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enter into the straight gate, for many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able. Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. If any man come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me, or he cannot be my disciple. There are many duties required of the Christian. There is watching and praying, pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling, putting on the whole armor, fighting the good fight of faith, wrestling against principalities and powers, laying hold on eternal life, standing in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.How bitter must be the reflection of one that is sixty or seventy years of age, when on a sick and dying bed he looks back upon his past life, and finds that he has lived in the neglect of these duties, and is a stranger to religion. A certain minister, when preaching, in the course of his sermon, related an anecdote which he observed to his congregation they would perhaps remember, when the sermon was forgotten. Said he, There was a nobleman that had a number of servants, and to each one he gave a badge of his office. There was one among them who was rather deficient in intellect. To him he gave a staff, and told him if he should ever find a greater fool than himself, to give him that staff. Some time after this his master was sick unto death. This

servant came to him, and his master said to him, I am going to leave you. Said the servant, Where are you going? I am going a long journey. How long do you expect to be goneshall you be gone a week? Yes. Shall you be Shall Shall you be gone a year?

gone a month? Yes.

Yes, more than that I am never coming back. What, going a long journey and never coming back? What provision have you made for your journey? None at all, said his master. Here, said the servant, take this staff-for if I should live a thousand years twice told I should not be so great a fool as yourself. This simple story may teach a lesson to those who put off repentance till they are upon a death bed.

It was said of Hannibal, that when he could have taken Rome he would not; and when he would have taken it, he could not. So it is with 'many; when they may have mercy they do not prize it, and when they would have mercy, they find it hard to obtain. We read of some that entered the vineyard at the eleventh hour, and received a penny. One aged man observed, I entered the vineyard late, but I mean to work the harder. AH will acknowledge it unwise to put off the work of a day till the eleventh hour. So it is the greatest folly to put off salvation till near the close of life. When Moses

went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo to the top of Pisgah, the Lord showed him all the land of Canaan. Moses probably looked back and considered how the Lord had delivered him out of Egypt, and brought him through the Red Sea. How he gave water out of the Rock, and manna from heaven. And delivered him out of the hand of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan. Then he beheld a land flowing with milk and honey. So the Christian, whose work is done and well done, looks forward and beholds, by faith, the heavenly Canaan, his everlasting inheritance. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace. Ps. xxxvii. 37.

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Believe, and show the reason of a man ;
Relieve, and taste the pleasure of a God;
Believe, and look with pleasure on the tomb."

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