the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength: even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint."

But while we are looking to the elder times for high examples of courage and of allegiance, it ought likewise to be our anxious endeavour to offer similar examples to others in our own faith and patience. It ought to be our prayer that "our light may shine" with steady brilliancy upon the path of others. It ought not to content us to receive good; it ought to be our generous effort to do good. Many generations may yet succeed us in the struggles of life. With this reference, it ought to be our desire to cheer and to invigorate those who are feebler in faith than ourselves.

Let me speak then, in conclusion, to those who, through the grace of God, have taken their place in the world, and who have adopted a decisive course of desire and of pursuit. I would say to such, My brethren in Christ, you are on the Lord's side. Through grace you have remembered your vows of youth, and the early sign of the cross upon

VOL. II.

your foreheads.

It is

It is your desire to be faithful to the obligations under which Christianity has placed you, and to evince yourselves to be good "soldiers of the cross, fighting manfully under the banner of Christ, against the world, the flesh, and the devil." Upon these principles, are you then examples to those who are but commencing the conflicts of life? Are your maxims of conduct the clear and recorded decisions of God? Is your estimate of truth and error derived entirely from the Scriptures? Is the honour, the glory, the cause of Christ dear to you at one moment as at another? Are you growing in his grace, and knowledge, and love? Is there with you no false shame before the world? No flinching before the frown of man—no compromising of truth amidst the bold claims of falsehood? Are you seeking, with consistent effort, the full salvation of your souls? and is Jesus Christ, in very deed and reality, your honoured Master and your gracious Friend? Is it your joy to uphold the wavering, to animate the timid, to encourage the faithful servant of your Lord? Have you given up every faculty of body and soul in holy consecration to Him who shed his blood for you? Are you advancing towards the close of life, as a light to the benighted, a staff to the weak, an example to the inexperienced and the timid? Are you "followers of God and the Lamb;"

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humbly anxious to be found" faithful even unto death?" Give these questions, I beseech you, their just consideration, and live in habits of watchfulness and prayer!

There are, however, those who are called Christians who are yet giving the strength of manhood, or the growing debility of age, exclusively to the pursuits of pleasure or of gain and the young mark in such, a fatal example of earthliness which they too well love to follow. Now such men are the abettors of a system of sin and of delusion which, if pursued, will rob them eternally of God's regard and of their own peace. I would earnestly say to such," has the gospel of Christ hitherto exerted no benign influence over your souls? Has the Redeemer's love carried no healing balm to your bosoms? and is the disease of sin still raging unhealed, and has no wish been solemnly felt, much less expressed for a cure? And it may, perhaps, aggravate your guilt that you are parents, or the guardians of others. For what example are you offering to your children? You have never felt towards them the godly solicitude of Christian parents. Their conduct towards Godtheir spiritual character, has never been the subject of solicitude dear to your hearts. You are still careless of your own souls, and are still walking before your children in the broad

path to destruction. Your examples have never drawn them one step towards God. Your lives are no friendly beacons to warn them of evil, and to illuminate the way to true felicity. But think, my brethren, how awful must be the woe ultimately due to him who shall use the authority of age, the counsels of maturity, the lessons of parental influence, or the attractions of fond affection; who shall use these advantages as instruments of moral power against the honour of God, and against the spiritual character of his children? On the other hand, think of the blessing which he shall receive who, under the benign teaching of heavenly wisdom, shall prefer the interests of the soul to those of the body; the spiritual welfare of his offspring to their earthly fortune! Estimate his eternal recompense who shall bequeath to his children, in his dying hour, the rich memorials of his faith and hope, and who shall descend into the grave the honoured servant of Christ, the firm "follower of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises!"

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SERMON XIII.

RELIGION A BLESSING TO THE YOUNG.

2 TIM. iii. 14, 15.

"BUT CONTINUE THOU IN THE THINGS WHICH THOU HAST LEARNED, AND HAST BEEN ASSURED OF; KNOWING OF WHOM THOU HAST LEARNED THEM; AND THAT FROM A CHILD THOU HAST KNOWN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, WHICH ARE ABLE TO MAKE THEE WISE UNTO SALVATION, THROUGH FAITH WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS."

EVERY thing around us is in a state of growth either to perfection or to decay. In the moral, as in the natural world, one and the same principle of progress is apparent. A habit of thinking and of acting is daily forming in every mind. Every feeling is in progress to its proper maturity. The character is ripening to the moral harvest. Vice and virtue have equally their consummation and their triumph. The good man is under the heavenly discipline of wisdom, and will ultimately be fitted for immortality and bliss. The complex influences of the world, of Providence, of friendship, of truth, of calamity, of joy; these are all at work upon