Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/200

196 1. Duly to consider our end is not occasionally to bestow some thought upon the subject. This we cannot avoid if we would. Thoughts of death, will now and then, of their own accord, flit across the mind of every man. He is compelled, by the law of his nature, which, while it leads him to look forward to other future events, constrains him to give some thoughts to the subject of his mortality. But such a consideration as this, does not constitute true wisdom. A due consideration of any subject, is to give it that practical attention which its importance demands. If our end consisted in the total annihilation of both soul and body; were we destined to be remanded back to nothing; then, the proper consideration of our end would lead us to confine our thoughts chiefly to this world. The dictates of wisdom would be for us to make the best we could of our ephemeral existence—"to eat, drink, and be merry." But annihilation is not our destiny.