shall come, when this constitution, so long the subject of our pride to men, and our gratitude to God, shall also perish, it will be when the higher orders are more corrupt than the lower ;-when, in the security of vanity, or in the baseness of vicious pleasure, they shall at once have undermined the respect of the vulgar, the confidence of the wise, and the hope of the virtuous.

Such then, my young brethren, is that arduous but animating state on which you are about to enter. It is, in truth, no state of luxury and ease,-no privileged scene of exemption from that labour, which is at once the lot and the prerogative of man. You are called by the providence of God to the first rank in the society of men ;-you are called by the same providence to the first duties; and the voice of nature coincides with the voice of the Gospel, in the solemn assur

ance, "that of those to whom much is "given, much also will be required.” Do you then wish, with the natural generosity of youth, to fulfil in after years the duties to which you are called? Now is the time for this sacred preparation. It is now, in the spring of your days, that you may acquire the knowledge, and establish the habits which are to characterize your lives; and that you may elevate the temper of your minds, to the important destiny to which the Father of Nature has called you. The world, with all its honours and all its temptations, is before you;the paths of virtue and of vice are equally open to receive you;-and it is the decision of your present hours, which must determine your character in time, and your fate in eternity.

I pray God, that you may decide like Christians and like men ;—that you may take, in early life," that good part which

"will never be taken from you;"—and that neither the illusions of rank, nor the seductions of wealth, may lead you to forget what you owe to yourselves, to your country, and to your God.

SERMON X.

ON SUMMER.

JUDGES, V. 31.

"Let them that love the Lord be as the sun, when he goeth forth in his might."

THERE are principles of our constitution

which lead us from the observation of the material world, to the contemplation of the mind that formed it, and which, from the spectacle of beauty, conduct us to Him" who has made everything beauti66 ful in his time." There are uses too of

no mean importance to happiness, to virtue, and to piety, which meditations of this kind are fitted to serve; and there is no way in which the young can better learn the sentiments of devotion, or the old preserve them, than in cultivating those habits of thought and of observation which convert Nature into the Temple of God, and render all its different scenes expressive of the various attributes of the Almighty Mind.

Every age, in this view, has felt the analogy which subsists between the seasons of the year, and the character and duties of men. There is, in the revolutions of time, a kind of warning voice which summons us to thought and reflection; and every season, as it arises, speaks to us of the analogous character which we ought to maintain. From the first openings of the spring, to the last desolation of winter, the days of the year are emblematic of the