have reached a period somewhat beyond the regular instructions of their parents and ordinary teachers. Till this moment, they may have enjoyed excellent privileges. But on quitting school, or higher seminaries, and entering, in a new sense, into the world, they are in danger of dropping religious study, with other study, and the Bible with other books which have engaged the earlier years of life. If tempted thus to do, my young friends, you are tempted to your ruin, and are in danger of the affecting menace of the text. So far from relaxing attention to religious things, just as you issue from under the wing of your parents, you have reason to redouble your seriousness, and application to them. You have had the aid of your parents in walking; now you must walk unsupported. You have had their counsels to guide and restrain you; now, your own reflections must be your guide and restraint. How diligently, then, should you study the word of God, to enrich your minds with unerring wisdom and to imbue your hearts with saving truths. Your parents led you, when lisping infants, to the throne of grace, and taught you to pray; and will you -can you feel easy, to neglect prayer, after they cease to take your hands in theirs, and assist your petitions? Let it not be cleave to the Bible, and to the throne of grace; and like Jacob, let not the fleet angel go, until he bless thee. Remember the warning of the text-He that hath not, he that improveth not what he hath, neglects the treasures of truth and coun

sel, gathered in the favoured seasons of childhood and youth, and gives up the thought of adding to them,from him shall be taken away even that which he hath.

But I must hasten to close the subject, which has employed this day, endeared to my own heart, and I hope also to yours, as the anniversary Sabbath of our union, associated as it is, with a thousand affecting recollections. For twenty-three years, it has been mine to preach the gospel, and yours to hear; with what fidelity on either part, the great day will disclose. 1 bless God they have been years of undisturbed harmony and friendship. There are few families with whom I have not wept, for nine hundred and fifty-six have in these years gone from us, to the great congregation of the dead. Two hundred and sixty-six have become communicants at the Lord's table; fifty-three have taken upon them the baptismal covenant; and six hundred and sixty-six subjects have received baptism. It is affecting to give this simple recital. I cannot look back upon the past, but with deep emotion. Would to God I might have done more for those who have gone to their great account. Blessed be God, that of many of them I can think with a lively hope that they are in glory. You, my friends, still receive my poor aid, in preparing to die-in preparing to live forever. Olet us be serious in this momentous business. We shall soon follow the thousand, who have gone before us. It is a serious thing to die.

Let us preach and hear as for our own lives. Let us not forget the hints of this discourse. The prize to be gained, is heaven and its eternal joys. If we lose the prize, unutterable woe will be your portion. So dreadful an issue of our union, God forbid. "Let us work while the day lasts, the night cometh in which no man can work.”

SERMON V.

THE LOVE OF GOD.

JUDE, 21st verse.

Keep yourselves in the love of God.

If we consider the rank, which our blessed Lord assigned to the love of God among the commandments; or the exalted happiness which results from this highest of the affections; or the influence it has upon every part of the christian character, it being the very life and spirit of every other affection and duty; or its absolute necessity to any well founded hope of acceptance with God, and of the everlasting happiness of his presence above; the motives, which should influence. to the love of God, are certainly as great and affecting as can be addressed to a human mind. Every thing, then, which may in the smallest degree conduce to the beginning or increase of the love of God in the soul, becomes a duty of high importance. Although we are dependent on the powerful influence of the spirit of

God, to begin, and preserve, and increase this most precious affection, I need not say, that we are under the most solemn obligations to contribute our part to these important ends. If we are destitute of this affection, or, if existing, should it languish and die, the blame will lie with us, and the misery of outcasts from his love will be our just portion. Let me then beseech my hearers to lend their most awakened attention, while I suggest some of the best means of keeping themselves in the love of God; the best means of beginning to love God and of increasing in this exalted affection.

Nothing is more certain than that the current of the soul cannot set in two opposite directions at the same time; we cannot love God and at the same time love what he abhors. Now, God in his nature is entirely opposed to all unrighteousness, and is disgusted with all impurity, and abhors the lusts of flesh and spirit. "The carnal mind is enmity against God." Let me, then, say—

That the first step towards the love of God, is to withdraw our affection from the things which oppose his attributes and will.

Is it possible that we should love the wages of unrighteousness, and yet love the justice of God, an essential attribute of his character, which will assuredly render to every one according to his deeds? Can we feel complacency in the divine purity, which cannot look upon sin but with disgust, and yet ourselves delight in pollution? It cannot be. The sins we indulge