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SERMON XXI.

PSALM XXV. 6.

O remember not the sins and offences of my youth; but according to Thy mercy think Thou upon me, O Lord, for thy goodness.

As we advance in age, and draw nearer to that change which is to make us either miserable for ever, or for ever happy, it is both natural and good for us to cast back our thoughts from time to time upon those years which God Almighty in His great goodness has already permitted us to live: it is only by this means that we can come to that sincere repentance which all men stand in need of, and without which we none of us can hope for mercy. Many have committed sins which they have reason to remember with shame and heaviness of spirit, though not without humble hope

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through Christ crucified; and even the best of men, though they have the comfort of being assured, that, for His sake, their infirmities will be healed and their little failings forgotten, even they have need to look back upon time that is gone, and seek the forgiveness of their Heavenly Father for sins into which they have fallen for too truly has it been written, that there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not.

It is a painful thing to consider in how many various ways the short journey of life is travelled by various men: and that whilst one path only is safe, all do not delight to keep to it. We are all born for the same purpose-that we may hereafter enter into everlasting happiness, and that God may be glorified by the holiness of our lives on earth, and by our perfect joy in Heaven. We have the same hopes of blessedness to encourage us in goodness, the same fears of misery to keep us out of evil : the same merciful Saviour to put our trust in, and the same Holy Spirit to be our Comforter and Guide: all Christians there

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