PRINTED AND published FOR THE PROPRIETORS, BY HODSON AND SON, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN ; SOLD ALSO BY LONGMAN, BROWN, & CO.; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO.; MANCHESTER-L. KENWORTHY, CATEATON STREET. A PULPIT ADDRESS BY THE LATE REV. 8. NOBLE, ALL the discourses which I am allowed the privilege of delivering in this place, are addressed to the young as well as to the more advanced in life for all of us, whether young, middle aged, or old, have eternity before us; to prepare for which is equally the duty, and no less the interest of every one, to whatever period of natural life he may happen to have attained. To the old indeed, it is certain, that eternity is very near; and most obviously extravagant is their folly, as well as their culpability, if they live unmindful of it, and remain as much engrossed by the world, and devoted to it, as if they were to live in it for ever. Cheerfulness in old persons is doubtless equally agreeable and commendable, and there is nothing in true religion to repress it, but much to promote it, when kept within the limits of order and sobriety. Well may the old man, or woman, be cheerful, who beholds a happy eternity in prospect, and is enabled to cherish a well-founded hope that, by the mercy of the Lord, death will open the gate to happiness everlasting. On the contrary, how incongruous, and hence how disgusting, even to the young, is that assumed gaiety and levity, by which too many in old age endeavour to compensate the absence of genuine cheerfulness, and who, by a continued immersion in all the frivolities of the world, labour to shut out the thought of that eternity which to them appears terrible, insomuch "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy Word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments."—Psalm cxix. 9, 10. NO. I.-VOL. I. 1 |