then is it that we should number our days in such an advantageous manner, as to correct our errors in judgment and practice; to pursue those paths which produce more abundant happiness to our own souls, be more useful to society, and bring more honour to that blessed Saviour whose we are, and whom we wish to serve? Thus, when we come to the day of our death, we shall assuredly find the advantages by this enumeration of our days. Composure will attend our minds; we shall not be at a loss for evidence that God hath been our guide; and that he will still be our never-failing support. Besides, the improvement of time will familiarize eternity to our minds, and increase in us an ardent desire to be transmitted to that state of perfect blessedness, where days, and months, and years are known no more!-Here I will introduce a few appropriate observations made by Bishop Beveridge, in his Thesaurus Theologicus, upon our text. He enforces the duty of numbering our days from the five principal rules of arithmetic. "ADDITION: Add each day to the number of your graces, and to the degrees of each grace. SUBTRACTION: Subtract from the sins of your souls, and from the strength of your sins. MULTIPLICATION: Multiply your thoughts of God, your desires of heaven, and your endeavours after holiness. DIVISION: Divide all your days into special and common; each day between your general and particular calling. THE RULE OF PROPORTION: Proportion, the repentance of each day to your sins; and your thankfulness to your mercies."

Suffer me now to conclude by urging you to the consideration of estimating your time, in order to your entrance into an eternal world. The merchant failing by neglect of his accounts, and the mariner who seldom examines

his chart until he falls upon a rock, are equally charge able with folly. How much more criminal are those who pass over the diversified scenes of life, rush into numberless temptations, share in the bounties of providence, or drink of the cup of sorrow, and yet, heedlessly pass down the stream of life, insensible of their accountability to the judgment of the great God! How necessary is it for each of you who now hear me, to ask, Has this been, and is it still my folly? Have I neglected the review of my life, and let my days and years past heedlessly away? With all my acquirements, have I applied my heart unto that wisdom, which shall prepare me in peace for my latter end? If not, to what good. purpose have you lived for yourselves? You are utterly uncertain what shall be your journey's end. As a traveller, who shall soon pass the gates of death to an eternal state, how im→ portant is it for you to know that your iniquities are par doned; that God accepts your person; and that you shall be received to mansions of eternal joy? Without some degree of this knowledge, it is impossible you should possess true peace of conscience, or taste the cup of real pleasure. Go then, my fellow sinners, go to Jesus just as you are, for he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him. Although to this moment you may have lived sinful and thoughtless, it is your consolation that there is no instance which can be produced that Jesus ever rejected the penitent's cry. So far from it, there is a sacred direction exactly suited to relieve your fears. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God, who giveth liberally, and upbraideth not. What more can you wish? Here is wisdom opposed to your folly, and adequate to guide your feet into the paths of peace. Accept my ardent wish, that you may be drawn by the

cords of redeeming love to the throne of grace. May you be made wise unto salvation, and your future days, and months, and years, be attended with that felicity which can only be exceeded by the eternal fruition of God in glory!

You who profess to be Christians should be most competent to estimate the value of time; and learn so to proportion it to private and public duties, that you may fill up every day with pleasure to yourselves and usefulness to others. Much of the comfort and interest of a family depends upon a proper appropriation of time. You may have lost too much of your precious time already ; and have made too injudicious an application of it. Learn, therefore, to apply your heart unto wisdom, and redeem the time, knowing the days are evil. Omit no opportunity for doing good. And as to future events, whether prosperous or afflictive, and even the period designed for your death, say with David, Lord, my times are in thine hand; thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory.

LECTURE XLII..

A COMMENT ON EZEKIEL'S VISION OF DRY

BONES,

ILLUSTRATING THE CONVER

SION OF SINNERS.

EZEKIEL Xxxvii. 1-10.

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me outs in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and: caused me to pass by them round about : and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy * upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, Son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. So I pro

phesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

THIS was a very singular vision to Ezekiel. By read ing from the 11th to the 14th verse, you will find its appli cation to the restoration of the captive Jews in Babylon. As we are assured that there is no Scripture of any private interpretation, many excellent Expositors have considered this vision as designed to instruct us in the nature of the resurrection of the dead at the last day. But I presume it is equally calculated to teach us the natural state of mankind, the efficient, and the instrumental causes of their restoration, with the end for which the whole is designed. It is in this point of view I purpose to offer you an exposition. In order to render it more intelligible and impressive, you will bear in mind, that the state of sinners is represented under the emblem of exceeding dry bones in the open valley.-The efficient cause of their return to life is the Spirit of God; the instrumental cause is the ministry of God's word;-the design is that they might know the Lord. While I endeavour to explain this vision as illustrating the exceeding power and riches of grace in the conversion of sinners, my prayer is, that all of us may read our personal interest in the subject.

Verse 1. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. This verse shows us the qualification of the prophet, and the work to which he was called; the whole, he assures us, was by the Spirit of the Lord. The hand of the Lord upon him was a token of his election to his office, and