Verses 11, 12. _Dying regrets._ +I. The subject of these regrets.+ It is a man who has disregarded through life the means employed to preserve or reclaim him. What instructors has a man living in a country like this? _First,_ Your connections in life. You may have been a member of a pious family, or had an instructor or a reprover in a brother, friend, or religious neighbour. _Second,_ The Scriptures. _Third,_ Ministers. _Fourth,_ Conscience. _Fifth,_ Irrational creatures. Can you hear the melody of the birds and not be ashamed of your sinful silence? Can you see the heavenly bodies perform unerringly their appointed course and not reflect on your own numberless departures from duty? _Sixth,_ The dispensations of Providence. God has chastened you with sickness. You have stood by dying beds. +II. The period of these regrets.+ It is a dying hour. It is "at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed." Such a period is _unavoidable._ The last breath _will_ expire, and the last Sabbath _will_ elapse, and the last sermon _will_ be heard. Such a period cannot be _far off._ "For what is our life? It is a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away." It is a flood. It is a flower. It is a tale that is told. It is a dream. Such a period _may be very near._ Such a period is sometimes _prematurely brought on by sin._ +III. The nature of these regrets.+ This mourning is (1) _dreadful._ A dying hour has been called an honest hour. The world then recedes from view. The delusions of imagination give way. Criminal excuses vanish. Memory goes back and recalls the guilt of the former life, and conscience sets the most secret sins in the light of God's countenance. (2) _It is useless._ Not as to others, but as regards the individuals themselves. We are to describe things according to their natural and common course, and not according to occasional exceptions. And in this case exceptions are unusual. And we are borne out in this assertion (1) _By Scripture._ There we find _only one_ called at this hour. (2) _By observation._ We have often attended persons on what seemed their dying bed: we have heard their prayers and their professions; we have seen their distress and their relief, and, had they died, we should have presumed on their salvation. But we have never known one of these, who, on recovery, lived so as to prove the reality of his conversion! We have often asked ministers concerning the same case, and they have been compelled to make the same awful declaration.--_Jay._ Verse 14. In a spiritual sense this may be applied to those who "hold the truth in unrighteousness" (Rom. i. 18), and who, although they dwell in the midst of holy men in the Church of God, set their example at defiance by evil lives.--_Bede._