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4
31,2
THE
END .OF
TIME.
{DISe. r;
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.
In-
deed,
if
their head
ache, or
their
face grow pale,
and
a
physician
feel
their
pulse,
or look
wishfully on
their
countenance, and
especially,
if
lie
should shake
his
head, or tell
them
his fears,
that
they
will
not
hold
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
how
unfit
they
are
for eternity
:
Yet
when
the
pain
vanishes, and they
feel
health
again,
they
are
as
much
at
a
loss as ever,
what
to
do with
the rem-
nant of
life..
O
the painful and
unhappy ignorance of
the sons
and
daughters
of
men,
that
are sent hither
on a
trial
for
eter-
nity,
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
:
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,
be-
cause
they
cannot
spend
it
fast enough They
are
perpe-
tually
calling
in
the assistance of others,
to
laugh
ar
spórt,
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
and
distraction
is
this
?
What
sottish inconsistency
is
found
in
the
heart
and
practice
of
sinful men Eccles.
ix.
3.
"
The
heart
of
the
sons
of
men is
full
of
evil;
madness
is
in
their heart
while they
live,
and,
after
that,
they go
down
to
the
dead."
O
that
these
loiterers
would once consider,
that
time
loiters
not
!
days
and
hours, months and years loiter
not
!
each
of
them
flies
away with swiftest
wing, as
fast
as suc-
cession
admits
of,
and bears them onward
to
the
goal
of
eternity.
If
they delay and linger, among
toys
and
sha-
dows,
time
knows no
delay
;
and
they
will,
one
day,
learn
by
bitter
experience,
what
substantial, important,
and eternal
blessings they have
lost
by
their
criminal
and
shameful waste
of
time.
The
apostle
Peter
assures
them
;
2
Pet.ii.
3.
Though
they slumber and sleep
in
a
lethargy
of
sin,
so
that
you
cannot
awaken
them, yet
s`.
their judgment lingereth
not, and
their
damnation