fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, hut unto all them also that love his appearing."[1] But on the other hand, if we suffer our minds to linger here with fond attachment to the things of earth, we shall be lifted up by its joys, and thrown down by its sorrows; and when we are called to die, having devoted all our attention to the things of time, the soul will be forced away into eternity, with a weight of unrepented sins that must inevitably sink it into endless perdition. For, "except a man be born of water and of the Spirit" our Lord declares that "he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."[2] He can neither be admitted into the kingdom of grace here, nor participate in the ineffable glories of his kingdom hereafter. As it is not in man to desire
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the shortness and
[ser. viii.
