who died for you, and is not afbumed to call you brethren? Youth is the feason when the perception of delight is the most lively, Shall you be penetrated with a feeling of obligation, with tender emotions of gratitude, towards an earthly benefactor; and unthankful to Him who giveth you all things richly to enjoy? Youth is the feafon of ftrength and alacrity. Shall the fluggish spirit, the inactive feebleness, of age be seen zealous in labours for the glory of God; and fhall you be torpid as to his fervice? Youth is the feafon of inexperience. Shall you be earneft in the purfuit of human knowledge, obedient to human counsel ; and negligent of the light which Jehovah has revealed, that it may be a lantern to your path, of that univerfal wifdom which is given by infpiration from Him, and is able to make you wife unto falvation through faith which is in Chrift Jefus? Youth, viewed with a reference to the protracted term of mortal life, poffeffes the fruits of but a fhort period for growth in grace. If the faint of an hundred years looks back from his deathbed with regret and felf-abasement on his progrefs in the qualifications by which he is to be rendered meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the faints in

light do you, whofe progress is as yet comparatively fmail, you whose career may to-morrow terminate in the grave, linger and loiter and trifle on your way?

II. Under the preceding head was included reverent acquiefcence in the doctrines and the commandments of the word of God. Hence the mind naturally proceeds to the fubject of docility under human inftruction.

To parents, as inftructors, the place of pre-eminence is affigned. Hear the inftruction of thy father; and forfake not the law of thy mother. For they fhall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck (b). In the parent are united in a degree not to be paralleled in the cafe of any other earthly fuperior, authority and affection; authority established on peculiar foundations; and affection impelled by peculiar motives to temper the exercise of command, and fo to guide the reins as to render controul productive of the higheft attainable benefit to the individual under fubjection. But according to the general order of nature, with the ancient is wisdom,

(b) Prov. i. 8, 9.

and

and in length of days is understanding (c).

The

Men live not for themselves alone. aged in the viciffitudes of their pilgrimage have collected experience for the young. Such is the appointment of Providence. Let youth refpect the wisdom and the mercy of the appointment. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth (d). To thofe who have the rule over you whether it be to watch for your fouls as they that must give account; or to impart their acquifitions in literature, in fcience, in profeffional skill, in the arts and the tranfactions of life; render, to each according to his ftation and office, the deference which is due. To God alone be infallibility afcribed. But remember that the ground-work of improvement is a teachable fpirit. Diftruft yourfelf. Welcome with refpectful attention the advice of your feniors; fpontaneously feek counfel from their better judgment. Your contemporaries in age, however amiable their difpofitions, however promifing their talents, are exposed by youth to thofe very delufions by which your own opinions are likely to be misled, by which the eyes of your elders may no

(c) Job, xii. 14.

(d) Lament. iii. 27.

longer

longer be dazzled. On what account did the ten tribes revolt from Rehoboam? Becaufe be forfook the counfel of the old men that bad food before Solomon his father; and anfwered after the advice of the young men that were brought up with him (e). When your monitors kindle not with the admiration with which you gaze on the object before you; when they rate it at a value far inferior to that with which your fervid fancy has arrayed it: fay not to yourself;" Their feelings are chilled and "deadened by time. Their understand86 ing is darkened by the mists of years. They are no longer competent to appreciate the fatisfactions within my reach, "the gratifications belonging to the prime "of life." If, in the fulness of felf-fufficient confidence, you refuse them credit for fuperiority in wifdom: recollect at least the obvious advantages under which they exercise their judgement. They have trodden the length of the paths, on which you are but about to enter. They have tried by experiment the attainments, concerning which you decide only from fpeculation.

III. Closely allied with the Chriftian obligation of docility under the instruction of friends who are advanced in life, is the duty of habitual reverence for age. Thou shalt rife up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man: I am the Lord. Ye younger, fubmit yourselves unto the elder (ƒ). When Timothy was commiffioned by St. Paul to correct with epifcopal control the disorders fubfifting in the church at Ephesus; mark the tenderness which he was commanded to exercife in checking the faulty proceedings of a fuperior in age: Rebuke not an elder: but intreat him as a father; and the elder women as mothers. Against an elder receive not an accufation but before two or three witnesses (g). If fuch was to be the conduct of Timothy, when invested with judicial authority over the aged: what ought to be your conduct? How repugnant to the injunctions of the Holy Ghoft, how abominable in the fight of God, is contemptuous neglect in behaviour to the old! What deteftable enormity rests on the head of thofe, who convert the infirmities. of age into a fubject of derifion? If to

(f). Lev. xix. 32.

1, 2, 19.

1 Pet. v. 5.

(g) 1 Tim. v.

wards