Part 2

But _sorrowful_ changes also, have those ten years seen; and as surely will the next ten. Another name than that entered at the last census, is now recorded under the division, “Write the name of the head of the family.” “The head of the family!” He sleeps in the silent tomb. And where is now the wife’s, the mother’s, the child’s, the brother’s, or the sister’s name? ’Twas written in the census paper in 1851; it must not be written in the census paper of 1861. Their names are written on the churchyard stone, the clods of the valley are sweet to them. Ah, did we love them as we ought to have done? Did we love them as we wish now we had done? Happy, happy, those families, who, united not only in the bonds of nature but of grace, can look forward to the time when, through faith in a living Saviour, they shall meet in that land where partings are unknown; that land where there shall be no more death.

_Sorrowful changes_ have the past ten years seen. Some filled up the last census paper in a mansion who will fill up this one in a garret. Riches have taken to themselves wings, and flown away. Ye who are prosperous now, remember the fleeting character of earthly possessions. Some entered then the names of children who have since dashed their cup of hope to the ground, and who will this time find entry, not in a father’s home, but in a felon’s prison house. Well, in heaven you will bless the stroke which taught you this is not your rest, and bid you seek that abiding rest which remaineth for the people of God. Aye, and even here, amid gloom and sadness, light shall break in upon your darkness, if ye rest, believers, upon the promise, “ALL things work together for good to them that love God.”

This census paper! Ten years _have passed_. Ten years of the time given to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. Have I gone forward, or have I gone backward in religion? Am I nearer to, or further from God? Answer,—am I more like, or more unlike my Saviour?

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(III.) These questions are not asked of me in the census paper. No, my friends; and the _omission_ of all reference to _religion_ in that paper, is just the very point which I think may suggest a most important line of thought. Mind, my friends, I find no fault with the census paper for this omission. One perhaps could wish, that statistics as to the numbers of the various religious bodies, and the number of worshippers, could have been obtained; but I doubt not, there were great difficulties in the way; and temptations to unfair returns, and indulgence of angry passions, may thus perhaps have been avoided. And, after all, though I will not yield to any man in regret at, and condemnation of, the sad schism and division which exist in Christ’s Church, yet I cannot help feeling, that the absence of distinctive classification of religious bodies in the census, is just what will find place at LAST. Then the question will not be, were you Episcopalian or Nonconformist? but, Did you love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth? And, with the Apostle, I say, may grace be with all those who do so.

But, my friends, although the census paper asks you not this year about your _professed_ religion, remember God is always taking His census, as to the state of your REAL religion. In the never-failing memory of God, your name, age, dwelling, and true description, are all noted down. He is spying out all our ways. We cannot keep any secret from Him. “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” In His census taking, He makes two grand divisions,—foes, friends;—not in His Church, in His Church;—unbelievers, believers;—lost, saved. Now, my friends, if you could see under which division God has written your names, think you, would it be among the lost or saved? Nay, you may know that _now_, for a certainty. Listen to the Word of God: “_Except ye repent_, _ye shall all likewise perish_.” Have you repented? Do you repent? “_He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life_, _and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life_, _but the wrath of God abideth on him_.” Now have you believed in, do you believe in Jesus for salvation, pardon, acceptance, peace, glory? “_Without holiness no man shall see the Lord_.” Are you fighting against sin, are you striving to be holy?

Oh my friends, it is, methinks, a proud thing to have one’s name enrolled, by means of this census, as a citizen of free happy England; but ’tis a far prouder thing to have it enrolled as a citizen of Heaven, of the kingdom which shall know no decay.

Oh see to it that you make sure work of your state before God. It is a blessed thing to think, that though God may have had your name for many, many long years in His census book among the list of the lost,—His foes; He is yet willing, nay is longing to transfer it, upon your repentance, faith, obedience, to the list of the saved,—His friends. See to it, I say, that the name you bear as your description, _a Christian_, be a true name, witnessed in your occupations of penitence for sin, trust in Jesus, holy living to God; for remember, remember, the

IV. FINAL CENSUS will ere long be taken, which shall consign each one of us to irretrievable woe, or usher us to inconceivable blessings. Yes, presently, angels will play the part of enumerators. They will not indeed seek information of you, for God knows them that are His, and them that are not. Then before the great white throne you will stand, and all your life will be told. There an assembled world must meet,—not one missing; and then the angels will play their part in the great, the final census. Then will they discern between the righteous and the wicked; then will they separate between the just and the unjust, the believers in Jesus, and those who have not believed in Him. Then will it be declared whether my name, and thine, my friend, be written or not written in the Lamb’s book of life, and on that issue will depend whether we be registered in the book of Eternity as citizens of hell, or as citizens of heaven.

Brethren, now is the time to decide which it will be. The choice, under God, is in our hands to-day, to-morrow may be too late.

“There’s no repentance in the grave, Nor hope of pardon there.”

And _there_, in the grave, you may be, I say not before another census taking comes, but before another day dawns. The names of some of those who are at this moment written in the census-paper as among the living, will have to be withdrawn, erased, before that paper be handed to the enumerator to-morrow morning, and entered in another register, the register of the dead. It may be so in the case of some here to-night. With which one shall it be so? With which _one_? “Lord, is it I?”

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SEELEY, ISLINGTON GREEN.