then entreat you to look at the fall of another country,-to that mighty ruin which now covers the first of European monarchies, and which has buried every thing that, but a few years ago, was noble or elevated, in one promiscuous grave. Alas! while you look upon this sepulchre of human greatness, is there not a voice which arises from the tomb, and which seems to tell you also to beware;—which tells you, that if the great have their rights, they have also their duties;—that, in the present circumstances of the world, the inheritance of wealth, and the pride of ancestry, can only be supported by personal dignity, and that the fabric of society itself can only be maintained by the progressive improvement of every rank in knowledge and in virtue? It is the melancholy truth of history, that the corruption of every people has begun with the great; and, if ever that dread day

shall come, when this constitution, so long the subject of our pride to men, and our gratitude to God, shall also perish, it will be when the higher orders are more corrupt than the lower ;-when, in the security of vanity, or in the baseness of vicious pleasure, they shall at once have undermined the respect of the vulgar, the confidence of the wise, and the hope of the virtuous.

Such then, my young brethren, is that arduous but animating state on which you are about to enter. It is, in truth, no. state of luxury and ease, no privileged scene of exemption from that labour, which is at once the lot and the prerogative of man. You are called by the Providence of God to the first rank in the society of men;-you are called by the same Providence to the first duties ; and the voice of Nature coincides with the voice of the Gospel, in the solemn assur

ance, "that of those to whom much is "given, much also will be required. Do you then wish, with the natural generosity of youth, to fulfil in after years the duties to which you are called? Now is the time for this sacred preparation. It is now, in the spring of your days, that you may acquire the knowledge, and establish the habits which are to characterize your lives; and that you may elevate the temper of your minds to the important destiny to which the Father of Nature has called you. The world, with all its honours and all its temptations, is before you ;the paths of virtue and of vice are equally open to receive you ;-and it is the decision of your present hours, which must determine your character in time, and your fate in eternity.

I pray God, that you may decide like Christians and like men;-that you may take, in early life, "that good part which

"will never be taken from you;"-and that neither the illusions of rank, nor the seductions of wealth, may lead you to forget what you owe to yourselves, to your country, and to your God.

SERMON X.

ON SUMMER.

JUDGES, V. 31.

"Let them that love the Lord be as the sun, when he goeth forth in his might."

THERE are principles of our constitution

which lead us from the observation of the material world, to the contemplation of the mind that formed it, and which, from the spectacle of beauty, conduct us to Him "who has made everything beauti❝ful in his time." There are uses too of