PLEASURE - SABBATH-BREAKING. 61 No room for mirthful trifling here If now the Judge is at the door, And all mankind must stand before The inexorable throne. Let conscience now answer, as in the sight of God; has the love of worldly and sensual pleasure been cherished in your heart? If your situation has prevented your freely following the delights of sense, has the love of them dwelt within? If it has; though you should not have had the opportunity of indulging your worldly taste once in a month, or a year, you are still, in God's sight, as much a lover of pleasures, as if these had occupied every moment of your time. § 8. Sabbath-breaking, though not confined to the young, is a sin that eternally ruins thousands of them. God calls the sabbath-day his own; but makes the profit of it ours: and sabbaths spent in holiness, devotion, faith, and love, are blessings which help the soul on towards heaven; while, broken sabbaths increase the sinner's load of guilt here, and of misery hereafter. At the beginning of time God set this blessed day apart for sacred uses; and his express commandment is, "Remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy:" Ex. xx. 8. He calls for the day. He does not say, keep holy the sabbath morning, or the sabbath afternoon, or the sabbath evening; but, the sabbath day. Though this awful commandment is thus positive and express; yet, no sin is more common than sabbath-breaking. Some profane the whole day; others a part of it. Some employ many of the precious hours of the sabbath, in attending to their worldly employments; ENTICING OTHERS TO SIN. 62 YOUTHFUL SINS others make it a season for finery and gaiety. They go even to the house of God, merely to see or be seen. They idle away their sacred time, in trifling conversation, vain amusements, and silly mirth; or, waste the holy day, in rambling in the fields with companions as frivolous and worldly as themselves. Yet sabbath-breaking is the fruitful source of sin and misery. A sabbath-breaker is justly described, as one who despises his Maker; rebels against the King of kings, defies his vengeance, provokes his wrath; disgraces the Christian name; tramples on the laws of his country; ruins his own soul; and poisons others by his fatal example." And how have your sabbaths been spent? Have you been one of the thoughtless young women, or loose young men, that, on the sabbath-day, in giddy, but truly pitiable parties, throng our streets, or wander in our fields? Have you been one, who has made that most blessed day no blessing to yourself? § 9. The apostle Paul, when enumerating some of the sins of mankind, concludes the dreadful list with that, of their taking pleasure in the sins of others: Rom. i. 28. This, though one of the most awful, is one of the most common of human iniquities; and abounds among none more than among the young. Young persons are often each other's tempters and destroyers. The lewd and profane, tempt others to lewdness and profaneness. The thoughtless and the gay, persuade others to imitate their levity and folly. As if it were not sufficient to have their own sins to account for, many thus make themselves partakers in the sins of others; and, as if it were not enough to ruin their own souls, many thus contract the guilt of assisting to de C ADDRESS. 63 stroy those of their companions and friends. Have you never thus led others into sin? Perhaps some, who are now lost for ever, may be lamenting, in utter darkness and despair, the fatal hour when they became acquainted with you. Have any learned of you to trifle with religion; to squander away their golden day of grace; to slight their God; and choose perdition? If not by words, yet, perhaps, by a careless and irreligious example, you have taught them these dreadful lessons. § 10. I have now named a few youthful iniquities; but, think not that these things are all. No; every sin to which our fallen nature is prone, has been found, not merely in those, who, by years, were ripened in guilt; but, in those also, who were beginning the journey of life. And, not to enumerate the darker crimes of the multitude, who drink in iniquity like water; where, my young friend, is the youthful heart, that never felt the rising emotions of those infernal passions, pride, envy, malice, or revenge? Where is the youthful tongue that never uttered a profane, or wanton, or, at least, an unkind, or slanderous word? Where is the youth, possessed of the forms of piety, that never mocked God, "with solemn sounds upon a thoughtless tongue!" Where is the youthful ear, that was never open, to drink in with pleasure the conversation of the trifling and the foolish? and where the youthful eye, that never cast a haughty, an angry, a wanton, or insulting glance? Are you the person? Can you appeal to the Searcher of Hearts, and rest your eternal hopes on the success of the appeal, that love, unmingled love to God and man, has always dwelt in your bosom; 64 PRAYER FOR A PENITENT. that no resentful, envious, or unkind emotion, was ever, for a moment, harboured there; that a law of constant kindness has ever dwelt upon your lips; that only meekness, and tenderness, and goodness have glanced from your eye; and that your ear was never opened to hear, with pleasure, of a brother's shame? Can you make the appeal? Surely you cannot. Your own "heart condemns you; and God is greater than your heart, and knoweth all things." A PRAYER FOR A YOUNG PERSON, SENSIBLE OF BEING, IN GREATER OR LESS DEGREE, GUILTY OF THE SINS ENUMERATED IN THIS CHAPTER. A I O Lord, the great, and dreadful God, whose mercies are numberless, I have sinned, and committed iniquity before thee. Permit me to approach thee; and enable me to come with all the humility of repentance, and all the ardour of gratitude. If I never prayed before, now may learn to pray. Thou art the Father and the God of those, who rest in heaven :' and O! show me thy forgiving mercy; and give me that interest in thy beloved Son, which shall prepare me to join their triumphant family. But a moment of time separates me from the dead! yet, alas! how unprepared am I for the solemn change of death! I see, I feel this dreadful truth; but, how much more visible is it, Lord, to thee! Once, careless and unconcerned, I felt no alarm at the thought of meeting thy pure and holy Majesty. Ah, sad insensibility! had I then been called to meet thee, I must now have been lifting up my eyes in hopeless misery. If, taught by thy word, I review my life, I see it a constant blot. I look PRAYER FOR A PENITENT. 65 back to my childhood; and, behold, alas! how soon the corrupt dispositions of my nature appeared! As my years increased, my sins gained strength; my heart became more estranged from thee; and my life more sinful in thy sight. Thou lovest humility; but, I have been proud. Thou hast commanded me to revere the authors of my being; to listen to their counsels; and, by tenderness, to requite their affection: but, how often have I slighted their instructions; forgotten their kindness; been undutiful to them, and in them to thee! Thou hast directed me to view life as a dream; and, as my great concern, to seek first thy kingdom and righteousness: but, I have presumed on future days, and wasted those thy mercy gave me. I have minded the things of time; and forgotten those of eternity. Instead of seeking my happiness in Jesus, and in thee; I have sought delight amidst the follies of time, and have grovelled upon earth, when I should have been soaring to heaven. I have. loved - O most patient God! may I dare to confess it; yet, confess it or not, thou knowest the horrible sin-I have loved the shadowy pleasures of this world, more than I have loved thee. O, that this stony heart might break while I acknowledge my guilt! I have sunk lower than the brutes that perish: they, formed for this world, fill up aright their places in it; but I, created to know thee, to serve thee, to love thee, and to enjoy thee for ever, have yet grovelled in the dust. Thy word directs me to redeem the time; but, Oh! how many precious hours, hours which the dying would give worlds to purchase, have I sinned and idled away! Alas! the hours that I |