honorable thirst for knowledge, and let your ftudies be chiefly of the feverer kind, and always accurate and fyftematic. I mean by fyftem, remounting to first principles.— Loofe and fuperficial reading tends to fofter vanity and produces little fcience that is fubftantial, or can be applied to real use. A course of reading that confifts of amusement, principally, fuch as thofe fictitious hiftories which have become so fashionable to the great injury of more folid improvements, weakens and effeminates the mind, renders the taste fickly, perverts the ideas of real life, and difqualifies both men and women for fulfilling with dignity and prudence the duties that belong to them either in their civil or domeftic relations. To hope to become scholars or men of business by fuch light occupations of the fancy, and fuch gentle agitations of the heart, would be like an attempt to make Greek or Roman foldiers by listening to the foft notes of the flute, or exercifing the limbs only in the fwiming mazes of the dance.-But induftrious application to useful ftudies tends to cultivate the heart, it ennobles our beingit will prepare for you the public confidence and esteem, and, a motive that will

be much more fenfibly felt by young and ingenuous minds, it will fulfil the wifhes, and complete the felicity of parents who have every title to your love, and whose happiness next to your duty to God, fhould be your first pleasure, and your first care.

But, while I am urging your earnest and affiduous application to pursuits useful and honorable in the prefent life, let me not forget that one thing is, above all others, needful.

Diligence to make your calling and election fure, is the highest obligation that can be laid upon you as immortal beings. If it is proper to urge, as I have done, your folicitude to render yourselves worthy of that honor that cometh from men, how much more fhould you be concerned to obtain that which cometh from God? If you fhould fo labour for the meat that perisheth, how much more for that which endureth to everlasting life?-Compare the fallible tribunal of public opinion before which you are fhortly about to appear, with the fupreme and impartial bar of God at which you must render an account of all the deeds

done in the body-compare the tranfient breath that is fleeting from your noftrils, and perishing while we fpeak, with that immortal existence that furvives the grave-Compare the fading and momentary honors of the world, with the eternal and undecaying glories of the heavenly inheritance prepared for his people by Chrift Jefus, and can any zeal be too great for fuch a subject? or any language too ftrong to prefs upon you your duty and your intereft? All your labours and purfuits in life, your private ftudies, and your public offices fhould be made subservient to the chief end of living to the glory of God, and the falvation of the foul. Every duty in life fhould be animated, directed and fanctified by the spirit of religion. In the great caufe of piety and truth you fhould labour with more affiduity and zeal than those who have not enjoyed equal privileges with yourfelves. Thofe privileges have created for you a more extensive sphere in which you fhould be employed in doing good. And for your encouragement fuffer me to remind you that God is not unrighteous to forget our work and labour of love. In the immortal kingdem of the Redeemer, the just fhall fhine as the

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brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteoufnefs, as the ftars forever and ever. All the labours of integrity, of charity, of virtue, of piety, of public fpirit, fhall be crowned with glory and felicity proportioned to the rich and extenfive benefits that flow from them to mankind.

But in your concern to fulfil your duty as chriftians, and to fecure the favour of God your maker, remember that religion muft enter into the inmoft receffes, and regulate the deepeft fprings of the heart. It is not fufficient that the external conduct be modified and formed even upon the moft decent pattern of human virtue. The exterior may be irreproachable while the principles and the heart are impure. If you would be worthy difciples of your Master who is in Heaven, you must be born again, -enlightened and fanctified by the fpirit of divine truth-and united by a vital faith to the Redeemer who is the advocate and head of all his people. Believe it, and lay it to heart, there is no name under Heaven given among men whereby we can be faved but the name of Jefus Chrift alone. A life of fincere piety is a life of conflant vi

great and

gilance and labour in order to fulfil all righteoufnefs, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God.-Look forward then, my young friends, to the scene that is before you both for time, and for eternity. Enter upon it with firm and ardent refolutions to fulfil its interefting duties. Let no labour deter you-let no watchfulnefs or perfeverance fatigue you. But act up to the high character at which you aim of the fons of God, and the heirs of eternal life.-Eftimate the immenfe worth of the foul-contemplate the infinite importance of eternity-lay to heart the hafty flight of these rapid moments that are bearing us on their wings to an everlasting flate. In a fhort time all the duties of life fhall be ended-all the honors of the world fhall have paffed away-all that occupies your cares and affections here, together with yourselves fhall be buried in that awful and oblivious gulph that has already fwallowed up fo many generations of the filent and forgotten dead. Nothing will remain but that immortal fubftance that can never be extinguifhed, and the memory of your actions that fhall follow you to the tribunal of God, and to your eternal deftiny.-Live under the impreffion of