SERMON XIII.*

1 CHRONICLES xxix. 15.

FOR WE ARE STRANGERS BEFORE THEE, AND

SOJOURNERS, AS

WERE ALL OUR FATHERS; OUR DAYS ON THE EARTH ARE AS A SHADOW, AND THERE IS NONE ABIDING.

It was when the princes and people of Israel had contributed liberally for the building of the temple, and sufficient means were secured for the erection of that splendid and imposing structure, that David gave utterance to the effusions of his heart, in the prayer that contains the text. Deeply affected with the providence of God, overwhelmed with gratitude, and oppressed with a sense of his imbecility, and the frailty of his fleeting life, he exclaimed, "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand

* A New Year's Discourse.

is the power and the might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now, therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers; our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding."

The sentiment of the text is conceived in the strong and figurative language of the inspired poet. When Abraham was called to leave his native country, it was to sojourn (i. e. dwell temporarily) in a strange land; he had no permanent home there, neither had Isaac or Jacob after him. And when their descendants were brought out of Egypt, to go in and possess this strange land, which God had promised their fathers to give it to them, they were not allowed to sell their lands, as we presume to do, to such a person and his heirs forever, but only for a limited time, not exceeding fifty years, that they might feel they were not the possessors of the earth, but only, as it were, tenants at will. The declaration of God to them was distinct: "The land shall not be sold for ever; for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners." It was probably in allusion to these circumstances, that David said, "we are strangers and sojourners, as were all our fathers." He felt that he had no home on earth. The world was to him, as it was to

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his fathers, and as indeed, it is to us, like one great house of entertainment, filled with new visiters, to be emptied, and filled again with other visiters to-morrow; we came yesterday, and we go to-morrow. "Our days on the earth," he continues, are as a shadow," the shadow of some light summer cloud, flying over the field, covering only a little spot; it is now on the hill-side, now in the valley,-and then it is gone. "And there is none abiding." The word in the original seems to refer to the gathering of waters into a sea or lake, where they remain. Life is not like a permanent sea," there is none abiding;" it is rather like the river, whose waters follow each other in close succession, and rush rapidly on.

There are many events continually occurring around us, which dispose us to feel like the poet of Israel, and to adopt his language. "We are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding." We are then thrown into a state of solemn musing. We give ourselves up to the natural and spontaneous suggestions of our own minds.

And the first reflection, perhaps, that occurs to us is the amazing rapidity of time. We are startled at the thought of it. A year has fled away; its scenes are chiefly forgotten; and we seem to ourselves scarcely older than when it began. We may remember when a year appeared to us in anticipation, as an almost endless age. But such a year

has been, and is gone like a day. We are made to realize the strong and figurative language of the Bible, "What is your life? It is as a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then passeth away.” "We spend our years as a tale that is told."

It is but as yesterday that we were amusing ourselves with the fancies, the sports, and the thoughtless gaiety of childhood. The sounds of our own nursery have scarcely ceased to ring in our ears. The gewgaws with which we trifled, the uncouth toys which our young invention framed, the various playful exercises with which we contrived to beguile the hours which hung tediously upon us, are all still fresh and vivid before our eyes. We may recollect distinctly as youth was advancing, what plans we formed, and what schemes we laid, to be accomplished before we should arrive at the age of maturity, and take our stand with men on the stage of life. We may remember what learning we hoped to gain, what skill we expected to acquire, and how much we purposed to do in preparation for manhood, in the long years that were coming, before we should be permitted to act for ourselves. We looked upon those who were moving among us as masters then, and acting with independence, upon their own responsibility, as standing at a distance from us in the line of time, that we were hardly able to measure.

But these days have all gone by; these scenes: have passed away, and we remember them now as we do the dreams of last night. We awake to the

realities of the present day, and find ourselves in the very condition that appeared to us so distant. Our fathers have already taken, or are fast taking, the place of those whom we were wont to gaze upon, and to venerate, as the rare and curious representatives of a by-gone age. We look back from our present position, and a single whole length of time between.

glance covers the

We strive in vain

to measure it over; it has all gone, and gone with the rapidity of thought; it has passed before us like some phantom, and we can only say it has been, but is not. Years, before our retrospective eye, shrink down to moments. We expected a long life to come before this hour; but it has been, and is gone, and lo! it was but a day.

"Time, in advance, behind him hides his wings,
And seems to creep, decrepit with his age;
Behold him when passed by; what then is seen,
But his broad pinions, swifter than the wind?"

As we go onward, the velocity of time is ever apparently increasing. Each year seems to move faster and faster, as if with a growing impatience to hurry us away. We are more and more surprised at each period that calls us to look back, and mark our progress. We seem to be urged forward, like those who have come within the circles of a whirlpool, and are moving in the current with a force that increases most rapidly, and bears them. along still more swiftly as they approach the point where they are to be ingulfed. Our days must soon, be numbered and finished; our end will quickly