Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/190

186 this! It is from these and other practices that might be specified, we are exhorted in the text, to redeem the time. The important duty is urged upon us by the following powerful motive: "because the days are evil." The evil days spoken of were those in which sin and wickedness prevailed to an alarming extent, especially among the Gentile nations of the earth. They were famous for their literature and knowledge of the arts and sciences of civilization, but they were nevertheless, sunk into the lowest depths of superstition and moral debasement. This he uses as an argument to his Christian brethren, why they should "walk circumspectly, redeeming the time" lest they become corrupted by the pernicious errors and practices that then prevailed. Does not a similar state of things exist in the present day? It is true that the impressive sound of the church-bell regularly bids the people to