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THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF OUR DAYS.

REV. T. MORTIMER, B.D.

ST. MARK'S CHURCH, PENTONVILLE, DECEMBER 28, 1834.

"And when we had accomplished those days, we departed and went our way: and they all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till we were out of the city: and we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed."—ACTs, xxi. 5.

You may remember, my Christian brethren, that it was with the words of St. Paul we commenced the year: our first Sabbath morning sermon to you in the present year was from this book, the book of the Acts of the Apostles; and from the words of the blessed St. Paul, "Not knowing the things that shall befall me," we considered, by way of accommodation, (a mode of treating Scripture that ought not to be, by any means, general and common among us; but the occasional use of which is not only lawful, but profitable)—we endeavoured to consider the year on which we were then entering as the terra incognita, the unknown land. Little could we tell many things that were likely to happen-many things, I would say, that have happened. Now that the year has rolled round, and we are come to the last Sabbath-morning in this year, I am disposed to go, for my last Sunday morning's text, to the same source as I went for my first: and the passage which I have read will furnish us with useful matter of consideration; and may, I conceive, with propriety be accommodated to our present state and circumstances. We have just "accomplished our days;" we are about to take our departure: what can we do better on such an occasion as the present, when we seem looking back on the past year, and looking forward to what may be before us, with trembling uncertainty-what can we do better than they did? They kneeled down on the shore, and prayed." O, could I bring all my hearers this day, at this juncture, (so to speak,) standing between the two years, with one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four behind, and one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five just before them, (though they are not certain that they will see the commencement of the next year-not sure that they will live to enter upon it)-O, that I could bring every one of my hearers this morning into a spirit of prayer!

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The text will suggest to us three topics for consideration and improvement, as well as those I have mentioned: and may the Spirit of God enable us to improve passing circumstances; to seize the present moment while it is ours; for the glory of God, and the salvation of those who are committed to our charge.

The first thing which we may notice is, THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF our

VOL. III.

DAYS. Paul and his company had purposed only to remain for a little time; the days were now accomplished, and they were about to depart. Brethren, our days are numbered; they are numbered often by others; they are, alas! nut seldom numbered by ourselves: others can see, oft and again, clear indications of time passing rapidly away, of health declining, of death approaching, when it is to be feared that the parties themselves are often some of the last to suspect it. Now let me just remind you that you have very nearly accomplished another year. This year, like its predecessor, has made some alterations among you. I will not go into detail; I will not dwell upon family bereavements and afflictions: but methinks this season of the year is a solemn memento of the flight of time, and of our mortality. Yes; we look around us, and we can see where death has laid some who, at the beginning of this year, were worshipping God with us here, but now, we trust, are worshipping in another and in a better world.

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We, too, ourselves are accomplishing our days. Year after year goes by, and the thoughtless, careless creature again and again takes up the language of compliment at such a season, forgetting the flight of time, forgetting the near approach of eternity. We wish each other "the compliments of the season." I will not quarrel with the phrase, calculated as it is to express a benevolent, an affectionate, a neighbourly, a brotherly feeling I confess I prefer very much, however, an older English phrase than "the compliments of the season;" I mean, "the blessings of the season." We commemorate at this season of the year the advent of our Lord Christ: on that subject we ought to delight to dwell; and we ought to think how much comes to men in connexion with the gift of Christ; for "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" I say we congratulate one another; but in how many cases is it that, while we look with pleasure and with a measure of thankfulness upon the past, we forget what may be before us?

Now, my Christian brethren, be it known unto you all-not only Christian, but un-christian-not only saint, but sinner-not only the child of God, but the profligate-be it known you are accomplishing your days. Time is going round; you are being borne forward into that eternal world where we all must soon make our appearance.

And yet some of you have no religion at all: others have got the name, and that is all: some possess the power, and taste the blessedness of it. But, beloved people, over whose souls God has called us to watch now for seven years—how many are there in church this morning who are no more fit to die than they were seven years ago! They have heard the funeral bell, they have seen their neighbours pass to their long homes; they have had memento upon memento, call upon call, warning upon warning: but where are they now? As far from God as ever; as much attached to the present passing scenes, as little concerned about eternity, as if eternity were only connected with the Chinese and the Hindoos, and they themselves had little to do with it. And yet we see time with them passing rapidly away; they are accomplishing their days, but accomplishing their days, alas! without any spiritual improvement. It is a thought which often weighs down our spirit—a thought we have very often expressed before, and, if we live, may often express again-that we fear greatly that some

of you may wish you had never seen this day: that some of you may die without a grain of religion, without any preparation at all for another world; the man of business, perhaps, surprised in the midst of his speculations, in the midst of his gains, in the midst of his worldly prospects-seized by paralysis, or by apoplexy, and carried away into an awful eternity, when he had no idea he was near it, when he had no conception that he would be called hence in that way. And if that were the case with some of you, where could you go? To heaven? Would to God it were so! No, my brethren; the man of the world, the unconverted person, however amiable, however respectable, however intelligent, "without holiness no man shall see the Lord." "Ye must be born again." "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." These are not my words, or you might neglect them: but they are words of one who spake as never man spake; and, God knows, that never man trifled with these words without repenting it.

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But further, the text speaks of their TAKING THeir departure. all about very soon to bid this year farewell. I was going to say we are hearing this day, the last of the fifty-two prophets of the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four. The first Sabbath in the year came as a messenger from God, bore its testimony, and went its way; the second Sabbath came and bore its testimony also, and went its way: and then some began to fall off, and by and bye others dropped off: and while the fifty-two prophets—if I may be allowed to speak in metaphorical language-were delivering their testimony, some who heard the first, and the second, and the tenth, and the twentieth, have not lived to hear the fifty-second. No, no; they are gone, and we must take our departure; and very soon we shall have done with the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four. I would to God, my dear people, you knew the value of your Sabbaths. Many of you do know their value, and improve them to God's glory, and your own eternal comfort, as you shall find at last. And I rejoice to think that as our Sabbaths roll round, you are ever ready to meet, gladly to ineet, any appeal to Christian charity that is made to you. You often make us feel thankful to God by your Christian liberality; and your conduct last Sunday was such as to excite our thanksgivings to God, and our love to you. But stop you may give us your gold; you may help others to hear God's holy Word, to keep open this house of prayer; but if you never are made rich with true riches yourselves, though, out of a feeling of benevolence, or of attachment to the church and to the king, you are glad to support constituted authorities, and to uphold the worship of God among us, and to do what you can to promote the service of God, and of his church-I say all that may be done, but you must go further than that, or you will never get to heaven. There must be conversion of the heart; there must be an earnestness in the spirit of your minds; there must be a becoming regenerate and born again.

Now, then, I say, we are all about to take our departure from this yearwe from it, and it from us. But I look around me, and how many smiling, happy, youthful, healthful, intelligent faces, how many children do I see! But I look again from my congregation to my text, and I read of "wives and children:" "And they all brought us on our way with wives and children." Yes, through God's mercy our family blessings are preserved. True it is, death

has in many cases divided families, and laid some of them low. But here you are this day before God, with the partners of your hearts, and the little ones whom God hath given to you. We rejoice; we bless his holy name, that as to those who have suffered losses, and trials, and bereavements, God knows we have tried to comfort them, and to wipe away the tears of sorrow from their eyes. But how many a happy family is now in the presence of God! And therefore, if we speak of our unworthiness, we have to speak of our mercies too. O how good has God been unto us during the year that is almost gone! Methinks he tries which shall conquer: he has a way of trying with his mercies. Yes; behold the loving-kindness of God; think of the Lord's goodness to your families. How has he preserved your wives, your children, your friends, your relatives! I demand that he has the glory of them. I do not know anything more delightful than to notice the providences, and to notice the mercy and grace of God: and well does good old Matthew Henry, in his Commentaries, say, "Those who notice mercies shall never want mercies to notice. O Christian people, think of the abundant goodness and mercy of our God to you in the years that are past, and especially in that which is now almost come to its close.

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But my text speaks of these ALL KNEELING DOWN ON THE SHORE, AND PRAYING. "And when we had accomplished those days, we departed and went our way: and they all brought us on our way with wives and children, till we were out of the city and we kneeled down on the shore and prayed." St. Paul was a great traveller. At one time we find him consecrating the waters, as it were, by his prayers, and at another time consecrating the hills and mountains. At one time we find him in the dungeon at Philippi, even at midnight, praying and singing praises to God. And now we see him with his fellow travellers, and a little company that attended him out of the city, anxious to get the last word with him, and to have his parting benediction, attending him some way out of the city; and then by the shore they all kneeled down. My brethren, are we not, so to speak, at the present time, about to embark very soon upon another year—upon the troubled waters, it may be, of another year-or the smooth waters, it may be, of another year? But whether it shall be troubled water, or whether it shall be smooth water, where is the man that can tell me? Who can say what a day shall bring forth? Who can say of this present congregation, how many before the end of the next year shall be sleeping beneath us, or how many shall be spared?

Can I then prevail on some who have very little knowledge of the comfort of prayer, very little knowledge of the blessedness of prayer, very little knowledge of the solace of prayer to the wounded heart in the day of affliction and trouble -can I prevail upon every one who hears me this morning, solemnly, devoutly, this day to listen to the call of their God? I have many a prayerless person in the church to-day, I have no doubt; O, I should think it one of the happiest days of my life if one, or ten, or twenty, or fifty, who never in their lives prayed to God before, were to begin to-day. Shall I give you reasons for it? I can do that. I could tell some careless fathers, that if they had been praying fathers, their children might have grown up to be like them; their children might have grown up to be a comfort to them, instead of growing up in some instances

almost to break their hearts. O what an awful thing it is for a young man to have to think (for filial duty would keep him from saying) as he follows his father to the grave-" O, my father never talked to me about my soul-never prayed to God for me-never taught me to go in the right way!" And is it natural to the human heart to find the right way, and to walk in it? Are we all so predisposed to holiness, and righteousness, and godliness, that the parent has no need to give any instruction? Ah, my dear hearers, you know the disposition is all the other way. I may perhaps be calling on some father of a family, to begin in good earnest to pray to God, and to seek him, who shall never live to hear the concluding sermon of another year. O that we could but induce you! There is a mighty influence used to prevent men; not merely human influence-there is a stronger influence than that: there is one who watched over you ever since you were born, with no kindly feeling, with no desire for your good, but intending to do all the evil he could. And he has carried the intention into execution: he has watched over you with the desire of inducing you to walk in that prayerless way on earth, which shall lead to eternal misery in another world. Shall he be gratified any longer? With some he has been gratified long enough.

But there is another that has watched over you; there is the Father of mercies and the God of grace. He has seen you from your cradle; and what has he seen? Some of you growing up, walking in the way of the world, breaking his laws, profaning his holy Sabbaths, and to this present hour living without ever earnestly praying to him. Now the wonder is that he should ever send you another messenger. O, hear the fifty-second messenger of the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four; hear the Sabbath of this day. But if you will not hear, what then? Why then we make our appeal to the coming of the Great Judge, who shall come after all his messages have been resisted: then we make our appeal to that day, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him; when he shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall divide them one from another, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats.

One word, and I have done. If you wish to testify your gratitude to Almighty God for his goodness in the year that is past, and if you wish to be prepared for a profitable and truly religious spending of the year that we trust is coming to you, let me recommend you to be much in self-examination. Think of the fifty-one Sabbaths that have preceded this. Have you advanced fifty-one steps in the way to heaven? Are there not some of you who have not taken the first step? Is it so? If it be, the thought is indeed distressing. But, thank God, there are many of you who are walking in the right way. Still, not knowing what shall befal you, about to embark (so to speak) upon the waters of a new year, kneel down upon the shore and pray; commend yourselves to God; bring your little ones around your family altar; tell them of your own youthful days and early mercies; tell them of your pious parents, perhaps gone to heaven, and of whom they may have known but little. I believe that Christianity has a charin when it comes in connexion with family blessings: it tends to sweeten all, to dignify all, and invite all, by pointing us to another and a better world; by telling us of the Father of mercies and of the God of love. Is that all? No; while it reproves pointedly, sharply, severely, it tells of a Saviour; it points to

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