timid prudence of age, and most favourable to a thorough conversion. Disdaining all resistance, ambitious of high atchievments, leaping over opposing obstacles, youth flies to the goal, whilst age, creeping fearfully along, clinging still to the enjoyments of earth, discouraged by every difficulty, will scarcely ever attain it. Like the wife of Lot, it may proceed a small distance from the city, doomed to destruction, but devoid of alacrity and vigour, it will seldom reach the Zoar, the place of safety. It must be evident to you, my brethren, that these dispositions and sentiments, are from their nature, calculated to advance you in the christian course of themselves, they are not sufficient to make you holy; but when grace sanctifies them, and directs them to proper objects, they must render your progress in religion more rapid and more delightful. And remember too, that this inciting grace, is given you in greater measure in youth, than in advanced life; that God by his spirit now beseeches, and importunes you to turn and live more frequently and forcibly, than he will hereafter. I appeal to you, aged sinners, for the truth of this representation. Are there none of you who often in early life, felt the attractions and suggestions of the Holy Ghost, which "almost persuaded you to be christians;" (Acts xxvi. 28.) but who, now that you have advanced in life, and are nearer to perdition, scarcely ever think of the destiny that awaits you; scarcely ever

are induced to meditate seriously, on the means to avoid it. You see then, my young friends, that whether you consider your own disposition, or the conduct of God, you find advantages for progressing in piety, which you will not have at any other period of your lives. If then you have not renounced all hope and desire for salvation, (and surely none of you can be so mad, as deliberately to sacrifice the pleasures of heaven, and embrace the tor. tures of hell)-if you wish to apply the most suitable means for the attainment of this salvation, (and you are not reasonable creatures, if you do not wish it)-will you not imitate the example of the pious king of Judah, and "begin while yet young, to seek after the God of your fathers."

And if the advantages which you now enjoy for the cultivation of religion, form a strong induce ment to you to attend to the concerns of piety, so also do the DANGERS and TEMPTATIONS to which you are now exposed. Every other period of life has some salutary restraints and guards which are denied to youth. Childhood, is weak and feeble, without power or temptation to commit many sins, and subjected to the visitant controul of parents. Manhood, is occupied by business and avocations; and, in pur. suit of honours and emoluments, finds it necessary by at least an appearance of virtue, to conciliate the esteem and respect of the world. Old age, has the lessons of experience, is impotent to do evil, and

beholds death, judgment, eternity, nearly approaching. But youth, is left without any of these powerful restraints, these salutary guards. The world, whose treachery and falsehood it has not yet known, spreads before it a thousand gay and alluring scenes, to draw it aside from virtue. Every thing is novel; every thing is captivating. The blood courses with impetuosity through the veins; passion and appetite are in their full vigour; objects to excite them are each moment presented; judgment is immature; reason without the aids of experience; the imagination active in creating illusions; the heart sensible to pleasure, easily inflamed, lively and impetuous in its desires. Ah! in so perilous a situation, what but the sacred guidance of religion can preserve us? A young person without this guidance, resembles a vessel without rudder and without pilot, tossed on an agitated ocean in the midst of an obscure night, conflicting with violent storms, dashing frequently against quicksands and rocks, liable each moment to be shivered into pieces, or to sink into the abyss.

Stop then for a moment, my young friends; think of your danger, and in order to avoid it, "begin" with Josiah "to seek after the God of your

fathers."

III. By early piety, you will prepare tranquility and joy for old age, should you arrive unto it;

whilst by an opposite conduct you will fill it with remorse and fears.

An old man, who has forgotten God in his youth, is seldom converted; and if he is not, how wretched must he be in that period of weakness and debility, when supports and consolation are so much needed, since his views of the past, the present, and the future, bring with them nothing but grief and anguish. He contemplates the past; he sees a whole life given him to prepare for eternity, squandered in vanity and sin; he sees a wide and dreary waste, where the eye is relieved by no monuments of virtue and piety; he considers the present, and is filled with confusion; he turns towards the future, and with gloom and distress, beholds death for which he has not prepared, pressing upon him; beholds a tribunal where he can hope for no acqui. tal, already erected; beholds an eternity of joys which he would fain possess, but which he has bartered for those pleasures, of which nothing remains but an insipid or painful remembrance; beholds an eternity of torments, which he has merited by his sins and iniquities. The ghosts of departed joys fit before him, and point to those regions of woe, whither sinful delights conduct. Such is the old age of those who remember not God in their youth, and then remain, as they almost always do, at a distance from him during the whole course of their lives. Even if (to make the most favour

able supposition, and a supposition which is seldom verified) even if called at the eleventh hour, this aged man has truly turned unto the Lord, how far will he be from enjoying the same pleasure as the early convert. He will almost certainly be subject at times to painful apprehensions and doubts; to fears that he forsakes the world, only because he can no longer retain it; that he renounces the enjoyments of earth, only because from the decay of his body, from the feebleness of his mind, and the weakness of his fancy, he is unable to indulge in them. These, and a thousand other similar fears, generally occasion in the mind of him who is converted in old age, a painful hesitancy concerning the security of his state, prevent him from going on his way rejoicing, and cloud that prospect of immortality which would be a stay to his soul.

How much more consolatory and cheering are the meditations of the aged christian, who remembered his creator in the days of his youth. He is solaced in reviewing his conduct, to find the brightest evidences of his sincerity; for he forsook the world when it appeared in its most alluring garb, and spread its most glittering snares to entangle him: He forsook it when his ardent passions and vigorous powers enabled him to participate in its pleasures with the greatest gust; he has long and successfully warred under the banner of the Captain of his salvation; he has resisted the most vie F