mortification, who can voluntarily absent himself in needless
sleep while valuable portions of Time are presenting them-
selves and passing away.
A yet stronger illustration might be made if we could
suppose it possible that a man should, from pure laziness,
prolong his absence from home when apprised that his best
relative is likely soon to expire. What terms of execration
would he not be deemed to deserve, when he returned a
little while after that relative was no more ? And if all sen-
sibility were not extinct, what intolerable self-reproach would
he not feel while contemplating the lifeless object that lately,
but for his detestable loitering, would have been soothed by
his attention, would have affectionately spoken to him, would
have given him the most salutary and interesting advice ?
How it would sting him to the soul to reflect that not any
formidable obstacle or momentous employment had been the
cause of his protracted absence, but that an imaccountable
heedlessness or a besotted indolence had betrayed him into
this unkindness to a person now beyond the reach of his
regrets. But in the voluntary absence of our faculties in
unnecessary sleep, we let that expire without our care which
can do more for us than all human friends — which can do
for us all that the power and benevolence of the Almighty
can do ; for the value of Time is exactly equal to all that
infinite goodness would confer upon us in the act, and in the
result, of the diligent and devout improvement of it.
We might again imagine instances of a man's being absent
through mere tardiness of movement, or a vagrant disposi-.
