3. There is, in the last place, an evil communication to the young, from the society of the aged in vice itself. The cases I have hitherto mentioned, are those in which the young are rather corrupted indirectly than directly; and where the guilty are themselves in some degree unconscious of the evil they are doing. There are, however, we know, cases of another kind; there are men, who live to seduce the innocent,-to betray the unwary,-to initiate the thoughtless into the ways of guilt,-and who can look with apathy upon that present and final ruin of the human soul, which they are preparing. I speak not, my brethren, to such men. They meet us not here, would to God there were nowhere else that they met the young! Yet, I must say to all, that to this last stage of human baseness and infamy, every vice conducts, that it is the natural malig

nity of sin, to look for new associates,-and that he who yields himself to any known vice, is not only in the way to the ruin of his own soul, but is in the way also to become at last the agent of the enemy of mankind, in the ruin of the innocent souls who trust, and are betrayed by him.

It is thus, my brethren, that "evil com"munication corrupts good manners. It is thus also, often, that this is done by those who are unconscious of the evil they produce. It is a reason to all of us, as I said, to call our ways to remembrance,— to the young to consider the great and eventful journey upon which they are going, to those who are more advanced in life, to consider the example they are affording.

May God grant that these reflections may dwell with us all! that they who are entering into life may remember, that

to the innocent is promised the kingdom of Heaven; and that they who are advanced in it, may remember the mighty rewards which await those "who lead "others into the way of righteousness."

SERMON XIII.

ON THE FAST, FEBRUARY 27, 1806.

PSALM 1xxx. 19.

" O Lord God of Hosts! show the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole.

THESE words of the King of Israel contain a very striking representation of that piety, which, amid all his errors, was yet the prevailing principle of his character. In some one of those seasons of national danger, of which his reign was full, "when his people were fed with the bread * of tears,—when they were made a strife

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unto their neighbours, and their enemies "laughed them to scorn, we see him in silence ascending into the sanctuary of God, and hear him soliciting the aid of Him" who sitteth upon the cherubims. Amid the darkness which surrounded him, he implores, not with the usual presumption of earthly prayer, that the God of Nature should visibly descend to their relief, but with the sublimer invocation that his religion taught, that "He. would show "the light of His countenance; "-that he would show them what was the course they ought to pursue ;-that he would display to them the path which their own wisdom could not discern: And then, with the confidence of faith, he foretells, that the prosperity of his people would return, that the dangers in which they were involved would be dispelled,—and that they at last "would be whole.

The sentiment which is here expressed