read the prayers of good men in Scripture, and fee the felf-abafement, the earneftness, and repetitions with which they approached a throne of grace, recollect your own condition, the feebleness of your refolutions, the temptations to which your virtue is expofed, the dangers which encompass your life, your property, your family, your good name, and think what need you have to exercise the fame humility and dependence upon heaven which their devotions exemplify. When you

read their fongs of praife, think of the bleflings which have followed you, the perils out of which you have been refcued, the mercy which has fuftained you in the time of trouble; and mark how God feems

to put into your mouth every word, by which they endeavoured to express the gratitude that glowed in their breafts. Your fituation in life, and the particular occurrences of your lot, have imperceptibly formed your fentiments concerning the ways of Providence, the value of this .world, the excellence and the happiness of

man. Try your fentiments by comparing them with the many ftriking views of thofe important fubjects which the Scriptures open; and, be affured, that there is fome defect in the ftate of your mind, unlefs you are able to regulate your opinions and principles by that standard which is the truth. Do not deftroy, in regard to yourselves, the ufefulne fs of the Scriptures, by feeking to fhelter your vices under the maxims or customs of the world; beware of keeping at a distance from the light, left you begin to hate it, because it reproves your deeds; but let the word of God be, with you, the teft of every gain, every indulgence, every purfuit; and by this readiness with which you come to the light, let it be made manifeft that your deeds are wrought in God.

cc THESE words that I command thee this day," faid the Lord by Mofes," fhall be in thine heart; and thou fhalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and thou fhalt talk of them when thou fittelt

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in thine house, and when thou walkeft by the way, and when thou lieft down, and when thou rifeft up." The expreffions by which the Almighty condefcends thus earnestly to recommend the fearch of the Scriptures, fuggeft, that the application of them should begin early in life. “Thou fhalt talk of them to thy children, when thou fitteft in thine houfe." What an edifying fubject of domeftic converfation! You have often obferved that no pieces of history take so strong a hold of the mind of the young as those recorded in Scripture. Try, then, to form the minds of those who are dearest to you, by teaching them, as they are able to bear it, to apply to themselves different parts of Scripture. Accuftom them, as their understandings open, to receive and to digest that wholefome food of the foul, which will nourish them to every virtuous exertion, which will furnish them with ftrength to refift temptation, with an antidote against the words of the fcorner, with a cordial amidst the difappointments and forrows which

Providence may ordain for them. "Wherewith fhall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word." "My fon," let every father say with Solomon, "bow thine ear to the fayings of this book; let them not depart from thine eyes, and keep them in the midst of thine heart, for they are life unto thofe that find them. When thou goeft, they fhall lead thee; when thou fleepeft, they shall keep thee; when thou awakeft, they fhall talk with thee: For the commandment is a lamp, and reproofs of inftruction are the way of life."

4. In order to profit by fearching the Scriptures, it is neceffary to read them with Prayer.

THE word of God contains his counfel to his children: Prayer opens their minds to receive that counfel. The one is a memorial left us by a Being who is not prefent to our fenfes; the other is that method of correfponding with him, which,

while we are at a distance, we are permitted to maintain. The memorial will foon lofe its effect in recalling divine things to our minds, if the correspondence be wholly laid afide. But the two fupport one another, and confpire in bringing us near to God. "When the faints of God fit at his feet, every one receives of his words: when they cry to him for knowledge, then they find the fear of the Lord."

THE bleffed Jefus, in the days of his flesh, opened the understandings of his difciples, that they might understand the Scriptures: After his afcenfion, he fent forth his Spirit into the hearts of his Apoftles, to guide them into all truth; and he commanded Philip to go near, and to join himself to the devout Æthiopian, who had come up to Jerufalem to worship, and who, in his return, was reading Ifaiah the Prophet, without understanding what he read. The fame Jefus, in every age, marks the earnestness and humility of those who fearch the fcriptures: The Spirit, under