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on and on forever; and the marble stands there— passive, cold— making no effort to arrest the gliding water?

It is so that time flows through the hands of men,swift, never pausing till it has run itself out; and there is the man petrified into a marble sleep, not feel. ing what it is which is passing away forever. It is so, brethren, just so, that the destiny of nine men out of ten accomplishes itself, slipping away from them, aimless, useless, till it is too late. And this passage asks us, with all the solemn thoughts which crowd around an approaching eternity, what has been our life, and what do we intend it shall be? Yesterday, last week, last year, they are gone. Yesterday, for example, was such a day as never was before, and never can be again. Out of darkness and eternity it was born, a new, fresh day; into darkness and eternity it sank again forever. It had a voice calling to us, of its own. Its own work, its own duties. What were we doing yesterday? Idling, whiling away the time in light and luxurious literature, not as life's relaxation, but as life's business? thrilling our hearts with the excitement of life? contriving how to spend the day most pleasantly? Was that our day? Sleep, brethren!, all that is but the sleep of the three apostles. And now let us remember this: there is a day coming when that sleep will be broken rudely, with a shock; there Is a day in our future lives when our time will be counted, not by years, nor by months, nor yet by hours, but by minutes, the day when unmistakable symptoms shall announce that the Messengers of Death have come to take us.

That, startling moment will come which it is vain to

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attempt to realize now, when it will be felt that it is all over, at last, that our chance and our trial are past. The moment that we have tried to think of, shrunk from, put away from us, here it is going, too, like all other moments that have gone before it; and then, with eyes unsealed at last, you look back on the life which is gone by. There is no mistake about it; there it is, a sleep, a most palpable sleep, selfindulged unconsciousness of high destinies, and God, and Christ; a sleep when Christ was calling out to you to watch with Him one hour; a sleep when there was something to be done; a sleep broken, it may be, once or twice by restless dreams, and by a voice of truth which would make itself heard at times, but still a sleep which was only rocked into deeper stillness by interruption. And now, from the undone eternity, the boom of whose waves is distinctly audible upon your soul, there comes the same voice again a sol· emn, sad voice but no longer the same word, "Watch;"-other words altogether, "You may go to sleep." It is too late to wake; there is no science in earth or heaven to recall time that once has fled.

Again, this principle of the irreparable past holds good with respect to preparing for temptation. That hour in the garden was a precious opportunity given for laying in spiritual strength. Christ knew it well. He struggled and fought then; therefore there was no struggling afterwards, no trembling in the judgmentħall, — no shrinking on the cross, but only dignified and calm victory; for He had fought the Temptation on His knees beforehand, and conquered all in the garden. The battle of the Judgment-hall, the battle of the Cross, were already fought and over, in the

Watch, and in the Agony. The apostles missed the meaning of that hour; and therefore, when it came to the question of trial, the loudest boaster of them all shrunk from acknowledging Whose he was, and the rest played the part of the craven and the renegade. And, if the reason of this be asked, it is simply this: They went to trial unprepared; they had not prayed; and what is a Christian without prayer, but Samson without his talisman of hair.

Brethren, in this world, when there is any foreseen or suspected danger before us, it is our duty to forecast our trial. It is our wisdom to put on our armor ~to consider what lies before us -to call up resolution in God's strength to go through what we may have to do. And it is marvellous how difficulties smooth away before a Christian when he does this. Trials that cost him a struggle to meet even in imagination like the heavy sweat of Gethsemane, when Christ was looking forward and feeling exceeding sor rowful even unto death- come to their crisis; and, behold, to his astonishment they are nothing,—they have been fought and conquered already. But, if you go to meet those temptations, not as Christ did, but as the apostles did, prayerless, trusting to the chance impulse of the moment, you may make up your mind to fail. That opportunity lost is irreparable ; it is your doom to yield then. Those words are true, you may "sleep on now, and take your rest," for you have betrayed yourself into the hands of danger.

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And now one word about prayer. It is a preparation for danger, it is the armor for battle. Go not, i my Christian brother, into the dangerous world without it. You kneel down at night to pray, and drowsiness

weighs down your eyelids. A hard day's work is a kind of excuse, and you shorten your prayer, and resign yourself softly to repose. The morning breaks, and it may be you rise late, and so your early devo tions are not done, or done with irregular haste. No watching unto prayer, wakefulness once more omit ted. And now we ask, is that reparable? Brethren, we solemnly believe not. There has been that done which cannot be undone.. You have given up your prayer, and you will suffer for it. Temptation is before you, and you are not fit to meet it. There is a guilty feeling on the soul, and you linger at a distance from Christ. It is no marvel if that day in which you suf fered drowsiness to interfere with prayer be a day on which you betray Him by cowardice and soft shrinking from duty. Let it be a principle through life, moments of prayer intruded upon by sloth cannot be made up. We may get experience, but we cannot get back the rich freshness and strength which were wrapped up in these moments.

Once again this principle is true in another respect. Opportunities of doing good do not come back. We are here, brethren, for a most definite and intelligible purpose, to educate our to educate our own hearts by deeds of love, and to be the instruments of blessing to our brother-men. There are two ways in which this is to be done,-by guarding them from danger, and by soothing them in their rough path by kindly sympa thies, the two things which the apostles were asked to do for Christ. And it is an encouraging thought, that he who cannot do the one has at least the other in his power. If he cannot protect, he can sympa thize. Let the weakest, let the humblest in this

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congregation, remember that in his daily course he can, if he will, shed around him almost a heaven. Kindly words, sympathizing attentions, watchfulness against wounding men's sensitiveness, these cost: very little, but they are priceless in their value. Are they not, brethren, almost the staple of our daily happi ness? From hour to hour, from moment to moment, we are supported, blest, by small kindnesses. And then consider: Here is a section of life one-third, one half, it may be three-fourths, gone by, and the question before us is how much has been done in that way? Who has charged himself with the guardianship of his brother's safety? Who has laid on himself as a sacred duty to sit beside his brother suffering? O, my brethren, it is the omission of these things which is irreparable! Irreparable, when you look to the purest enjoyment which might have been your own; irreparable, when you consider the compunction which belongs to deeds of love not done; irreparable, when you look to this groaning world, and feel that its agony of bloody sweat has been distilling all night, and you were dreaming away in luxury! Shame, shame upon our selfishness! There is an infinite voice in the sin and sufferings of earth's millions, which makes every idle moment-every moment, that is, which is not relax ation guilt; and seems to cry out, If you will not bestir yourself for love's sake now, it will soon be too late:

Lastly, this principle applies to a misspent youth There is something very remarkable in the picture which is placed before us. There is a picture of One struggling, toiling, standing between others and dan ger, and those others quietly content to reap the ben