And when from these you rise to the still more rational and manly delights of virtue;-to that self congratulation which springs up in the soul from the consciousness of having used your best endeavours to act up to the precepts of the Gospel;--of having done your utmost, with the help of divine grace, to correct your infirmities, to subdue your passions, to improve your understandings, to exalt and purify your affections, to promote the welfare of all within your reach, to love and obey your Maker and your Redeemer, -then is human happiness wound up to its utmost pitch;-and this world has no higher gratifications to give. Try then-you, who are in search of pleasures,-try, above all others, the pleasures of devotion. Think not that they are nothing more than the visions of a heated imagination. They are real-they are exquisite. They are what thousands have experienced, what thousands still experience, — what you yourself may experience if you please. Acquire only a taste for devotion (as you often do for other things of far less value) in the beginning of life, and it will be your support and comfort through the whole extent of it. It will raise you above all low cares and little gratifications; it will give dignity and sublimity to your sentiments-inspire you with fortitude in danger-with patience in adversity-with moderation in prosperity-with alacrity in all

your undertakings--with watchfulness over your own conduct-with benevolence to all mankind. It will be so far from throwing a damp on your other pleasures, that it will give new life and spirit to them, and make all nature look gay around you. It will be a fresh fund of cheerfulness in store for you, when the vivacity of youth begins to droop; and is the only thing that can fill up that void in the soul which is left in it by every earthly enjoyment. It will not like worldly pleasures, desert you, when you have

most need of consolation,-in the hours of solitude-of sickness of old age;-but when once its holy flame is thoroughly lighted up in your breasts, instead of becoming more faint and languid as you advance in years, it will grow brighter and stronger every day,—will glow with peculiar warmth and lustre, when your dissolution draws near;-will disperse the gloom and horrors of a death-bed;-will give you a foretaste, and render you worthy to partake of that fulness of joy, those pure-celestial pleasures which are at God's right hand for evermore.”

To all of you I would say,-resist, in divine strength, the fatal tendency of a mind unreasonably devoted to earthly pleasures;—"awake to righteousness and sin not"-take the Gospel of Christ, not the fashion of the world for your guide; and tell those worldly and thoughtless companions, who falsely call themselves

your friends, and shew their friendship by helping you forward in the career of ruin,-tell them that you are looking to heaven;-and that as your heart is there, you are resolved, by God's grace, to have your conversation there also!

I say particularly to parents, guard your youthful charge against those "foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition." Let not your conduct give proof to the allegation so commonly made against the present age, that our very children must now be initiated into the follies of the world;—that though young in years, they must be matured in the ways of dissipation,-and that they must be taught, almost in spite of themselves,-to be "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." Do not, however, suppose, that I wish you to throw a shade of gloom, and austerity, and sorrow, over your domestic circle. Far otherwise :-let religion be presented to them in its native garb of cheerfulness, and peace, and joy. But let their thoughts be guided to the immortality for which they are destined;-let their views be directed to the Saviour who died to redeem them from the "vain conversation" and evil maxims of the world;-let them be diligently taught the precept-and steadily inured to the habit of self-denial, in the midst of those temptations with which they are constantly surrounded;

—and let their minds be so deeply imbued with the purest principles of religion, that all the gaieties of life, in which they are permitted to indulge, may be tempered and regulated by a sense of God's constant presence, and the prospects of death and judgment.

Finally, I would say to the young themselves, be continually in an attitude of resistance to "the sin which most easily besets you❞—the love of pleasure and amusement. Forget not your spiritual privileges, and your immortal hopes. Remember, young as you are you are but like the oldest among us,-" strangers, and pilgrims upon earth." And though you may pluck the roses of worldly delight, as you move along,—think, O think, how poor and fading they are, when compared with the pleasures of religion, and with the fruit of "the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the paradise of God." Wisdom's "ways," remember, "are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." Walk in them, and it shall be well with you now and for ever;-but if, in the flush, and impatience, and impetuosity of youth, you turn a deaf ear to these exhortations, and go on to be "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God,"take this awful warning-written in the Book of God:-"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth; and walk in the ways of thine heart,

and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that, for all these things, God will bring thee into judgment."

That it may please God, in his mercy, to avert from all of us the vengeance denounced against them that know him not,-I entreat you will all let your hearts fervently and devoutly join with me in offering to the throne of grace that beautiful and appropriate collect of our church, with which I shall conclude:

"O God, who hast prepared for them that love thee, such good things as pass man's understanding; pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.. Amen."