On Ash-Wednesday

Consider, first, how God calls upon us, by his prophet, in tin? lesson of this day. Be converted to me saith he, mth aU yaur heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning; and rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God, Joel ii. 12, 13. Christians, hearken to this summons from heaven. O let it sink deep into your souls; and if, this day, you hear the voice of God, sweetly inviting you to return to him in good earnest, now, at this holy season, harden not your hearts, lest, provoked by your impenitence, he turn away from you, and you die in your sins. O let us repent and amend, as we are admonished by the church on this day, whilst we have time, lest, being overtaken by death, which is ever following at our heels, we should seek for time of penance, and not be able to find it.

Consider, secondly, the meaning of the ashes which are put on our heads this day with those words: Remember, man, that thou art dust; and into dust thou shalt return. Sackcloth and ashes were the ancient habit of penitents. The Ninivites, by fasting in sackcloth and ashes, found mercy. Let these ashes then, which we receive on our heads, at the beginning of this penitential fast, be a lesson to us, to enter upon it with the like penitential spirit They are an emblem of contrition and humility; let us receive them with a contrite and humble heart They are also a remembrance of our mortality, of our frail composition, and of our hasty return to our mother earth. O let us think well on this, and renounce henceforward our unhappy pride and presumption: O let us make good use of this our short time,.and prepare for that moment which shall ere long send away our souls into another region, and turn our bodies into dirt and dust.

Consider, thirdly, Christian soul, those words, as if they were addressed to thee: yet forty ddys,andNinwe shall be destroyed. Jonas iii. 4. Alas! have not thy sins, like those of Ninive, called to heaven this long time for vengeance 1 And hast thou not too much reason to fear, lest the mercy, which thou hast so long abused, should now quickly give place to justice, and should suffer thee to die in thy sins. Perhaps this is the last reprieve that God will grant thee. In all appearance, the good use or the abuse of these forty days may determine thy lot for an eter nity.

Conclude, then, to spare no pains to avert the judgment that hangs over thy head, and so to spend these forty days of reprieve in suing for mercy, after the manner God has appoint ed, that is, by sting, weeping, and mourning, that thou mayst effectually find it.