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tions; what though any thing thus dear and useful, should ensnare your immortal soul, yet part with it; yes, part with it, though it cost you as much exquisite torture to do so, as it would to tear the tender eye from its socket, and to cut away the right hand and foot from the body they support and adorn. Part with the dear cause of destruction, though, through its loss, the rest of your days were even to be spent in misery and want. Yet mind not the miseries of an hour, to escape those of eternity; mind not all that a feeble body can endure, to escape the worm that never dieth, and the fire that never shall be quenched. Better, far better, were it for you, to go, if needful, through pain, and want, and wretchedness, to heaven, than through comfort, and ease, and prosperity, to hell." Solemn and awakening charge! O that it were felt by every heart! Awful, awful warning, repeated six times by a compassionate Saviour, that there the fire never shall be quenched.

Will you, my young friend, listen to his words? Will you, if you have not yet done so, now give your youth to God, and receive the blessed Jesus as your all in all? If you refuse, O may the God of mercy grant, that wherever you go in your mad career of business or of pleasure, the words of Christ may follow you, and still thunder in your ear, that in that dismal abode, whither sin and folly lead the soul, the fire never shall be quenched! Flee, then, from it! Flee for your life! Flee for your soul! If milder motives have not moved you, what can awaken you, if this warning of the Lord's cannot! Flee from the dear delights of sin, that are binding you over to perdition! They conduct

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to that hell, where the fire never, never shall be quenched. Flee from sins, that have ruled you to the present hour! or they will shortly fix you where the worm of remorse and despair can never, never die. Flee, or ere long the fire of hell, flashing in your face, will tell you, that your day of grace is past; and the worm that never dieth, rising in your soul, will sting you with huge, inexpressible, and everlasting sorrows.

A PRAYER, IMPLORING GRACE TO PAY DEVOUT ATTENTION TO THE SCRIPTURAL ADVICE CONTAINED IN THIS CHAPTER.

O thou great and beneficent Father of all, while I draw near to thee in prayer, stoop, for Jesus's sake, to accept my feeble offering. Humiliation should be mine in these solemn seasons, while infinite condescension is thine. I have passed but a few fleeting years in this world, yet, perhaps, have already seen many more than I shall ever see again; and, O Lord, what folly, misery, and madness, have marked much of my mortal course! Instead of seeking first thy kingdom and its righteousness, many of my early years have been devoted to a thousand trifling vanities; and, negligent of laying up my treasures in heaven, I have sought that felicity among the follies of time and sense, which can be found in thee alone.

Thou, O gracious Lord, hast an eternal, immutable right to teach me what to choose, and what to shun. Listening to thy word, may I make true piety my early and immediate choice; and may I have strength from thee to count all things loss, that I may win Christ. If I should have to pass over a painful path to heaven, still let me tread that path, assured, that one hour of

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glory there will compensate all the sorrows of the way. May I follow those who trod a thorny way before me, and who are inheriting the promises. Let me count no sufferings too heavy to be endured on his account, who bore the cross for me. When the world tempts me; when religion is despised, and this vile heart would be negligent of its blessings: then let me think of his dying love and of his various admonitions; then let me gladly make the most painful sacrifices, so that I may but escape the never-dying worm, and be a partaker in his righteousness, and an heir of thy kingdom. Impress deeply on my heart, that the time is short; and may I rejoice or weep, possess or want, as a traveller to eternity. May I, from this time, cry unto thee, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth. May. the blessings be mine which rest on the humble, the pure in heart, and the peaceful. May I hunger and thirst after righteousness, and feel those desires, which nothing but thy love can satisfy, and may I be filled. May I consider my latter end, and when the solemn hour of separation from all mortal things arrives, then, O my God, look down upon me, and show a father's love. Cheer my departing spirit with thy smile. Let joys like those of Lazarus, then be mine. May ministering angels surround my astonished soul; and conduct it through the wondrous, but, by me, untrodden path, that leads from earth to heaven. There may I join the company, whose robes are washed in Jesus's blood; and there for ever celebrate thy love, and pay my grateful honours to the Lamb that was slain. Gracious Father, for his sake answer, and more than answer, these my humble prayers Amen.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE LORD JESUS CHRIST A REASON FOR EARLY PIETY.

§ 1. HISTORY relates, that one of those happy and triumphant saints, who passed through the sorrows of martyrdom, to the glories of heaven, just before he expired, lifting up his burning hands from the midst of the flames, exclaimed, "None but Christ, none but Christ!" In this, and ten thousand other instances, martyrdom itself was cheerfully borne, through love to the adorable Saviour: but whence sprung this fervent love? The apostle's words reply, We love him, because he first loved us. My young friend, let me call your attention to this most pleasing and most powerful motive, for devoting your youth to God. Martyrs loved their God, because he had first loved them.— Martyrs died for their Redeemer, because he had first died for them; but consider, I beseech you, that all which was done for them, was done for you. That love which won their hearts, has been manifested for you as well as them. God in the gospel, is as kind to you as he was to them; heaven as open to you as it was to them; and Jesus died for you as well as for them. Spend then, a few serious moments, in meditating on divine love. I have glanced at this subject before, but now entreat you to consider more fully the love of God, and the love of Christ.

§ 2. In the works of the Most High you may discern his love. The fruits we gather, the summers we enjoy, the harvests we reap, the air we

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breathe; are all proofs of the love of God. Your healthful days, your easy nights, your food, your raiment, your tender friends; all these are gifts from the God of love. He crowns successive

seasons with his goodness; and seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, are fraught with his blessings. In infancy, childhood, and youth, you have experienced his kindness. Unnumbered mercies descended from him to you, before you could be conscious whence they came; and the streams of his kindness have continued full even to your present day; and should you choose him as your God and portion, then his kindness will endure while eternal ages roll. It is in the gift of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that his divinest love is manifested. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

§ 3. The gift of Christ is uniformly represented in the scriptures, as caused by the love of God. That blessed book assures us, that the divine Redeemer did all that he did, and endured all that he endured, in consequence of the love of God to a ruined world. The testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ to this momentous truth, is given in the words just quoted; his inspired apostles assert the same. "God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Does the motive of a giver, enhance the value of a gift? how then should you value Jesus, the best gift of God! In the gospel the infinite Lord of lords is displayed,

John. iii. 16. Rom. v. 8. 1 John, iv. 10.