true religion, you yet resolve to pay it no attention at present;--that you resolve, for some years more, to plunge deeper and deeper in the service of the devil;-that though you are persuaded your present path conducts to hell, yet that you will not so soon leave the way to hell for that to heaven;-that, though living every day on the goodness of God, you resolve to spend at least some years more in insulting him, in forgetting his love, in abusing his mercies, and in tempting him to cut you down as a cumberer of the ground, to send you to perdition;that though the blood of the Saviour was shed to redeem you yet that you will spend some years more in all manner of ingratitude to him, and in doing what you can to defeat the end for which he died;-and that having done all this till, if God spare you, all the best and prime of life is past, that you will then profess to forsake these evil ways; will declare that you are very sorry for what you have so wilfully done; and that you then will offer to God the wretched dregs of a life spent in serving the devil." Could you commit to writing such horrid resolutions as these? If you could not, O! do not do by your actions, what you would not profess by your words; for, remember that actions speak louder than words.'

Sect. 5. Rather be persuaded this day to cast yourself at the Saviour's feet. Happy then would this day be to you. Happy would be this year. Happy is the day to the condemned criminal, in which he finds forgiveness; but happier far would be the day to you, that brought you to the blessed Jesus for mercy and life; that led you to him for deliverance from all your soul-destroying sins, Inexpressibly happy would be the day for you, in which God received you as his child, in which Christ and heaven became your own. O! if, this day you would, in sincerity, cry to God, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth; if you would this day look to the Lamb of God, and commit your soul to his care; long would it be a memorable day for you; you might remember it with pleasure on a sick-bed, in your dying hour, and in the eternal world. Then, at some future period of life, you might say, "Alas! I gave my youth to the world, to sin, and folly, for too many sinful years! But, O! I remember the day when God turned my feet into the paths of peace. Blessed day! it has been the source of a thousand com

forts to me. I was a poor, thoughtless creature, but God met with me, and pitied my dying soul." If this, or any other little volume like this, were made the means of awakening your mind, you might have to add, “With a careless heart I began to read even of those things which belonged to my everlasting peace; blessed be the name of the Lord, That I laid the book down with feelings so different from those with which I took it up." The Scriptures tell us, that at one time the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and other Israelites, entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul. And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets. And all Judah

rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them; and the Lord gave them rest round about.

O be persuaded now to yield yourself to God; and then next new-year's-day shall find you walking in the way to heaven, or landed there. In either case, how blessed a change, would the grace of God have made in your condition! Should you be spared for future years, how happy an alteration would it be, though you began the year in sin, long ere it ended, to have found forgiveness for all your sins;-to have begun it a child of wrath, and before it ended, to be a child of God;-to have begun it without any part in one spiritual blessing, and, ere it ended, to be able to say, "God and all his love, Christ and all the riches of his grace, and all the sweet promises of Scripture, and all the glories of heaven, are mine!" But, perhaps, before even this year shall conclude, your mortal course may finish. If it should do so, and none can tell that it will not, how infinitely important is it for you, without an hour's delay, to flee to Christ; for, then, how happy a year would even this, though your last year, be to you! How changed next new-year's-day would your state then appear! O, happy change! to have begun the year on earth, and ended it in heaven;-to have begun it with man, and end it with God;-to have begun it unacquainted with the ways of peace, and, ere the year concluded, to have found the way, have fought the battle,

and received the prize; to have begun it a thoughtless, prayerless creature; and, before it ended, to have learned to commune with God below, and to have begun communion with him above;-to have begun it far from peace, and Christ, and heaven; and, ere it ended, to have found salvation, and to be a companion of angels and saints in the regions of glory. May the God of all grace make you, from this hour, a child of his own, inand through Christ the Lord! Amen.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Brief address to several classes of persons; and a few directions to the young Christian.

SECT. 1. Brief address to the irreligious children of pious pa rents....s. 2. To the children of irreligious parents....s. 3. To irreligious parents....s. 4. Eight directions to the young Christian....s. 5. Prayer.

To the irreligious children of pious parents.

SECT. 1. My young friends, much of what has been here said to all, applies with peculiar force to you, You have peculiar privileges; and your youthful sins are proportionably greater and heavier than those of others. God has laid you under especial obligations to live to him; and, if you perish, your ruin will be far more dreadful than theirs, who have been brought up in the midst of ignorance and sin. Alas! you have lived in the midst of spiritual privileges; yet had them all in vain. You have been brought, from your infancy, to the house of God, yet gone there in vain, or worse than in vain; you are, perhaps, almost hardened in careless neglect of what you have heard so long, to so little pur pose. You have heard of mercy, yet have no part in it. You have heard of heaven, yet have no title to its blessings. You have heard of Jesus, but not sought him as your Saviour. You have heard of God, but not chosen him as your Father. Young as you are, for how many years have the prayers of your parents ascended to God for

have you seen others coming forward to devote themselves to God, and yet you have not done so. They, who were once the vile and the profligate, enter the kingdom of God; but you go not in. You have probably seen many, who had not sat under the gospel a quarter of the time that you have done, forsaking the world to follow Jesus. You have probably seen many that had been brought up in the abodes of ignorance, and by parents that are going to destruction; yes, you have seen such young persons forsaking the way of their parents, to come to Christ; yet you, children of the kingdom-you, nursed, as it were, in the house of God,-you, whose parents would rejoice to lead you with them in the path to heaven, yet you refuse to go. Are you happy? Do you not often feel an inward sting? or have you resisted God so long, that he has left you to hardened hearts? If this be not the case, do not you feel that you are still in an awful state? Can novels, or vain companions, drive the thoughts of your condition quite away? Do not you feel that something is wanting? That something is religion. Perhaps you have pious parents in heaven. Would you not join them there? There is but one way to do so: make their God and Saviour yours. Perhaps your parents are still on earth, sorrowing over their ungodly children. Shall God guide them, and Satan you? Heaven be their abode, and hell yours? Will you so live as to be sure, ere long, to lose them for ever? Alas! you are among the most guilty of mankind; and your sins the most inexcusable. Your neglect of Christ is particularly wicked, and particularly dreadful. Your future account will be awfully strict, and inexpressibly terrible, when all your abused privileges and mercies are brought forward in the judgment against you, to shew the aggravations of your sins, and to double your condemnation. O! lay up, then, a better portion for futurity, than the bitter fruits of such youthful sins. When you see those, who have had none of your peculiar advantages, pressing into the kingdom of God, O! let it stir up you to deplore your past folly, and to enter in at the strait gate. In pity to yourselves, choose religion; have compassion on your own highlyfavoured souls. You would not make a fellow-creature wretched for a month; do not, by abusing your privileges any longer, make your own souls doubly wretched for

eternity. You may be happy; and will you not? You might glorify God, as many, who never had half your privileges, are doing, by lives devoted to him; and will you not? O listen to the persuasions that have been addressed to you! Flee to God, and be happy.

But, perhaps, you, who read these lines, have felt at times the importance of religion. Once you promised fair, and seemed about to enter the way of life; yet, alas! the pleasing hope was blasted, and you became careless again. O, once more consider your ways! After all your awful delays, turn to God, and the past shall be forgiven and forgotten. But if you will not, if you will quench the Spirit still, O! remember, though you may forget the tears you shed, the desires you expressed, the impressions you felt, yet God forgets them not. They all stand recorded against you; and you, hereafter, may find the truth of the remark, that "slighted convictions are the worst death-bed companions.'

Sect. 2. To the children of irreligious parents.

You, my young friends, have not had all those advan tages which many have enjoyed. You, perhaps, have been almost nursed in crimes; and to the evil propensities of your hearts, has been added the fatal infiuence of their evil example, who should have taught you better things. Yet, notwithstanding all the guilt of your lives, remember, that God is no respecter of persons; and, if you listen to his voice, none will be more welcome to his kingdom than you. Yours has indeed been a wretched condition. To have lived so long in the midst of ignorance, has made yours a pitiable state. But God is willing to receive you, and to number you with his children. If you give your youth to Christ, he will not love or bless you the less, because you may not have one friend on earth travelling in the way to heaven. All those blessings that have been mentioned, as the portion of the young christian, you, by coming to Christ, may obtain as your portion. Consider not, then, what your friends or relatives are, but what God would have you to be; and what, on a dying-bed, you will wish to have been. Perhaps you have to say, "I have been taught to serve Sa