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I. HIS REQUISITE CHARACTER AND QUALIFICATIONS.

1. He must be a man of good repute. A man of loose habits, a disorderly, quarrelsome, dissolute, idle, dishonest man, is the most unlikely person in the world to be a watchman: hence wise men always appoint to that office persons of steady, honest, and industrious habits. And such must be the Lord's watchman.

2. He must produce proofs of his past fidelity and good management.

3. He should have discernment, ingenuity, and courage.

4. A watchman should be healthy and strong, able to bear exposure and fatigue; a soft and delicate person is a most unlikely subject to be a watchman.

5. He must be properly appointed.

6. He must have a proper dress and light. And by these marks ought the Lord's watchman to be identified: he should be clothed with humility as with a garment, and adorned with the graces of the Holy Spirit. He should also have much Divine light. He must walk and commune with, and imitate Christ.

II. THE WATCHMAN'S OFFICE.

1. One part of his duty is to tell the hour. Time flies! your life is a shadow! you spend your years as a tale that is told! your days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle! your life is a dream! your time as a stream glides swiftly away! every beating pulse you tell leaves but the number less! your life is vanity! you are but dust — what is your life? it is but a vapour.

2. Another part of the duty of a watchman is to protect the persons and property of the inhabitants from villains, accidents, and offences. In like manner ought the Church to be protected by the Lord's watchmen. All that are sick, poor, destitute, or afflicted, and those who are but young disciples and weak in their faith, they ought to make the objects of their peculiar attention.

3. It is another part of a watchman's duty to give an alarm when any doors are left open, or places unprotected, or when any danger is near. The spiritual watchman must do likewise.

4. The watchman has to give an account to the governors or magistrates of anything important that has occurred, and of the present state of the city. And the Lord's watchman has to lay before Him any conversions, improvements, declensions, goods or evils, that have transpired in the Church, and to present them before the Throne of Grace.

(B. Bailey.)

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KJV: And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

WEB: It happened at the end of seven days, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,