DISC. I:7
l
THE
END
0-F
TIME.
3íJ
period,
will
furnish
us
with
perpetual
new
occasions
of
holy
meditation."
Do
I
observe
the declining
day,
and
the
setting
sun,
.
sinking into darkness?
-So
declines the
day of
life,
the
hours
of
labour,
and
the season
of
grace
:
O
may
I
.finish my
appointed
work
with
honour
ere the
light
is
fled
!
May
I
improve
the
shining,hours of
grace ere
the
shadows
of
the
evening
overtake
me,
and
my
time
of
working
is
no
more
!
Do
I
see
the moon gliding
along
through
midnights
and
fulfilling
her
stages
in
the
dusky
sky
?
This
planet
also
is
measuring
out
my life,
and
bringing the
number
of
my
months
to
their
end.
May
I
be
prepared
to
take
leave
of
the
sun
and
moon,
and
bid
adieu
to
these visible
heavens, and
all
the twinkling glories
of
them
!
These
are
all
but the
measurers of
my
time,
and hasten
me
on
towards eternity.
Am
I
walking in
a garden, and stand
still to
observe
the
slow
motion
of
the
shadow
upon a
dial
there?
It
passes over the
hour
lines
with
an imperceptible
pro-
gress,
yet it
will
touch the last
line
of
day-light
shortly
So
my hours and
my
moments
mové
onward
with
a silent
pace
;
but
they
will
arrive
with
certainty
at
the
last
limit;
how heedless soever
I
am
of their
motion, and how
thoughtless soever
I
may
be
of
the improvement
of
time,
or
of
the end
of
it.
Does
a new
year
commence,
and
the first morning
of
it
dawn
upon
me
?
Let
rue
remember,
that
the last
year
was finished,
and gone over
my
head,
in
orden
to
make
way for
the
entrance
of
the present:'
I
have one
year the
less to
travel through
this world,
and
to fulfil
the
various
services
of-a'travelling
state:
May
my
diligence
in
duty
be
doubled,
since
the-
number
of
my
appointed
years
is
diminished
!
Duo
I
find
a
new
birth
-day,
in
my
survey
of
the.calen-
dar, the day
wherein
I
entered upon the
stage
of
mor-
tality, and
was
born
into
this
world
of
sins,
frailties,
and
sorrows,
in
order
for my
probation
for
a
better state
?
Blessed
Lord,
how
much have
I
spent already of this
mortal
life,
this season
of
my
probation, and
how
little
am
I
prepared
for
that
happier
world
?
How
unready
for
my
dying
moment
?
I
am
hastening hourly
to
the end
of
the
life
of
man, which began
at
my
nativity
:
Am
I
yet
z2