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eyery duty, both moral and religious. This omission, which frequently occurs to my mind, has led me to offer this feeble attempt, which, should it excite a more competent pen to discuss this very important topic, (seriously important, when we reflect, that this period of life very much influences every succeeding year,) would give me the double satisfaction of having benefitted you, and of becoming a stimulus to those who are better qualified than myself, for treating this subject. But I wish you, my dear boy, rather to improve by my imperfect rules, than to suffer time to

glide away in the expectation of better; for the difficulty lies not in

giving, but in taking advice, and turning it to our own advantage. Young men are apt to think themselves wiser than their fathers; but, my son, this is a false idea, which will be rectified by experience. Yet the young have this peculiar advantage; they can employ all the wisdom of past ages, be as wise as the ancient, and yet go on adding knowledge to knowledge.

If you do not benefit by my tender care for you, the error will assuredly be your own, and if

you do

not profit by my cautions, your follies will be more without excuse. But I shall continue my design to instruct you in your true interest, with fervent prayer that God would ever do you good, and be your sure and everlasting guide for as our actions should all be done for his glory, so all our enterprises and undertakings should be begun in the hope and trust of that assistance which he has promised to those who ask it. Therefore, as in the ordering of our worldly affairs, we should be very careful to serve God in our generation, so we should look up to him for that blessing which "maketh

rich, and bringeth no sorrow with it:" for, whatever the careless may think, God is the saine he ever was; and his threats and promises have the same force, as when they were first declared unto mankind.

There is one thing I would most earnestly press upon your mind, which is a constant regard to your eternal interest; the greater part of mankind being led only by what is temporal. Education, and the sentiments of those around them, more frequently produce in men the religion they profess, than those principles, faith, and a rational con

viction of the great truths of the gospel, would cause to spring up. Thus the man who takes up religion, because it is the custom of those around him, and he who embraces it from the force of truth, differ widely from each other. The grand truths of religion are not so difficult as some disputers would render them; they are so clearly shown, that "he who runs may read," unless he willfully shut his eyes: and, however the christian world my be divided in name, in the fundamental articles of our belief all will be found to unite. Our greatest danger lies not in controversy, which may sometimes be

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