Page:The Works of Samuel Johnson ... A journey to the Hebrides. The vision of Theodore, the hermit of Teneriffe. The fountains. Prayers and meditations. Sermons.v. 10-11. Parliamentary debates.pdf/463

 appear, when it is considered, that not only life is every day shorter, and the work of reformation every day greater, but that strength is every day less! It is not only comparatively lessened by the long continuance of bad habits, but, if the greater part of our time be past, it is absolutely less by natural decay. In the feebleness of declining life, resolution is apt to languish; and the pains, the sickness, and consequent infirmities of age, too frequently demand so much care for the body, that very little care is, or can be, taken for the soul.

One consideration more ought to be deeply impressed upon every sluggish and dilatory lingerer. The penitential sense of sin, and the desire of a new life, when they arise in the mind, are to be received as monitions excited by our merciful Father, as calls which it is our duty to hear, and our interest to follow; that to turn our thoughts away from them, is a new sin; a sin which, often repeated, may at last be punished by dereliction. He that has been called often in vain, may be called no more; and when death comes upon him, he will recollect his broken resolves with unutterable anguish; will wish for time to do what he has hitherto neglected, and lament in vain that his days are few.

The motives to religious vigilance, and diligence in our duties, which are afforded by serious meditation on the shortness of life, will receive assistance from the view of its misery; and we are, therefore, to remember,

trouble."
 * That "man born of a woman is full of

The immediate effect of the numerous calamities with which human nature is threatened, or afflicted, is to direct our desires to a better state. When we know, that we are on every side beset with dangers; that our condition admits many evils which cannot be remedied, but contains no good which cannot be taken from us; that pain lies in ambush behind pleasure, and misfortune behind success; that we have bodies subject to innumerable maladies, and minds liable to endless perturbations; that our knowledge