tained in those warnings most diligently to your children, that they may talk of them when they sit down in your houses-talk of them when they walk by the way-talk of them when they lie down and when they rise up-bind them as a sign upon their hands, and a frontlet between their eyes, and thus be instructed to remember their Creator in the days of youth, of manhood, of old age, and be prepared for their great, final, and solemn account after the the hour of death, and at the day of judgment.

To that account, my hearers, in which my own salvation is so deeply interested, I may myself be summoned before I have any other opportunity to prepare the persons committed to my charge, for ratifying and confirming with their own tongues the vow made in their names when they were baptized; and, therefore, with a deep sense of a duty which perhaps I am now performing for the last time on this side of eternity, I with more than usual propriety, and more than usual earnestness, address myself to you, who are the younger part of my audience. Let, therefore, young men remember the innumerable perils, to which they are exposed from their time of life. They have to contend with many latent imperfections in their own tempers, such as pride, envy, wrath,-and these are evils which, if they do not strive to check them, will disturb their future peace, plunge them into many criminal actions, and bring upon them the just hatred of their fellow-creatures, and the terrible displeasure of their Maker. They have to watch against the fascinating allurements of pleasure, which, from

the mere circumstance of novelty, is the more attractive to their inexperienced minds, and into which they may be precipitated, perhaps beyond the power of recovery, by the impulse of their unruly lusts. They have to resist the wily persuasions and seductive example of inveterate and incorrigible sinners, who malignantly triumph in the number of converts which they make to the cause of vice.

In my judgment, and, let me add, according to my practice, harsh measures and bitter reproaches of parents and of families are not the most becoming or most efficacious correctives for those occasional errors and failings into which youth, with all the advantages of good culture from education upon a good soil from nature, is sometimes betrayed. Parents and masters of families should, indeed, calmly and seriously discourage those failings, while the sense of shame, which at first attends vices, is not blunted, and before they have so far prevailed over discretion, modesty, and fear, as to have gained dominion over the whole mind,-while the danger is, in appearance, at some distance. Under all circumstances, favourable or unfavourable, their interposition will be more or less required, in suggesting well-timed caution or supplying well-tempered reproach.

Unaccustomed to calculate the remoter consequences of single actions, and to explore the silent operations of their own appetites, young men stand in need of being reminded, as I now most solicitously remind you, that habitual idleness, habitual profaneness, habitual intemperance, habitual lewdness, not

only are offensive in the sight of God, but lead to poverty, to disgrace, to loss of health,-that, under the pressure of want produced by laziness, or extravagance, or debauchery, you may be ultimately hurried into overt acts of theft, plunder, and even murder,— and that, after this dreadful exchange of your present innocence for your future depravity, you may be torn from the lovely sight of all the scenes most dear to you in the playfulness and simplicity of your childhood, dragged from the homes in which you were fostered by the care, cheered by the caresses of your affectionate parents, immured in gloomy prisons, laden with heavy chains, and, finally, destroyed by a painful and ignominious death. Is there in this sanctuary one father who, in the tender yearnings of his soul hath implored a blessing from Heaven upon his offspring, when gently reclined upon his knee, and looking up to him for an affectionate smile-one mother, from whose breasts hath hung the helpless infant-one sister, or brother, who at the same table have eaten their daily sustenance, and under the same roof have enjoyed the refreshment of sleep-is there one giver or one partaker of these precious and hallowed endearments in domestic life, whose bosom would not be chilled with horror if these calamities and these crimes were supposed to await those with whom they now familiarly associate, and whom they sincerely love? Can there be one youth, who does not lift up the eye of supplication to heaven, and join with me, his instructor, in my unfeigned and fervent prayer,' that such sins may not be committed by himself in

this world, nor the punishment of such sins overtake him in the world to come?

In the name of God, therefore, and in Christ's behalf, I conjure you, my hearers, to take heed unto yourselves. My heart would be wrung with anguish-my eyes would overflow with tears-my whole frame would shudder, if, looking around me, I were to see any young person, upon whom I should have reason to believe that these tremendous evils would fall, as they advance in years, and so fall that penury, that infamy, that disease, and premature death, should be their lot here, and that hereafter they should be excluded from the presence of virtuous parents, virtuous brethren, virtuous friends, virtuous neighbours, exalted unto Heaven, and condemned to suffer with wicked companions the tremendous torments of hell. Preserve, O my God! those, who now hear me, from such guilt and such woe. On the other hand, if, according to the lessons you can all of you learn from the Catechism, you love your neighbour as yourselves, honour and succour your father and your mother, obey the King, submit yourselves to your pastors, order yourselves lowly to your betters, are true and just in all your dealings, bear no malice in your hearts, keep your hands from picking and stealing, your tongue from evil speaking, lying, and slandering, and your bodies in temperance, soberness, and chastity, labour honestly to get your own living, and strive to do your duty in that state of life unto which it hath pleased God to call you-if, in addition to these virtues, you join those more important offices of piety, which

afford the surest guidance and the most powerful encouragements for the exercise of love to your neighbours-if you reverence your infinitely great, infinitely wise, infinitely holy, and infinitely merciful God-if you worship him-if you give him thanks -if you put your whole trust in him-if you honour his sacred word, and if, remembering his goodness to yourselves and your fellow-creatures, you love him with all your heart, with all your minds, with all your souls, and with all your strength, then, O my hearers! happy will you be in your several stations on this side of the grave, and then too, at the day of judgment, as your affectionate wellwisher, and your Christian teacher, I shall myself be most happy, while I hear this gracious sentence pronounced upon you by the righteous Judge of all mankind, "Come ye, blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning."