Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/158

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the shortness and
[ser. viii.

revelation confirm, is practically rejected. Buthowever averse we may be to give this subject that due consideration which its importance demands, its truthfulness nevertheless, remains the same. Our indifference to it cannot alter it. It becomes us, therefore, as rational and accountable beings, calmly, but seriously to consider, how short the time is that we have to remain upon the stage of action. And may the Holy Spirit help us so to consider it, that we may be led to apply our hearts unto heavenly wisdom.

"The time is short." Compared with that eternal duration which is without beginning or end; time, in its most extended sense, stretching out its line from the dawn of creation to the final consummation of all things, is short. For though our planet should continue its diurnal and annual revolution a thousand times longer than it has already, a period is to arrive, when its present career through its