dangerous delusion. Few have the discretion to seal their ear against the fascinating music; and fewer still have virtue and firmness to remain fixed to their station after having once listened to the perilous decoy. It is therefore of the highest importance often to direct the attention to those considerations which may best fortify the mind against this pernicious influence; and of the variety which present themselves, few will be found of greater or more beneficial efficacy than that which the apostle John has suggested in the text. The world passeth away and the desires thereof.

The sacred writer is supposed to allude to a pageant, such as was common in public spectacles, and especially in triumphal processions. It moves before the eye of the spectator, and dazzles with the glitter of its variegated hues. For the instant it attracts his notice, it engrosses his attention, and fills him with admiration and delight; but the gratification is momentary. For soon, even while he is gazing upon it, behold it is gone. Yea, before he has attained a dis

tinct view of the object, it rolls swiftly away, and the last glowing colour vanishes from his view. Thus the world passeth away and the desires thereof.

In the first place the world itself is gliding away.

That is, the present scene and system of things. Nothing here is fixed and durable; every thing is in motion; all is fluctuation, uncertainty, and vicissitude. Mortality is the disgrace of all things here below. All the works of art, whatever be their apparent strength and durability, soon run into decay. The brazen statue, the marble mausoleum, the gorgeous palace, the solemn temple, the impregnable castle, how stately, how venerable, how durable soever they appear, can oppose no successful resistance to the all-corroding tooth of time. Those great, and opulent, and powerful cities, which were once the glory of the nations and the pride of the whole earth, what are they now? Where now is the populous Nineveh, or the magnificent Babylon? Where now is Tyre? once the mart of nations,

and the envy of the world; or Carthage, emulous of universal empire? What are they at present but an empty name? while nothing of them remains but here and there a venerable ruin to prove that history does not deceive in reporting that such grandeur once existed. Even Athens herself, the proud seat of learning and the arts; and Rome, imperial Rome, the mistress of the world, which proudly styled itself the eternal city, though not indeed utterly exterminated like the others, yet in their present fallen condition, amidst the mighty ruins of their former splendour, they afford perhaps a still more striking proof of the vicissitude of human things.. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cast down to the ground that didst weaken the nations?"

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The best constituted states, the most powerful empires, contain within themselves internal principles of decay, and are liable to be subverted by a thousand unforeseen calamities and disasters. The Assyrian and the Persian, the Grecian and the Ro

man monarchies, those formidable names which once struck terror through the globe, and seemed to bid fair for enduring as long, have long ago been dashed in pieces and swept away with the besom of destruction. Nor can the present systems of government expect a more permanent duration, but will, no doubt, in time give way to some new revolutions, to some unforeseen changes. Nor need we go far to find affecting examples of the instability of human things. The last century, and the commencement of the present, have been witness to revolutions as extraordinary as any which have taken place in the annals of time. Some of those Powers, which at the opening of the eighteenth century were ambitious of universal empire, and were the objects of jealousy and terror to the surrounding states, are now sufficiently occupied in keeping peace at home; while others which at that time were of little account, and were hardly acknowledged as ranking among civilized nations, have since started up to a formidable height of opu

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lence and power. The cloud, which appeared of the bigness of a man's hand, which excited little attention, and produced no alarm, has since overspread the political hemisphere, and more than once has threatened to burst upon the nations in an overwhelming storm. Thus it appears that all the productions of human power and skill are transitory and evanescent, and in this sense the world is passing away.

But not the works of art alone, the fabrick of nature itself is liable to change. It is believed, upon what is presumed to be high authority, that there is a day advancing in the revolution of ages, when the mountains themselves shall depart, and the hills be removed; when the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood; when the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up: and that this change shall certainly take place at the appointed season, even though at