Sd THE WORLD TÓ COME. Reflection III. We may learn, from this discourse, `" the stupid folly and madness of those, who are terribly afraid of the end of time, whensoever they think of it, and yet they know not what to do with their time, as it runs off daily and hourly." They find their souls unready for death, and yet they .live from year to 'year, without any further preparation for dying : They waste away their hours of leisure in mere trifling, they lose their seasons of grace, their means and opportunities of salvation in a thoughtless. and shameful manner, as though they had no business to employ them in ; they live as though they had nothing to do with all their time but to eat and drink, and be easy and merry. From the rising to the setting sun, you find them still in pursuit of impertinencies ; they waste God's sacred time, as well as their own, either in a lazy, indolent, and careless humour, or in fol- lowing after vanity, sin, and madness, while the end of time is hastening upon them. What multitudes are there of the race .of Adam, both in higher and in lower ranks, who are ever complaining they want , leisure ; and when they have a release from business, for one day or one hour, they hardly know what to do with that idle day, nor how to lay ont one of the hours of it for any valuable purpose ? Those in higher stations, and richer circumstances, have most of their time at their own command and disposal ; hut, by their actual disposal of it, you plainly see they know not what it is.good for, nor what use to make of it; they are quite at a loss how to get rid of this tedious thing, called time, which lies daily as a burden on their hands. Indeed, if their head ache, or their face grow pale, and a physician feel their pulse, or look wishfully on their countenance, and especially, if he shoukl shake his head, or tell them his fears, that they will not bold out long, what surprize of soul, what agonies and terrors seize them on a sudden, for fear of'the end of time ? For they are conscious hew unfit they are for eternity : Yet when the pain vanishes, arid they feel health again, they are as much at a loss as ever, what to do with the remnant of life. O the painful and unhappy ignorance of the sons and daughters of men, that are sent hither on a trial for eternity, and yet know not how to pass away time ! They know not how to wear out life, and get soon enough to the end of the day r They doze their hours away, or saunter from place to place, without any design or meaning: They enquire of every one they meet, what they shall do to kill time, as the French phrase is, because they cannot spend it fast enough : They are perpetually calling in the assistance of Others,. to laugh, or sport, or trifle with them, and to help them off with this dead weight of time, while, at the same moment, if you do but mention the end,of time, they are dreadfully afraid of coming near it. What folly
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