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I. In this passage it is very plainly insinuated THAT WE ARE TOO APT TO BOAST OF TO-MORROW. The young hope to live to old age; the middle-aged, having passed the most critical stages of infancy and childhood, reckon, with too much security, on grey hairs; while the old look around them for examples, a few of which they can glean of extreme age, and hope they themselves shall add to the number of extraordinary cases of longevity. Boasting of to-morrow likewise appears in framing worldly schemes of future ease and aggrandisement. He who proposes it as his object to make up a sum at all hazards, that he may, by a certain time, execute a plan of a great mansion, suited to the fortune, and then to enjoy himself. See where the evil lies; not in thinking of to-morrow, in the way of making wise and prudent preparation, always taking along with us, "If the Lord will"; but the evil is that boasting of to-morrow which involves in sinful, at any rate in worldly and presumptuous plans, in reference to some future period, or that kind of reference to to-morrow which is a substitute for attention, immediate and serious, to our most important, even our eternal interests.

II. THAT IT IS FOOLISH TO BOAST OF TO-MORROW, "We are young." Granted; but the young droop oftentimes. The green leaf often is seen falling, nipped by frost, or shaken by the wind. The young and strong have been called hence by disease or accident, the majority were young. "But we have stood already many trials of our constitution, and many attacks, and are yet vigorous." The last, however, will come, and the very next may be fatal. "But we are a long-lived race. Father and mother, yea grandfather, and many relatives, lived to a great age." You forget the exceptions. "But we have somehow this persuasion, that we shall live long, and at any rate we will not indulge in gloomy presage of an early tomb." This is very delusive — it is foolish — you can give no reason for it — you may soon find you were deceiving yourselves.

III. THAT THERE IS MUCH DANGER IN INDULGING THIS DISPOSITION.

1. It fosters irreligion and atheism. Leaving out of calculation your own weak and dependent state, the uncertainty of time, and your ignorance of futurity, you form your plans without any reference to the Divine Disposer. You erect many high towering schemes, which savour at once of impiety and folly.

2. It is found to foster some of the worst passions of the human heart. The ambitious reason thus: A few steps more, and I shall rise to the very top of my profession, or of my rank in society, and that in the regular course of events, which supposes the removal of others by the stroke of mortality, as the means of elevation. The covetous man adds heap to heap, with desires more and more insatiable, forgetful of his latter end, and of that country to which he goes, where his wealth will be of no benefit. A due consideration of this might, by the Divine blessing, cut up by the roots this grovelling and idolatrous propensity, and give the soul a heavenward direction. A day may bring forth many most unexpected events, casting a dark cloud over the most flattering prospects. This present day improved may be the happy means of arresting the evil which the presumption of to-morrow tends so much to foster.

3. The boast of to-morrow is most prejudicial to spiritual and eternal concerns. It is the most successful of all Satan's devices, and the easiest mode of compassing his designs.

(W. Burns.)

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KJV: Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

WEB: Don't boast about tomorrow; for you don't know what a day may bring forth.