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Excerpt from The Parable of the Fig-Tree Explained and Applied: A Sermon, Preached in St. Andrew's Church, Halifax, on Wednesday, 1st January, 1823 <p>The immortal nature and final destiny of man carry our views and prospects far beyond this transitory and perishin scene of existence, to a state of never ending duration; to objects of the utmost interest and magnitude, to the mansions oi' joyous felic'i'ty, and 'the shades of unutterable misery and we. Ere the present eeting life the measure of our existence, were the soul to sink into annihilation at the death of the bodg', were there no hereafter to provide for; then we inig t safel pursue that path, which appetit but and inc ination recommends, without any a future reckoning to arrest our tour enjoyments' we might eat to-m'orrow We shall die. But when we look forward, 'when we extend odr views beyond the present nor-t row span of duration, ctemi burst: in upon: our minds in, all its reality and tn all its importance, 'claims us as the subjects of its endless reign; and'holds out every mini to inuence, if any thing can possibly inuence, the opes and fears, the desires and expec blind and depraved mortals as our selves. We behold a 'life of holiness and piety termianting in joy unspeakable and full of glory, and life of vice and immorality ending in weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. For the connection between our randurt in time, and our condition in eter nity, is very close and intimate, and ought to be con stoutly am habitually present to our minds: as we now sow we shall hereafter reap; He that soweth to the esh, shall of the llcsh reap corruption; but he that soweth to tha Spirit, shall oi'the Spirit reap life everlasting. By our thou hts, by our words, and by our actions in the present'iii'c, we shall be justified or condemned at last. Time is the stream in which we are all hastening downwards into the ocean of eternity, and the msnncr in which we mark and i prove its rapid movements, redeem what is