been recommended so much by some, is not without its moral poison.

I would recommend the far superior pleasures of Religion. The haunts of the theatre lead down to the gates of eternal death; but the ways of Religion "are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

This city has once been visited by such a calamity: the circus has been burnt in this city: A theatre was also burnt at Boston: And such is the growing wickedness of this city, that it may again be visited by fire.

Ó then, my dear young friends, be not partakers in the sins of others, lest God should make you partakers in their punishment, in his awful displeasure. Remember, that whatever you may think, the word of God says, that "the end of those things is death." It has been so by the awful experience of many-death to the body and eternal death to the soul.

"Children awake, nor slumb'ring lie,
Amidst the gloomy haunts of death ;
Perhaps the awful hour is nigh,
Commission'd for your parting breath.

"That awful hour will soon appear;
Swift on the wings of time it flies;
When all that pains or pleases here,
Will vanish from your closing eyes.

"Death calls your friends, your parents hence,
And none resist the fatal dart;
Continual voices strike your sense,

And shall they fail to reach your heart?

"Shall gay amusements rise between,
When scenes of horror spread around!
Death's pointed arrows fly unseen,

But ah, how sure how deep they wound!

"Think, dear young friends, how much depends
On the short period of a day;
Shall time, which Heav'n in mercy lends,
Be negligently thrown away?

"Insure your nobler life on high,

Life from a dying Saviour's blood!
Then though your minutes swiftly fly,
They bear you nearer to your God."

LECT. XII.-A Word in Season; or
Death and Judgment.

REVELATIONS xx. 12.-And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.

My dear young friends,

AT this season of the year, you are more particularly reminded, by the objects around you, of your latter end: all nature appears to be dead: the trees without leaves, and

the garden without flowers: the waters bound in fetters of ice, and the ground covered with frost and snow: Christmas is past the year will soon be gone, and New-year's day is near at hand.

You live in a world of changes, and pass through a variety of scenes; sometimes a dark cloud appears, and then a bright one: the wheel of nature is continually turning round: sometimes one spoke is uppermost and sometimes another one event regularly follows another at the command of God, darkness goes away, and day-light comes: the day must give place to night, and the night again to day. It is now winter, but this will be followed by spring: then comes the summer, afterwards fall or autumn, and then the winter will return again; "every purpose has its time, and to every thing there is a season." For while the earth remaineth, "seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

"Thus shall the moving engine last,
Till all his saints are gather'd in ;
Then for the trumpet's dreadful blast,
To shake it all to dust again."

You are now in health, but pain and sickness may soon come upon you: you are young, but not too young to die. Death and judgment are subjects, which are by no means agreeable to the young. You are looking forward to years

of pleasure, to a long life of health and happiness but you are born to trouble; your days may be few and evil: you appear like flowers in spring you are the objects of delight and admiration but "man cometh up like a flower and is cut down, he fleeth as a shadow and con. tinueth not, he dieth and wasteth away, yea, giveth up the ghost and where is he? Your days are determined, the number of your months are with God; he hath appointed thy bounds and over them you cannot pass. It is appointed unto all once to die."

I stand on holy ground.

The subjects of this lecture are serious and awful; big with the most important consequences, not only to all the children now present, but to every child in this great world. O my soul, how many are now plunging into an awful eternity? O my young friends, what shall I say? can I hope to prevail on any of you to attend to these serious things? they belong to you all: every one is equally concerned: not a child here can say, I have nothing to do with death and judgment. These bodies must return to the dust from whence they were taken, and your souls to God who gave them.

"The dust returns to dust again,
The soul, in agonies of pain,

Ascends to God, not there to dwell,

But hears her doom, and sinks to hell!"

Let me lead you to an open grave-there I see you weeping over a father or mother, a brother or a sister, standing by that house which is appointed for all living: I see your eyes filled with tears, and your little hearts ready to burst with grief. Shall I address you? shall I speak in vain? shall I spend my strength for nought? O thou Eternal Spirit of God, soften every hard heart; impress every mind; he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

"Stoop down my thoughts, that use to rise,
Converse awhile with death;
Think how a gasping mortal lies,
And pants away his breath.

"His quiv'ring lip hangs feebly down,
His pulses faint and few;
Then speechless, with a doleful groan,.
He bids the world adieu.

But O, the soul that never dies,
At once it leaves the clay;
Ye thoughts, pursue it where it flies,
And track its wond'rous way.

"Up to the courts where angels dwell,
It mounts, triumphant there;
Or devils plunge it down to hell,
In infinite despair."

"And I saw the dead, small and great stand before God." First, Death is mentioned in the words of the text. "And I saw the dead." What is death? ah, my young friends, we must