at length, fitted to become the companion of saints and angels in the world of spirits. Come, then, my young friends, and make this eternal, infinite good your own. O cast not from you the treasures of heaven; make not yourselves miserable exiles from God and glory, by the neglect of that, which can alone raise you to the enjoyment of his presence and favor.

If it

No

4. Religion is urged upon you as a matter that demands your immediate attention. If religion is any thing, it is every thing. demands your attention at all, it demands your supreme attention, and demands it now What can you gain by delay? No clearer revelation is to be given to teach you your duty, or shed new light upon the character of God and the scenes of the future world. motives more powerful are to be urged, than those now disclosed to your view, and pressed on your minds by the word and providence of God. No season more convenient than the present will ever come, for attending to the things of your eternal peace. The only effect of delay is to multiply obstacles to your conversion, to render your salvation more hopeless, and cast a deeper gloom over the prospects of your eternity. Now is with you, most emi

nently, the accepted time; and now the day of salvation. The present is an age when the young have peculiar encouragements to seek the Lord their God. A brighter day is dawning upon the world. God appears to be coming forth to raise up from among the young, a generation for himself. In the multiplied means that are used for their instruction, and the great success which attends those means, I behold most cheering indications of the near approach of that day, when all shall know the Lord, from the least unto the greatest. It is one of the most animating signs of the times in which we live, that in all our cities and towns, there are to be seen great numbers of young people, devoting themselves to the service of God. And as 1 see them going forth to the work, and to the rewards to which their Saviour is calling them, I seem to hear them say to all who are lingering behind, We are journeying to a place of which the Lord hath said, I will give it you; come thou with us, and we will do thee good; for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel. Cast in your lot, my young friends, with the multitudes of your age who have already chosen God as their portion; share with them the honor and blessedness of a pious and use

ful life; and go with them to inherit the eternal joys of heaven. Why should you defer coming to a decision on a subject which stands thus connected with your present and everlasting happiness? Why linger and hesitate, when a crown of unfading glory is the prize set before you? Do you find within you a reluctance to attend to the subject of religion-Is it an unpleasant subject,-one on which you find it difficult to fix your affections and thoughts? Ah, my friends, if it be so, you are in a dreadful state of mind. And has it never occurred to you, how that creature must appear in the sight of God, that cannot bear to think of his character and ways, that can take no pleasure in his presence and service, and can be happy only in an utter unmindfulness of the Being who made him, and of the duties he requires of him? One thing is plain, either God must change, or you must change, or you can never behold his face in peace. You do not like to think on the subject of religion! O how shocking! What evidence too of estrangement from the father of your spirits, and of entire unfitness for heaven? But this subject must be thought of. It is in vain to think of always keeping it at a distance. You may put it off to-day,

and to-morrow, and next day; but, as God is true, you cannot put it off always. It will come home sooner or later; it may come suddenly; and come, in circumstances, only to tell you that your term of probation is closed and your soul lost for ever. The day of death will put an end to procrastination, and teach you, when it is too late to retrieve the loss, that the care of the soul is the first and great concern of man.

Here then I close. The service, which has been attempted for your good, I commend to the blessing of God, with earnest prayer, that, in the last, great day, it may be found not to have been in vain. For the coming of that day, may we all be prepared. It is as certain as the day of our death; and we are hastening towards it, fast as the wings of time can waft us. Another year of our short life is drawing to a close.* Its Sabbaths are now all gone by, and have borne to heaven their report, how we have improved them. In a

will be

gone,

and we

little time all our years shall be numbered with the generations that have descended to the grave before us. We are the creatures of a day, passing through

* Delivered on the last Sabbath evening of the year.

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RELIGION THE CHIEF CONCERN.

life as an arrow passes through the air;spirits come from God and going to God; a few moments hence we disappear and are seen no more; we drop into eternity, and are swallowed up amidst its unchanging scenes. Whilst then, in view of these scenes, we press upon you the duties you owe to society, disclose the dangers which beset your path, enforce the importance of established principles and a high standard of character, we say, first of all, and more important than all,— Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.-Then will your life be a public blessing, and your end peace; and when this material universe shall give place to new heavens, and a new earth, your names will appear in the book of life, and your spirits be united to the just made perfect before the throne of God