Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/162

158 gulf of a boundless eternity. A few of us stand trembling upon the shore, to admonish you with a silent but impressive voice, how vain it is for you to calculate upon attaining the days of our lengthened years. For long, long before man reaches this, he enters the narrow house appointed for all living. The most of our fellow creatures die like a flower blasted in the morning, or at noon, a fact, that shows how delusive is the hope of a protracted life. Another point worthy of our consideration is, that time is as uncertain as it is short. The present moment is all that we can safely calculate upon. The future is veiled in the bosom of the great Eternal. He only knows whether or not any one present shall survive the setting sun. We know not what a day may bring forth. Neither youth nor superior strength is the least security against the sudden attack of death. His shafts fly so promiscuously, that none can tell who will be the next victim. Sudden as