jealousy over yourselves, and prove your own hearts; "Know ye not, if Christ is not in you ye are reprobates ?" As all the essential principles of the Christian character are clearly described in the sacred volume, appeal to it as the criterion of truth; weigh yourselves in the impartial balances of the sanctuary, lest ye should be "found wanting."-Besides the duty of self-examination, let me enforce an attention to that of constant self-denial. The easily besetting sins of youth and old age differ, in many respects, very materially; and because each sees in the other those which are not chargeable upon himself, he therefore draws the dangerous conclusion, that he is as free from all others. Depraved nature may differ in some features at these different periods, and yet be equally active and predominant in both. It retains its vigour even in union with the infirmities and the decrepitude of old age. There is the pride of youth, and there is the pride of old age too. The crime of prodigality, at the one period, may be exchanged for the sin of covetousness at the other. The precipitance of inexperience, may grow to peevishness and petulance. Sin possesses a kind of immortality; it never dies by disease, nor through the infirmities of old age. Though you may have arrived at "threescore years and ten,' yet "sin may reign in your mortal body." "Crucify the flesh, with its affections and lusts." You must "deny yourselves, and take up your cross," if you will "follow Christ."-The frequent reading of the Sacred Scriptures, with serious meditations upon them, is of vast importance to personal religion. By placing before us in the most affecting manner the "wages of sin," and the rewards of holiness in a present and future state of being, and by exhibiting promises and threatenings the most affecting,-the Scriptures are highly calculated to excite and maintain in their vigour every sacred resolu

tion, and every holy disposition. A close and frequent consideration of these topics is singularly adapted to promote spirituality of mind, and gradually to assimilate the soul to the image of Christ.-Prayer is another duty of indispensible necessity. It is not enough that you join in this exercise with the assemblies of the saints, nor with your domestics around your family altar; you must "enter into your closets, and shut the door, and your Father who seeth in secret, will reward you openly." This is one important means of maintaining communion with God, "renewing your spiritual strength," and receiving from a "Saviour's fulness, and grace for grace." "pray without ceasing;" and "in all things by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God."These duties are to be accompanied by the diligent cultivation of a graceful and cheerful frame of mind, which is highly pleasing in the sight of God, while it greatly "adorns the doctrine of God our Saviour."-Cold and lifeless formality is to be greatly dreaded in the performance of these duties, in the discharge of which, all your remaining energies ought to be employed; and never can they be employed more accordant with the dictates of reason, and the best interests of your immortal souls.

D. Tyerman.

VANITY OF HUMAN HOPES.

It is no reflection on this amiable princess, to suppose, that in her early dawn, with the dew of her youth so fresh upon her, she anticipated a long series of years, and expected to be led through successive scenes of enchantment, rising above each other in fascination and beauty. It is natural to suppose, she identified herself

with this great nation, which she was born to govern; and that while she contemplated its pre-eminent lustre in arts and in arms, its commerce encircling the globe, its colonies diffused through both hemispheres, and the beneficial effects of its institutions, extending to the whole earth, she considered them as so many component parts of her grandeur. Her heart, we may well conceive, would often be ruffled with emotions of trembling ecstacy, when she reflected, that it was her province to live entirely for others-to compose the felicity of a great people-to move in a sphere, which would afford scope for the exercise of philanthropy the most enlarged, of wisdom the most enlightened; and that, while others are doomed to pass through the world in obscurity, she was to supply the materials of history, and to impart that impulse to society, which was to decide the doom of future generations. Fired with the ambition of equalling, or surpassing, the most distinguished of her predecessors, she probably did not despair of reviving the remembrance of the brightest parts of history, and of once more attaching the epoch of British glory to the annals of a female reign. It is needless to add, that the nation went with her, and probably out-stripped her in these delightful anticipations. We fondly hoped, that a life so inestimable, would be protracted to a distant period; and that, after diffusing the blessings of a just and enlightened administration, and being surrounded by a numerous progeny, she would gradually, in a good old age, sink under the horizon, amidst the embraces of her family, and the benedictions of her country. But, alas! these delightful visions are fled: and what do we behold in their room, but the funereal pall and shroud, a palace in mourning, a nation in tears, and the shadow of death settled over both like a cloud! O, the unspeakable vanity of human hopes! The incurable blindness of

man to futurity, ever doomed to grasp at shadows, to seize, with avidity, what turns to dust and ashes in his hand, "to sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind!"

R. Hall's Sermon on Death of Princess Charlotte.

VANITY OF THE WORLD.

THE world! the world! 'tis all title-page! there's no contents. The world! it all depends on a foolish fancy. The world! it is all deceit and lies. The world! it is all vexation-in getting, in keeping, in losing it and whether we get or lose, we are still dissatisfied. The world! a very little cross will destroy all its comforts. The world! 'tis only a tedious repetition of the same things. The world! will yield us no support or consolation when we most want it, i. e., in the horrors of a guilty mind, and in the approaching terrors of death. The world! is unsuited to the godlike powers, infinite passions, and immortal capacities of a soul.

The world is fickle, variable, and unstable as the wind; 'tis always fickle, always changeable, always unstable; there is no steadfastness in its honours, riches, pleasures; 'tis all a lie, all a lie for ever. The world! it never satisfies; we ever wish for change, whether we are high or low, rich or poor; we are always wishing for some new variety, to cheat the imagination; the witchcraft of polluted pleasure decays in a moment and dies. The world! its pleasures are exceedingly limited, and under most painful restraints, attended with bitter remorse, and followed with a horrible dread of bad consequences; the pleasures of impurity are mixed up with cursed disgusts and self-loathings, and have most

dreadful damps and twinges of mind when the momentary witchcraft of pleasure is gone for ever.

Ryland.

MUTABILITY OF MAN.

How thin is the partition between this world and another! How short the transition from time to eternity! The partition, nothing more than the breath in our nostrils; and the transition may be made in the twinkling of an eye. Poor Chremylus, I remember, arose from the diversions of a card table, and dropped into the dwellings of darkness.-One night, Corinna was all gaiety in her spirits, all finery in her apparel, at a magnificent ball: the next night she lay pale and stiff, an extended corpse, and ready to be mingled with the mouldering dead.-Young Atticus lived to see his ample and commodious seat completed: but not to spend one joyous hour under the stately roof. The sashes were hung to admit the day; but the master's eyes are closed in endless night. The apartments were furnished, to invite society, or administer repose; but their lord rests in the lower parts of the earth, in the solitary, silent, chambers of the tomb. The gardens were planned, and a thousand elegant decorations designed; but, alas, their intended possessor is gone down to "the place of skulls;" is gone down to the vale of the shadow of death.

While I am recollecting, many, I question not, are experiencing the same tragical vicissitude. The eyes of that sublime Being, who sits upon the circle of the earth, and views all its inhabitants with one comprehensive glance, even now behold many tents in affliction. Such affliction, as overwhelmed the Egyptians