mercies: and we, charged with a multiplicity of cares; we, in the midst of the solicitudes and the engagements of the age, which absorb almost all our days and our moments; we, responsible to our relations, to our children, to our friends, to our inferiors, to our superiors, to our stations, to our country, for such an infinity of duties, — we still find a void in our life; and the little which remains to us, we think too long to be employed in serving and blessing thy holy name!
But we are happy, you say, when we know how to amuse ourselves, and innocently to pass away the time. But how do you know that your course is not already run, and that you do not perhaps touch the fatal moment which commences your eternity? Does your time belong to you, to be disposed of as you please? Time itself passes away so soon; and are so many amusements necessary to assist it in passing still more rapidly?
But is time given to you for nothing serious, great, and eternal; nothing worthy of the elevation and destiny of man? And the Christian and inheritor of heaven, is he upon the earth only to amuse himself?
But are there not, you say, many innocent recreations in life? I grant there are many: bat recreations suppose pains and cares, which have preceded them; while your whole life is one continued recreation. Recreations are permitted to those who, after fulfilling their duties, are under the necessity of affording some moments of relaxation to the weakness of human nature: but you, if you have occasion for relaxation, it is from the continuance of your pleasures, and even what you call your recreations: it is from the rage of inordinate gaming, of which the duration and earnest attention necessary, besides the loss of time, render you incapable, on quitting it, of application to any other duty of your station. What recreation can you find m a lawless and boundless passion, which occupies almost your whoie life, ruins your health, deranges your fortune, and renders you the continual sport of a miserable chance? And is it not with such characters that we find neither order, rule, nor discipline? All serious duties forgotten; disorderly servants; children miserably educated; affairs declining; and public scorn and contempt attached to their names and their unfortunate posterity? The passion of gaming is almost never unaccompanied; and to those of one sex especially, is always the source or the occasion of all the others. These are the recreations you believe innocent, and necessary to fill up the empty moments of the day.
Ah! my brethren, how many of the reprobate, in the midst of their anguish and punishments, entreat from the mercy of God only one of those moments which we know not how to employ! and, could their request be granted, what use would they not make of that precious moment! How many tears of compunction and penitence! How many prayers and supplications, to soften the Father of mercies, and to induce his paternal feelings to restore to them his affection? This only moment is nevertheless refused. Time, they are told, exists no more for them: and you find your-
