salvation. Well, therefore, in the affectionate and faithful discharge of our duty, may we call upon our hearers to weigh, in the dispassioned hours of health and tranquillity, the nature and the moment of those divine truths, which the gospel clearly reveals unto man; to judge rightly and truly of their everlasting import; and to embrace them, from the undeniable evidence already presented, with all the heart and all the soul. We call, however, upon our hearers, not as if the vital impression depended upon themselves alone, upon the exercise of their own judgment or the workings of their own conscience. We call upon them to pray for, and be guided by, the mighty operation of the Spirit of God: He is ever ready to enlighten and instruct and quicken and determine them; giving us His grace, “that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.” {125} Listen to His teaching; obey His godly motions; follow up the convictions which He brings to the mind and heart. Light enough is perpetually given, to guide you into all truth; live in the light; walk in the light.