"trade-winds" for hell will be along by and by. Those who neglect the one are about sure to be taken and carried away by the other.

3d. Let "One truly grieved" hearken! "Disrespect for the aged"? Not so! I dare not! God has commanded, "Honor the face of the old man." Did I not quote Solomon on the occasion,-"The beauty of old men is the gray head"? And again, "The HOARY HEAD is a crown of glory, if found in the way of righteousness"? Was that showing disrespect to the aged? Let gray heads in this audience judge between us. True, I did say, and perhaps the rub was there, "If found in the way of righteousness," mark that!"the hoary head, &c., if found in the way of righteousness," otherwise a dumb animal grown gray in his master's service is more worthy of honor, at least in some respects, than he who has grown gray in the service of the devil. This was harsh, I admit; but, after pondering the matter, I cannot conscientiously unsay it.

O, it is a sad sight to behold one "upon whose head Time has showered its snows" giving evidence that sin has, and still is, showering its follies! It is difficult to meet a sadder sight, both as regards his fearful destiny and the pernicious example he is giving to the youth around. This may account for the fact that amid a population of thousands we behold, comparatively, so few gray heads. Men who are likely to grow gray in sin he who rides on the pale horse, with hell following after, cuts down, usually, and buries them out of sight. Rev. 6: 8. Here and there we behold exceptions, as if left to illustrate the forbearance and long-suffering of God,-like the aged trees scattered over the American landscape, remnants of the primitive forest, few and far between, spared by the storm,

the lightning, the are, to wither at last, and die,- dead at roots, dead in trunk, dead at top, they fall at length, and in piecemeal are given to the flames. The application, I confess, had something of the terrible in it, nor could I be so simple as to suppose such sentiments could be very palat

able to those concerned.

But how sublimely glorious to behold "the hoary head in the way of righteousness," standing almost on "the stepping-stones between two worlds," close to that dread outlet to regions invisible, yet

"Bold to take up, firm to sustain,
The consecrated cross ;"

firm in cheerful trust and holy hope; lending all his residue of strength and influence to God and goodness; standing in ways of goodness, "in all the monumental pomp of age," fresh in the strength and majesty of mind and beauty of the heart! O, but I do sometimes wonder if earth has a lovelier sight than this! Such are the glory of Christ, and the honor of the church, the joy of good men and the delight of angels, whose company they are so soon to join! Such aged Christians are the joy of my eyes, and the delight of my heart. I live too fast to hope for it; but, should God spare me, I should like to become such an one, that I might tell it to generations coming that the "living waters" mentioned by the prophet are as sweet, as pure, as refreshing, in the winter of old age, as in life's gay morning, or as in manhood's summer! - Zech. 14: 8.

But to return: that I did "bear down hard” upon such as put off religion till they are fit for no other work, and hardly fit for that, I confess. Where Christ is so slighted and affronted, it is wrong to be silent. The old sinner who said he felt it would be an imposition upon God to

offer himself to the service of the Saviour at so late an hour realized my meaning. That he was not rejected, shows that God does not reject repentance at the eleventh hour, although he has given it no special promise,—at least, no promise of the grace of repentance at such a time. Several such have lately found mercy," brands plucked out of the fire," indeed; they have been spared and saved, while nearly all the generation to which they belonged are dead and buried. Let no aged sinner present despair, therefore. But, so few saved of such, and so few such above ground to be saved, is surely a matter of alarm to the unconverted aged among us, and a powerful argument against procrastination in all you who are younger.

The aged persons who have been saved had a hard struggle. Well might one say: "Old age is no good age to repent. When the fingers are hard and stiff, not easy to learn to play on an instrument; when the heart is grown hard in wickedness, it is but ill tuning the penitential string. Poison long in the stomach is hard to get out. It is bad to adjourn salvation, for that gives Satan a plea for right of possession; anyhow, it is hard to dispossess him. Sunset is no good time to begin a day's work, and what is done is done to great disadvantage, and seldom well done; there is a lazy weariness about it, and dimness of light in doing it. But in matters of religion it is all this, and madness into the bargain. The night cometh, when no man can work,' the Scripture says, I think. Will God accept this late repentance?—that is the question. He once asked for the first fruits, but was refused; will he now accept the gleanings? Cain was rejected, and why? I suppose he presented no sin-offering, like Abel, but it appears that what he did bring for an offering he was long about,in process of time,' the margin of my old, neg

lected Bible has it, 'at the end of days;' alas! that was enough to cast him! put it off as long as he could- to the end of the season, may be, and then brought gleanings, or some dried-up, worthless rubbish, like what the poor old sinner brings, good for nothing else! It is a wonder any old sinners get saved; but they do, and, therefore, there is hope. Dry, marrowless bones! what an offering for God's altar! Hard work it is! An old sinner, like an old tree, is hard to be uprooted. No wonder that young folks get religion so fast and so easy! These young sinners, like young trees, are easy of transplantation. He is an unwise captain who would lie in dry-dock till hull is leaky and rigging rotten, despising fair winds, high tides and good chances, and then and thus set sail in bad weather, that is the old sinner's history. It was impressed upon my mind. that, just as Peter slept between two soldiers in prison, bound with two chains, so an old sinner sleeps between Death and the devil, bound with two chains- evil habits and unbelief. I mean no disrespect to Peter; but if an angel of God were in mercy to come down and enter this prison, he would rescue the old sinner from a more terrible doom than that he helped Peter away from." Let us give God the praise, if young sinners have been saved, old ones have not been left to perish in their sins. More of the aged are coming. We shall have some of them to-night. Let the young, the middle-aged and the aged, hear the command of the Holy Ghost: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest."- Eccles. 9: 10.

*

A few hearers had their answers last night before the text. Let some others listen for theirs to-night.

1st. Let "A Protesting Hearer" hearken. I like the word protest; it is the good old root from which came our good old title of Protestant. But our forefathers protested against error and darkness; your protest bears against truth and light. How is this? Are you unable to bear the sight of your own principles? Must they be shrouded in "a dim religious light," to render them at all bearable to yourself? The light in which you have lately seen them has been somewhat too vivid for your faith or the weak eyes of your conscience. You blame the vividness of the medium through which you have viewed your principles. What has that to do with them? It is like a telescope - it shows them as they are, adds nothing fictitious. Why blame the light? I climbed the Apennines, once, with a friend, in the darkness of the night; morning dawned, and flushed with light those scenes of savage grandeur. Did the light create that scenery, or show it only? It was there in all its savage aspects before we or morning visited it. But we were thankful for the light, as by it we were enabled to avoid perils on every hand. You have sense enough to apply this to the light which has lately shined upon the objects of your faith, rendering them so terrifying to your consciences.

Come, come, sir; pray try to look your principles in the face. If they are anything, they are everything; if true, they are tremendously true. If they are worthy of my attention, they are worthy of thine of the attention of all present in this assembly. Learn to look them in the face now, or by and by they will look you in the face, on the death-bed, and frighten you, as if so many devils were glaring upon you.

Perhaps you are not accustomed to see your protestant principles in so strong a light. Besides, a vivid light is