JONAH i. iv. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry 271 282 THE INCREASE OF KNOWLEDGE A SIGN OF THE TIMES. DANIEL xii. 4. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be SOCIAL CHANGES SUBSERVIENT TO THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. EZEKIEL XXI. 27. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him EPHESIANS V. 16. Redeeming the time, because the days are evil THE NECESSITY AND RIGHT METHOD OF SELF-EXAMINATION. 2 CORINTHIANS xiii. 5. Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how THE THOUGHTS AND WAYS OF GOD CONTRASTED WITH THOSE OF MAN. ISAIAH lv. 8, 9. My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, LECTURES. î LECTURE I. THE NEW YEAR. ECCLESIASTES vii. 8. "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning." LEST this should seem rather a strange sentence to be taken as the foundation of a religious discourse, it may be proper to say at once, that the intended application of it is to the particular season to which the course of nature and the care of divine Providence have brought us,-the beginning of another year. At the same time, this sentence should be true of many things that might be specified; and it will, if those things succeed well. For instance:-(1.) any train of serious thoughts and exercises in the mind, having a reference to practical good, and beginning on one suggestion, one conviction, but at last attaining the ultimate effect, or result; (2.) a course of inquiry concerning any important truth; the beginning is ignorance, doubt, anxiety, dread of the labour, misty and dubious twilight, and daybreak; but the end, knowledge, certainty, satisfaction; . . . . (3.) any practical undertaking for social good, as the present one; . (4.) a Christian profession; examples of VOL. I. B the contrary are justly accounted among the most melancholy sights on earth; .. (5.) life itself; in the beginning are the charms of infancy; but the end may be far better;-(as in the case of a withered, trembling, sinking old man, whose soul is ripe for eternity;) —and it should be so, and must be so, or life is an awful calamity! The text expresses the general principle or doctrine, that by the condition of our existence here, if things go right, a conclusion is better than a beginning. It is in the condition of our existence in this world, that this principle is founded. That condition is, that everything is passing on toward something else in order to, and for the sake of, that something further on; so that its chief importance or value is in that something to be attained further on. Childhood is regarded in relation to manhood; in that view its importance is estimated. But in the view of true wisdom, this more advanced stage itself is considered in reference to a final maturity for another state. So in all our progressive schemes, measures, exercises, pursuits-where is the main point of the interest? In something beyond them. Thus what we are, what we have, or effect, or attain, is still relative to something further on. And if that ulterior object be attained, and be worth all this preceding course of things, then, "the end is better than the beginning." This is the doctrine of the text;-" the end," when it is the accomplishment of the desirable purpose," is better than the beginning." The fruit is better than the blossom:the reaping is better than the sowing;-the enjoyment than the reaping :-the second stage of a journey to the happy home is better than the first;-the home itself than all:-the victory is better than the march and the battle:the reward is better than the course of service :-the ending in the highest improvement of means is better than being put at first in possession of them. In all this we see it is conditionally, and not absolutely, that "the end is better than the beginning." To come now to our intended subject, the new year. We have to consider it on the supposition of our living through it. And it is most exceedingly desirable that in the noblest sense," the end" should be "better than the beginning." We may previously suggest, that, in some respects, independently of our will, the end may be worse than the beginning, and, in all probability, will be so with some of us. It may be, that before the end of the year, the Sovereign Disposer will have withdrawn or diminished some of our means and advantages for turning it to account ;—that some of our associates and helpers will be taken away;that our health and vigour will be diminished. As to those who are feeling the infirmities of declining life, it may be accounted certain that a year will sensibly increase these evils. If, notwithstanding anything that shall be thus experienced, it shall nevertheless be true at the end of the year that "better is the end of a thing than the beginning," it will be a delightful thing. Now let us consider in a short series of plain particulars, what state of the case would authorize us, at the end of the year, to pronounce this sentence upon it. And, in the first place, it will easily occur as a general rule of judgment on the matter, that the sentence may be pronounced if, at the end of the year, we shall be able, after deliberate conscientious reflection, to affirm that the year has been, in the most important respects, better than the preceding. It is possible, to a reflective spirit, to recall several preceding years (as the countenances of several departed acquaintance), to compare and estimate them one with another. This has sometimes been one of the serious employments of thought of persons sensible of their approaching end, to see how the evil or the good influences |