This enrolling of our people _every tenth year_, each man’s family in his own house, may it not read to us some lessons as Christians; while it affords to those who are set over us in the Lord, the materials for their guidance in the great work of government and legislation? Whether we regard it as private individuals, or as fellow-subjects in that civil community with which the Providence of God has connected us, or as members of the Church of Christ and “_heirs together of the grace of life_,” { 7c} it may suggest to us many reflections of thankfulness, self-inquiry and abasement.
_Ten years_ have passed away since this Census was last taken; and of course by far the larger portion of those here present were at that time included in it. These allotted periods fixed by the institutions of men agree very remarkably with those which the Spirit of God in his word has pointed out as warnings of the shortness and the uncertainty of life. “_The days of our age are threescore years and ten_; _and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years_, _yet is their strength labour and sorrow_; _for it is soon cut off_, _and we fly away_.” { 8a} If this, then, be the limit to the life of man, what an important portion of it do these latter years contain, quickly as they pass away, and short as they now appear in looking back upon them! It is well known that nearly one-half of the number of deaths that occur among mankind happen before the tenth year of life is completed. Yet have _we all_ been spared, through sickness, and casualties, and during one year of that term through pestilence itself raging at our doors, to see the end of it; and to improve it, as affording a rich fund of opportunities, and warnings, and motives, and principles for the period yet to come. Nor is it only life that has been thus continued to us; but life with all its attendant health, and strength, and reason, and many temporal comforts. And there have been dangers warded off, and blessings multiplied to us in a measure which we should now find it difficult, even with the utmost stretch of memory, to reckon; still less to trace out all those impressions of gratitude and praise towards the Great Dispenser of them all, which each of them, as it passed, ought to have fixed indelibly upon the heart. For these are all the gifts, too often even the unasked gifts, but in every case the undeserved and ill-requited gifts of Him “_in whom we live_, _and move_, _and have our being_.” { 8b} And in addition to these, how mercifully have our spiritual privileges been continued to us, those which unite us with “_Christ the hope of glory_,” { 8c} and which open to us the supplies of His grace, and which long since ought to have led our affections from earthly to heavenly things. _For ten years more_ has the revealed word of God been spread out before us, “_the engrafted word_, _which is able to save our __souls_;” { 9a} inviting us to “_flee from the wrath to come_;” { 9b} charging us to have our treasure in heaven; and reminding us, wherever we open it, of the things which belong to our eternal peace. _For ten years more_ has His Blessed Son been calling to us to “_come to Him that we might have life_;” { 9c} cheering us with the promise that “_whosoever cometh to Him shall in no wise be cast out_;” { 9d} offering to meet and to bless us with His spiritual presence in the ordinances of His own appointment upon earth, and interceding for us continually before the throne of His Father in heaven. _For ten years more_ has that Spirit who does “_not always strive with man_,” { 9e} been striving with _us_; often grieved by our coldness, our inconsistency, our unwatchfulness; yet never quite leaving us to ourselves; and even now waiting to be entreated by us, that He may purify and sanctify us wholly. And let me say, that if it is an obvious, it is also a solemn thought, that _these ten years_ have included above 500 Sabbaths; each of which might have been, had we diligently improved them, a new step in our advancement towards heaven. They might have made such an addition to our stock of spiritual knowledge, and strength, and progress, as would ere now have carried us far more onward than we have yet reached towards that “_rest which remaineth for the people of God_.” { 9f}
