Consider first, that the year is now come to a conclusion: it is just upon the point of expiring: all these twelve months, that are now past, have flowed away into the gulph of eternity: they are now no more: they shall return to us no more. All our years pass in this manner: they all hasten, away one after another, and hurry us along with them, till they bring us also into an endless, unchangeable eternity. Our years will all be soon over: we shall find ourselves at the end of our lives much sooner than we imagine. O let us not then set our hearts upon any of these transitory things: let us despise all that passes away with this short life, and learn to adhere to God alone, who never passes away, because He is eternal. Let us always be prepared for our departure hence.

Consider 2dly, that as the year is now past and gone, so are all the pleasures or it, all our diversions, all our amusements, in which we have spent our time this year, are now no more: the remembrance of them is but like that of a dream. O such is the condition of all things that pass with time! Why then do we set our esteem or affection upon any of them? Why are we not practically and feelingly convinced of the emptiness and vanity of them all, and that nothing deserves our love, or attention, but God and eternity? And as the pleasures of the year are all past, so are all the displeasures and uneasinesses, pains and mortifications of it: they are also now no more than like a dream : and so will all temporal evils appear to us, a little while hence; when we shall see ourselves upon the brink of eternity. Let us learn then only to fear those evils, which will have no end! and the evil of sin, which leads to those never ending evils.

Consider 3dly, how you have spent your time this year. It was all given you by your Creator, in order to bring you forward to him, and to a happy eternity. O how many favours and blessing have you received from Him every day of the year! How many graces and invitations to good! And what use have you made of all these favours? What virtue have you acquired this year? What vice have you rooted out? What passions have you overcome? Have you made any improvement at all in virtue, since the beginning of the year? Instead of going forwards to God, have you not rather gone backward? Alas! what an account shall you have to give one day for all this precious time, and for all these graces and blessings, spiritual or corporal, which you have so ungratefully abused and perverted during the course of this year? Then as to your sins, whether of omission or commission against God, your neighbours, or yourselves; which you have been guilty of this year, either by thought, word, or deed; what a dreadful scene will open itself to your eyes, upon a little examination! And how little have you done during the course of this year, to cancel them by penance! O how melancholy would your case be, if your eternal lot were to be determined by your performances of this past year!

Conclude by giving thanks to God for all his blessings of this year; and especially for His patience and forbearance with you in your sins. Return now at least to Him with your whole heart; begging mercy and pardon for all the sins of the year, and for all the sins of your life. And resolve with God's grace, if He is pleased to give you another year, to spend it in such a manner as to secure to your souls the never ending year of a happy eternity.

Consider first, those words of our Lord to His disciples, and in them, to all Christians: Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands; and be you like to men, who wait for their Lord, when He shall return from the wedding: that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open to Him immmediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching. This girding of our loins, and having lamps burning in our hands, are to be taken in a spiritual sense, and contain great and necessary lessons for every part of our lives. As we knew not the hour, when our Lord will come to us, and knock at our door by death, we must keep ourselves always awake, and in a proper posture and readiness to open to Him without delay, and to welcome Him. Now this proper posture, and readiness to welcome our Lord, whensoever He shall come and knock, chiefly consists in these two things, in having our loins always girt, by a constant restraint of our irregular inclinations and lusts; and having lamps always burning in our hands, by the constant exercise of Christian virtues; which may shine forth to the glory of God, and the edification of our neighbours. And those servants are happy indeed, who are always waiting for the coming of their Lord, with their loins girt in this manner, and holding such lamps as these, always burning in their hands.

Consider 2dly, what follows in the same gospel, with regard to the immense reward of these same faithful servants. Amen I say to you, that their Lord will gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister to them. Christians, what an honour, what a happiness is here promised us; if our Lord at His coming, shall find us watching. He will gird Himself, to be ready to wait upon us: he will make us sit down to table; and He will pass and minister to us. O what incomprehensible joys are here signified, by our Lord's ministering to us; by His making Himself, as it were, over to us, to be perpetually enjoyed by us! O what a table is this, at which we shall be invited to sit down, to be eternally entertained by Him, with all the delights of heaven; with the sweet fruits of the tree of life, and the delicious waters of the fountain of life! And lest we should be discouraged with the apprehension of our being excluded from this eternal banquet, because we have already passed a good part of our lives, without being in that readiness, which our Lord expects at the time of His coming, He adds for our comfort, that if He shall come in the second watch, or if he shall come in the third watch; and shall then find us watching, we shall still be happy. Blessed, saith He, are those servants. So that, if we have hitherto been careless; if we have let the first, of even the second watch pass, without being upon our guard; and He has been so good as not to come and surprise us; let us now at least awake, let us gird our loins now, and have our lamps, for the future, burning in our hands: and we may still be blessed.

Consider 3dly, the remaining words of this gospel, But this know ye, saith our Lord, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open. Be you also ready: for at what hour you think not the Son of Man will come. This is that great lesson, of always watching, which our Saviour perpetually inculcates, as our only security against the dreadful evil of an unprovided death, and all those endless evils, which are the unhappy consequences of an unprovided death. O let us lay up this lesson in our hearts; let us meditate daily upon it; let us conform ourselves to it in the practice of our lives. O let us always watch! Our Lord, who has borne with us all this year, has in the mean time knocked at the door of thousands of others, who this day twelvemonth, were as likely to live as ourselves. Their bodies are now corrupting in their graves: but O, where are their souls! And where shall our bodies, where shall our souls be, a twelvemonth hence? Let us then be always ready; because we know not the day, nor the hour, when our Lord shall come.

Conclude to observe well these evangelical prescriptions, of girding your loins, of having your lamps ever burning in your hands; and of being always waiting for your Lord, and always ready to open the door to Him: and you shall not fail of being of the number of those happy servants, who shall enter into the eternal joy of their Lord.