to the guidance of the Gospel, cannot hope to possess its support and consolations in the first hour of need. How dark, therefore, to such, is the season of sickness, of sorrow, and of adversity: they enjoy no light from above, no comfort from within, no consolation from without, which can brighten the gloomy mind, cheer the desponding heart, and soothe the alarmed conscience. Faithful and busy memory serves only to supply a painful retrospect of opportunities neglected, and warnings despised: and conscience, which had long slumbered in a deadly lethargy, often now inflicts her sharpest stings upon the wretched sufferer. And should they be arrested by the sudden stroke of a fatal malady, when living in forgetfulness of God, and intently occupied with the pursuit of pleasure, honour, or of gain; how terrible is the approach of death! How often, as this life is fading from the darkening eye, do the realities of the next burst upon the mind, with a distinctness and force never felt before! How often, as the soul is trembling on the fearful verge of eternity, is a vain wish entertained for the return of a brief portion of that time which has been spent in sin, folly, or the acquisition of what will not profit in a dying hour! But is the prayer for mercy, extorted by fear and suffering, never heard; is the tardy repentance never accepted? On the contrary, we believe the prayer of humble and contrite guilt to be never rejected: but, be it remembered, at the same time, that repentance is the gift of God, and that those who long trifle with their day of grace, and by silencing the admonitions of conscience, resist the Spirit, may be visited with the fearful punishment of judicial blindness and final impenitence. “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded: but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity, and will mock when your fear cometh; _when your fear cometh as desolation_, _and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind_, _when distress and anguish cometh upon you_. _Then shall they call upon me_, _but I will not answer_; _they shall seek me early_, _but they shall not find me_: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord; they would none of my counsel, they despised all my reproof.” {26}