ence; by its power to arrest and retain their attention, it tends gradually to establish in the soul a correspondent dignity in every other exercise. While yet the world is unknown, and the calm morning of life is undisturbed by passions, it awakens desires of a nobler kind than the usual pursuits of life can gratify, and forms in secret those habits of elevated thought, which are, of all others, the most valuable acquisitions of youthful years; and which, whether in the pursuits of action or of speculation, fit it for future attainments in truth and virtue, beyond the reach of ordinary men.

2. It is a second advantage of early piety, that it presents those views of man, and of the ends of his being, which call forth the best powers of our nature. We naturally accommodate our acquisitions to the opinions we entertain of the scene in which they are to be employed,

and to the expectations that are formed with regard to us.

It is hence that the different situations of human life produce so great diversities of character and of improvement. The poor man, whose life is to pass in obscurity, and on whose humble fortunes the regard and observation of the world is never to fall, is seldom solicitous to distinguish himself by any other acquisitions than those which are suited to the humility of his station, and which the exigencies of his situation demand of him. The great and the opulent, on the contrary, who are born to be the objects of observation and attention, feel themselves called upon to suit their ambition to the opinions of mankind; and, if they have the common spirit of men, usually endeavour to accommodate themselves to these expectations.

It is in this manner that the piety of

early life has an influence in forming the future character. It represents man in colours which afford the most dignified aspect of his nature. It represents him as" formed in the image of God," as but

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a little lower than the angels," and as crowned with glory and honour. It represents life, not as the short and fleeting space of temporary being, but as the preparation only for immortal existence; as a theatre, on which he is called to act in the sight of his Saviour and his God, and of which the rewards exceed even the power of his imagination to conceive. It represents all this, too, in the season when no lower passions have taken the dominion of his heart, and when his powers are all susceptible of being moulded by the ends which are placed before him. In such views of man, all the best qualities of his nature arise involuntarily in the soul;-the Benevolence which burns

to diffuse happiness, and to be a fellow worker with God in the designs of his providence-the Fortitude, which no obstacles can retard, and no dangers can appal in the road of immortality—the Constancy, which, reposing in the promises of Heaven, presses forward in the path of strenuous and persevering virtue. Such views also have the tendency to fortify the mind against all those narrow and unjust conceptions of life, which are the source of the greatest part of the follies and weakness of mankind. They level all those vain distinctions among men, which, in one class of society, are productive of oppression and of pride, and in the other of baseness and servility. They silence that feeble and complaining spirit which is so often mistaken for sensibility and superior feeling, and which, from whatever cause it springs, gradually poisons the source of human

-happiness, and undermines the foundation of every real virtue. They dispel those dark and ungenerous views of man, and of his capacity for happiness and virtue, which are in general only the excuses for our own indolence or selfishness, and which, wherever they have prevailed, have so often withheld the arm that was made to bless, and silenced the voice that was destined to enlighten them. "Whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are "lovely and of good report,"-these are the objects at which the spirit of early piety forms the mind to aim,-wherever, by the production of happiness, Virtue is to be acquired, or, by the performance of duty, Praise is to be won.

3. It is the last advantage of early piety, that it affords those views of the providence of God, which can best give support and confidence to conduct.