Iman who is forever in search of fresh means of pastime! Time alas flies sufficiently swift; it admits of no detention. And yet you want to drive it on! You want to give it fleeter wings! Will you hold the same opinion by and by, and how soon may not that happen, when the short space that is granted you draws near to its end; when you have no longer to reckon by years and months, but must count by days and hours? Will you think thus, when you are first to give an account to yourself and then to the judge of the world, of your employment of this time? Woe to him, who, on striking the balance of his reckoning, finds that he has not only bestowed some of it at times on his necessary recreation; but has often daily lavished away large portions of his time in worthless impertinencies, and thereby neglected the opportunity of laying up a treasure in heaven! I must speak still plainer. Woe to him who finds on his death bed, that he has passed almost every evening of his short life, that is almost all the time his business left him free, in idle companies, in unprofitable, and often sinful converse, in play, or in any other loitering manner, derogatory to the dignity of the man and the christian!-What reproaches will he not then make himself! How much will he deplore his murdered time! How ardently, but how vainly, will he wish that he had employed the greater part at least of his leisure on weightier matters, in the improvement of his knowledge, in the practice of virtue and piety, in preparation for his life to come!

A third rule of conduct is this :-Of all dissipa tions and diversions, choose out such as are most innocent and useful. I have not the least intention to forbid you amusement in general, or social amusement in particular. God and religion require not this. But they will have us to make a prudent se

lection from among the various kinds of pleasures we may enjoy. And herein allow me to give you some suggestions. The pleasures of domestic life; the pleasure which tender and rational parents find in conversing with their children, in forming their minds and hearts, and even in sharing in their innocent amusements and sports; intercourse with a few honest and upright friends, where free from restraint or reserve, we may hold profitable and agreeable converse, where we need not care if our ignorance or our weakness appear, and may shew ourselves in our real disposition, where none will reproach us even if our discourse should be dull; the perusal of such books as require no great exertion of mind, which have but little relation to our ordinary affairs, and may enrich us with many different kinds of knowledge, or strengthen us in our generous and virtuous notions; the contemplation of nature, the mild and silent sentiment of its beauties, which we share with our friends, and in sharing elevate; what pleasures are these! How pure, how innocent, how diversified, how fitted to procure agreeable recreation to the mind and new vigor to the body! Learn to understand and to enjoy these pleasures, and you will want no admonition against the abuse of the rest. I will, however, just propose to you one still nobler kind of recreation. Visit at times, the forlorn, the poor, the indigent, the widow, and the orphan; not for the purpose of satisfying your curiosity; but go to them with good advice and substantial succors.Mistake not this for a melancholly recreation. It affords to a generous and humane heart, indeed not in all, but in most cases, far more pleasure than displeasure; and the recollection of the good we have done by it, of the comfort and joy we have thus dispensed abroad, will become a permanent source of the most agreeable emotions.

Lastly, be jealous of your real freedom. Let nothing make you slaves. No sort of dissipation and amusement should ever become so necessary to you that you cannot forego it without uneasiness and pain. You cannot tell but that your circumstances may so alter that you must absolutely give it up. The wise man, the christian, makes himself ready for all events; and on that very account is his happiness the surest, and his pleasure subject to the fewest alterations. Oh strive to be such wise men, such christians. Strive after the approbation of God and your conscience, as after the purest and richest source of refreshment and peace. Consider duty and pleasure not as wholly different and conflicting things; but seek and expect true pleasure chiefly from the delight and fidelity wherewith you fulfil your duty. Regard yourselves constantly as strangers and sojourners in this world, and esteem and treat at all times the present according to the connexion in which it stands with the future. This, and this alone, will render you wise, delighted and happy.

SERMON XXIII.

The Value or the Importance of the Doctrine of our Immortality.

GOD, eternal, inexhaustible fountain of life and happiness, life and happiness incessantly flow from thee on all thy creatures in heaven and on earth; and we thy children, thy eminently endowed and favored children, we expect everlasting life and everlasting happiness from thee! Of this thou thyself hast certified us by thy son Jesus. Of this thou hast thyself given us the most infallible testimony by his resurrection from the dead. And in the sentiment of it we rejoice together this day in thy presence; yes, in this will we rejoice before thee forever. Oh praised ever praised be thy glorious goodness, by which we are born again to this lively hope which has given us such grounds for consolation and joy, and opened to us such prospects in a life to come! O God, what solutions hast thou not thus given us! What light hast thou not shed upon our path of life and upon all that befalls us! What energy hast thou not granted us to goodness, what comfort in afflictions, what assurance in death! How confidently and cheerfully may we not now meditate on thee, our creator and father, our lord and rewarder! How easily bear all the troubles of life!

How resolutely accomplish every duty of it! How serene. ly see its end approaching! How assuredly expect the wages of righteousness and fidelity at thy hand! Yes, we are happy as men, and far happier as christians; and that which we at present are, is only a noviciate, only a foretaste, only a preliminary to that which we shall be hereafter! Oh then that the consciousness of our high appointment, the sentiment of our present and future happiness, and joy in thy fatherly grace ever animated our hearts, attended us every where, and rendered our whole lives an incessant song of praise for thy loving kindness! No, far, far be all discontent and murmurs, all anxious cares, from us whom thou hast appointed to an everlasting life! Far, far be it from us to be slothful and weary in well doing, or ever to stand still on the way of virtue, while thou allowest us to hope for everlasting rewards; No, to walk uprightly and cheerfully before thee, readily to be and to do and to suffer, whatever in pursuance of thy will we ought here to be and to do and to suffer; and to render ourselves constantly more susceptible and worthy of the blessed immortality: Let this be the mark after which we shall ever strive and ever be approaching nearer. To the promotion of these aims bless the meditations and the religious exercises that are now to employ us and accept our prayers through Jesus Christ, in whose name we farther address thee, saying Our father, &c.

JOHN xi. 25, 26.

I am the resurrection and the life: He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

THE sentiment of our immortality is unquestionably the most blessed of sentiments: The hope of a better and everlasting life, the sublimest