Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/173

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ser. viii.]
uncertainty of time.
169

we be grovelling here, seeing that we shall so soon be called away to try the realities of the eternal world? Does it not become us to be up and doing the work of our soul's salvation while it is called, to day? This is the great lesson that a mysterious Providence is enforcing upon us by the awful plague[1] that is now sweeping off the race by hundreds, both in this and in other countries. God now impressively calls upon men "to consider their ways," "to do justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly before him." Short-sighted indeed must he be who has failed to observe the growing disposition to cast off the fear of God, the wholesome restraints of religion, to profane the Lord's day—to lessen the influence of churches and ministers, and all sacred institutions. Indeed, even children are now much wiser than their parents, guardians and teachers, in their own estimation. Many of these young wiseacres, have yet to learn the

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  1. The Cholera.