4. An inconsiderate heedless temper is with many an obstruction to piety.

There is frequently, in persons of your age and circumstances, a peculiar thoughtlessness of mind a want of calm consideration, and steady reflection. They do not deliberate and ponder. Their minds seem as light as thistledown, and as volatile as the butterfly. They are always walking, talking, smiling, but rarely thinking. The meditative mood, the contemplative attitude, is never theirs. If you want them, never look for them at home, but watch for them abroad. Their extreme volatility prevents them from giving due heed even to the concerns of the world; and as for religion, though they are immortal creatures, lost sinners invited to salvation, destined to eternity, and hastening to heaven or hell, they have scarcely ever had a serious thought upon the subject: even these momentous topics are treated with the utmost lightness of mind. If the eye of any one of this class should range over these pages, let me beseech her to look at her picture, and ask herself if she can admire it. O my young friend, cannot the high themes of eternity make you serious? Placed as you are, on this earth, between the torments of the damned, and the felicities of the redeemed; with the preparations for judgement going on, and the scenes of eternity opening before you; will you laugh out your little share of existence, and flutter through life, till like a bird dropping into a volcano, you fall into the bottomless pit! Let these things soberise your thoughts, and bring you to the subject of religion, with

something like an appropriate seriousness of mind.

5. Evil companions have often proved an obstruction to young people in the ways of piety.

Young people are generally inclined for company, and too often it proves a snare to them. Many a hopeful youth, that seemed at one time setting out in the ways of piety, has been arrested in his holy career, by some unsuitable associate, with whom he has joined himself in the bonds of friendship; and thus he who seemed beginning in the spirit has ended in the flesh, leaving his pious friends to exclaim in the tone of grief and disappointment, "Ye did run well, who did hinder you?" How difficult is it, when a young person is first brought under the influence of genuine piety, to break from his former gay commpanions; and yet, if he would persevere in his new course, it must be done. In such cases the bonds of association must be broken. You must give up your society or your salvation; and can you hesitate?

6. The misconduct of professing christians, especially of parents, proves to many young persons, a stone of stumbling, at the entrance of the path of godliness.

They have seen the open immorality, or the secret hypocrisy of those, who profess to be partakers of true piety, and under the influence of disgust and disappointment, are ready to conclude that all are alike, and that there is no reality in religion, no truth in revelation. I know that these things must often prove an obstruction in their way, and have produced in

some instances an unconquerable antipathy to the ways of godliness. Yet is it rational to have our minds thus prejudiced against christianity, by the apostacies of those who were only its pretended disciples? But can that system be divine, you exclaim, amongst whose followers there are so many hypocrites?-Can that system, I reply be otherwise than divine, which has outlived them all, and triumphs alike over the apostacies of its seeming friends, and the opposition of its real foes? Considering the numberless instances of this kind which have occurred, even from the beginning, I am persuaded that had not christianity been supported by Omnipotence, nothing more than its name as an ancient delusion, would have reached the nineteenth century. Nothing but that which was sustained by a principle of divine life, could have outlived so much internal decay, and so much external violence. Besides, does not the perpetual effort to counterfeit, prove its real excellence? For who imitates that which is worthless? Look at the bright, as well as at the dark side. Against the troops of deserters and renegades, muster the thronging millions, who have endured temptation, and continued faithful unto death; call up the noble army of martyrs, whom neither dungeons nor fetters, scaffolds nor stakes, could intimidate; who held fast their principles amidst unheard of tortures, and suffered not the king of terrors to rescue from their grasp the doctrines of their faith.

Judge of religion, as it demands to be tried, by its own evidences, and not by the conduct of its professors. Look at it in its own light, and there you will derive a conviction of its truth

and importance, which would make you cling to it in a crisis, when even all men should forsake it. Religion an imposture, because some of its professors are false !! As rationally may you conclude that there is no real orb of day, because by an optical illusion mock suns are sometimes seen in the atmosphere.

Remember your neglect of religion will not be excused, on the ground that your prejudices were shocked by the misconduct of professing christians. Your obligations are in no degree dependant on the manner in which others discharge theirs.

7. A spirit of procrastination, has considerable influence, in preventing the young from attending to the claims of religion.

This has been the ruin of multitudes now in hell. How many amongst the lost souls in prison are now rueing the cheat, which was practised upon their judgement, when they were persuaded to put off the affairs of eternity till another time. Perhaps there is not one in perdition, but intended to be religious at some future period. It is recorded of Archius, a Grecian magistrate, that a conspiracy was formed against his life. A friend who knew the plot, dispatched a courier with the intelligence, who, on being admitted to the presence of the magistrate, delivered to him a pacquet with this message:-" My Lord, the person who writes you this letter, conjures you to read it immediately, it contains serious matters." Archius, who was then at a feast, replied, smiling, "Serious affairs to-morrow," put the pacquet aside, and continued the revel. On that night the plot was executed, the magistrate slain, and

Archius, on the morrow when he intended to read the letters, a mutilated corpse, leaving to the world a fearful example of the effects of procrastination. My children, do not, when God and the preacher say to-day give your attention to religion, reply " to-morrow;" for alas! on that morrow you may be in―eternity.

Young people are very apt to presume on long life but on what ground? Have they an assurance? No, not for an hour. Is it a rare thing for young people to die? Go into any church-yard in the kingdom, and learn the contrary from the records of the tombs. Have you any security in the vigour of your constitution from the melancholy change produced by decay and death? "So have I seen a rose newly springing from the clefts of its hood, and at first it was as fair as the morning, and full with the dew of heaven, as a lamb's fleece; but when a ruder breath had forced open its virgin modesty, and dismantled its too youthful and unripe retirements, it began to put on darkness, and to decline to softness, and the symptoms of a sickly age; it bowed the head, and broke its stalk, and at night having lost some of its leaves, and all its beauty, it fell into the portion of weeds and worn-out faces."*

But besides, admitting that you should live, is not your inclination likely, if possible, to be less and less towards religion? Your acts of sin will be confirmed into habits. Your heart will become harder and harder, for it is the

Jeremy Taylor's Holy Dying, p. 8,