they are commonly beginning very perceptibly to decline in intellectual vigour, and sometimes greatly to the injury of the cause of religion.

Make a point then of being a "hard student" as long as you live. Keep up the habit of reading much, reflecting much, and writing much, as long as you have strength enough to open a book, or wield a pen. Content not yourself with merely that kind of study which will qualify you to prepare your sermons with success; but let your constant aim be to make rich and solid additions to your stores of professional knowledge. For this purpose constantly keep under perusal some great standard work. And never consider yourself as having gotten through a year well, unless you have carefully read seven or eight such works, in addition to all your other studies. This will render your sermonizing more easy and delightful to yourself, and more profitable to others. It will keep up the activity and tone of your mind. It will avert premature dotage; and better qualify you, in every respect, to do your Master's work.

18. Do not, however, confine yourself to the perusal of books strictly professional. Endeavour, as far as practicable, to keep pace with the current literature of the day, by reading the most important new books which appear. Be careful, also, to maintain a constant familiarity with your college studies. There is a shameful negligence on the part of many young clergymen as to this matter. If you live, you will probably be, one day, a trustee, or a visitor of some college or academy; and you may often be called upon to examine students on all the branches of knowledge taught in those institutions. And will you not

disgrace yourself, if you shall have become so rusty in those studies as to be wholly unable to do it, or to do it in a very bungling and inadequate manner? Besides, you know not to what station God in his providence may call you. It is the part of a wise man to be prepared for any one. During a considerable part of the eighteenth century, in the days of Dickinson, Burr, Edwards, Davies, Finley, Ewing, Allison, Wilson, Witherspoon, Nisbet, Smith, Macwhorter, and a number of others who might be mentioned, we had a very honourable proportion of ministers in our church, whose classical and scientific attainments and general literature, were so rich and mature that they were well qualified for the highest literary as well as ecclesiastical stations; and acted as conservators of literature in their respective neighbourhoods. Whether we have as many now, in proportion to our numbers, who are thus qualified, I will not at present decide. But do what in you lies, that the Church may have one such individual in yourself.

To the man of

19. Always have some reading, or some other intellectual employment, to fill up the small spaces of time which would otherwise be lost. real wisdom, every moment is precious. To waste even single minutes, therefore, appears to him unspeakably more foolish than throwing away gold. Yet, in the lives of the most industrious, many minutes will occur, in the course of every day, which must inevitably be wasted, unless some expedient be adopted to furnish means for filling up every vacant moment, however unexpectedly it may occur. For this purpose, I would advise you always to carry a Bible in your pocket, and some other port

able book of value, which may be taken up for a few moments, wherever you may happen to be, and laid down again without material disadvantage. And when you go from home, always take with you books enough, and of the proper character, for the profitable employment of your time, while waiting at taverns, or travelling in public conveyances, in which many an hour is lost by the improvident man. If you are only awake to the importance of this subject, and have your attention vigilantly directed to the economical use of time, it is wonderful how much of it may be easily saved from utter waste.

20. Study much with your pen in hand. Keep several blank books on your shelves. One of these should be a common-place book, in which you should enter references to the volume, chapter, and page, in which any remarkably just sentiments, or able discussions, are to be found. This is, undoubtedly, a method greatly preferable to that which is adopted by many; I mean the method of laboriously transcribing long passages from books; which ought never to be done unless with respect to such books as you may not be able to see again. If you possess, or can easily procure a book, a reference to the passage which strikes you, under its appropriate title, in a volume kept for that purpose, is quite sufficient, and much less laborious and exhausting. It is a good thing, too, while the contents of a book of sterling value are fresh in your memory, to throw on paper a compend or synopsis of the scope, plan, and reasoning. This will not only tend to fix them in your memory; but may also serve, if filed and preserved, some important purpose afterwards. And, finally, in an in

terleaved Bible be careful to enter, in a small, neat hand, all the striking criticisms, and expositions of scripture, which you may meet with in the course of your reading, or your attendance on the preaching

of others.

21. It will be, in many cases, a great saving of time, if you learn the character of books, from good judges, before you read them. As no one has time or strength to read every book that can be found, on a given subject, and as it would not be worth his while if he had, it is desirable for a student, at the outset of a particular investigation, to find out, from those on whom he can rely, what writers have treated on the subject which he wishes to explore, with most ability. I have often been distressed to see inexperienced but zealous readers, wasting weeks and perhaps months, in reading inferior, and even paltry books, when those which were far more worthy of their attention, might have been had with equal ease. an additional reason for regret occurs, when a student whose funds are extremely scanty, expends a portion of them in the purchase of works scarcely deserving a perusal. A conversation with some learned friend in reference to a contemplated book, may not only enable you to judge of its relative value, but may really prepare you to read it with far more advantage than you would otherwise have done.

And

22. Never pursue study to the point of exhaustion, or even of very sensible fatigue. There is so far from being any economy in this, that it is the most injudicious waste of time and strength that can well be imagined. The probability is that you will lose ten times more than you will gain by it. Every mo

ment that you spend in study after the mind becomes jaded, is worse than thrown away. But I have seen so many instances in which youthful students were deaf to all warning on this subject; so many instances in which, under the impression that they could bear any degree of application to study with impunity, they madly went on, until the firmest constitutions were broken down,-in some instances irreparably; that I despair of doing much good by the most solemn repetition of this counsel. No one, in an ordinary state of health, ought to spend more than six or seven hours a day in close study. If to these be added two or three more of light reading, there will be as much time devoted to intellectual exertion, as any one ought ever to think of. For one that can bear more, as a habit, without injury, five or six cannot endure so much. Will students never learn but by the destruction of their health, that it is much better to leave off study, while their minds continue elastic, and their animal spirits unwearied; than, for the sake of gaining a few hours, to run the risk of a prostration of strength, which may exclude them from their books for years, and deprive them of all comfortable health for the remainder of life?

23. Never study much by night. Begin with the dawn of day, and improve every moment of daylight that you can secure. But be extremely cautious of night-studies. I have known them to injure incurably the eyes and the general health of many unwary students, before they apprehended the least danger. Study to a late hour at night ought never to be indulged at all, by any one who values his health. Two hours' sleep before midnight are worth three, if not