Religion & morality > Reflections among the monuments

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gciher ten thoufand times more than they
can pofiibly ufe.—
But fee the tolly of worldly wifdom ! How
filly, how childifh is the fagacity ot (what is
called) manly and mafterly prudence, when
it contrives more folicitoufiy for time, than
it provides for eternity ! When every,
wheel-moves on fmoothly ; when all the
well-difpofed defigns are ripening apace for
execution; and the long ex^efted crifis of
enjoyment feems to approach ; behold !
God from on high laughs ar the Babel-build¬
er. Death touches the bubble and it bieaks;
it drops into nothing.
Some, I preceive, arrived at threefcore
years and ten, before they made their exit:
nay, feme few refigned not their breath,
till they had numbered fourlcore revolving
harvtfts. Thefe, 1 would hope, “remem-
“ bered their Creator in the days of their
<£ youth,” before their flrength became
labour and fonow ;—before that low ebb
of languifhing nature, when the keepers ©f
the houfe tremble, and thofe that look out
of the windows are darkened; when even
the lighting down of the grafhopper is a bur¬
den on the bending fhoulders, and defire
itfelf fails in the liftlefs lethargic foul;—
before thofe heavy hours come, and those
tirelome moments draw nigh, in which, there
is too much reason to say, “We have no plea-
f£ furein them j no improvement from them.”