this present evil world! What eminent qualifications may he attain, for various departments of useful exertion, in the service of his Saviour, in the cause of truth, and in the offices of Christian benevolence; illustrating, throughout his whole career, and especially as it approaches its peaceful close, the beauty of that representation, "the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Prov. iv. 18.

Now, are not advantages such as these too important and too valuable to be disregarded? You can but faintly conceive, my young friends, of the regrets which many a Christian has carried with him to the grave, on account of having misimproved the golden period of youth, and lost those precious opportunities which were never to return. Who can describe, then, the additional lamentations which have burst from the heart of the Christian in advanced life, if the retrospect of early years brings before his view scenes of youthful folly and of sin, compelling him to exclaim in the presence of an all-seeing God, "Thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth." Job xiii. 26. I beseech you, then, my young friends, to dread the thought of those evil courses, which would render the book of conscience, and the book of God's remembrance, registers of actions and of indulgences which you could never recall to mind, in future life, without a pang, and without a sting!

The inducements to seek the pleasures of early piety, arise,

3. From the connexion of early life with an approaching eternity.

Are you not standing, my young friends, even now, on the very brink of an eternal state? Are there not avenues, leading down to the grave and to the unseen world, from the place you now occupy, as direct as from any place you can ever occupy, throughout the whole progress of life upon earth? There may be by your side a Christian traveller, who numbers, of the days that are past of his earthly pilgrimage, threescore years and ten; and he may be an "old disciple" as well as an aged man; like Obadiah, he may have feared the Lord from his youth. But will you venture to calculate on a life protracted to so advanced a period? Were it possible to do this without infatuation, still would I reiterate in your ears this Divine and gracious requirement, "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth." Eccl. xii. 1. But since you know not whether the year on which you have entered may not be your last, this imperative advice comes to you with an emphasis such as death can give it. Are in-, stances of early death unusual? Has not the king of terrors made many an awful inroad into the circle of your own acquaintance, and your own associates? Are instances of sudden death unusual? How often does unexpected disease prey upon the young; and, baffling the utmost efforts of medical skill

and the tenderest assiduities of parental love, how frequently does it cut off the most beauteous flower of the blooming family! And do we not, alas! often hear of sudden and mournful providences, which, in an hour, or in a moment, terminate the short span of earthly existence? O my young friends, what is our life! how uncertain is it, and how short! It is but as "a vapour that appeareth for a very little time, and then vanisheth away!" James iv. 14. Unite then with me in the psalmist's prayer, "Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days as a handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity.-So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Psa. xxxix. 4, 5; xc. 12.

But should life be spared, and protracted to a distant day, can you presume that it will prove to you the day of salvation, if now you put that salvation far from you, by procrastination and neglect? "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. vi. 2. But is it safe to resign yourselves, for the present, to indolence and delay? This, in the language of him who calls things by their proper names, is "to harden the heart," even as they became obdurate and insensible, respecting whom the Almighty swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest. "Take heed lest any

of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin," Heb. iii. 11-13; lest you also perish after the same example of unbelief and impenitence. Know you not, my dear young friends, that admonitions and expostulations gradually lose their power of excitement on the mind that has often resisted their impression? Know you not, that the power of making resistance to the truth, is a power which gathers strength by exercise, till at length it seals up the heart in awful impenitence? Could you, without extreme apprehension, be conscious of any tendencies towards that tremendous state of entire insensibility, in which there may be felt no impulses of the life-giving Spirit, to awaken from the slumbers of spiritual death?

How interesting, then, how important, how critical, are the circumstances under which you are now addressed! You are forming and developing a character for eternity! What will be the final disclosure; what will be the eternal result? What are the desires, and what are the purposes, which you are now cherishing in your hearts? Let me entreat you to say, at the throne of grace, with a penitential sense of past remissness, and innumerable transgressions, "O satisfy me early with thy mercy, that I may rejoice and be glad all my days." "Be merciful, O God of love, to me a sinner. Hast thou not sent into our world thy beloved Son with the express design of saving sinners; and is he not exalted to thy right hand that he may be a Prince and

a Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins? Through the merit of his glorious righteousness, and the efficacy of his cleansing blood, be merciful to my unrighteousness; my sins and iniquities remember no more. Grant me thy Holy Spirit, which thou hast promised to those who seek him. Illumine my understanding, renew my heart, subdue my sins, and grant me the joys of thy salvation."

We unite with you, my dear young friends, most affectionately and earnestly, in these petitions. May he, who seeth in secret, witness the sincerity of your desires, the melting of your hearts, and the fervour of your supplications! May there be joy in the presence of the angels of God, over your translation out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son! And now, O Father of mercies, "Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children: and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it." Psa. xc. 16, 17.

THE END.