glorify God on this behalf. Blessed art thou when men shall revile thee, and fay all manner of evil concerning thee falfely for the fake of Chrift. Rejoice and be exceeding glad (k). Maintain not an unhallowed filence, when evil is fet before thee. With meekness, yet openly and firmly, bear thy testimony to the commandments of thy Redeemer. Confefs Him before men; that, when He fhall appear, thou mayest have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming (1),

VIII. A duty whofe claims on youth are particularly ftrong, whose sphere embraces every duty already inculcated, finally prefents itself. This duty is Exertion.

He that gathereth in fummer, is a wife fon (m). If to require much from thofe to whom much has been committed be, a rule of equity fo obvious, as to have established by the common confent of mankind its authority over worldly transactions; do you forget that God has promulgated this identical rule as the criterion of your final doom? The line of exertion traced

(k) 1Pet. iv, 1, 16. Matth. v. 11. ii. 28. (m) Prov. x. 5.

(1) John,

out

out by the hand of duty for the youth of either fex will be varied by the elevations and depreffions, and by every other variety of local circumftances, which diverfities of rank and fituation introduce into that part of the map of life through which in different inftances it is conducted. And in all cafes the exertion of young women will predominate in the unobtrusive offices of domeftic life; that of the robufter fex in the laborious cares of bufinefs. Rejoice then, ye young, in your ftrength; rejoice, not that you have ftrength for toilfome diffipation and finful indulgence, but ftrength to dedicate to God: ftrength to fuftain the declining years and requite the early folicitude of a parent; ftrength to uphold a brother or a sister tottering in the rugged paths of tribulation; ftrength to fuccour a circle of relatives and friends in proportion to their refpective claims and neceffities; ftrength to prove by active and diverfified usefulness that you love your neighbour as yourself; ftrength to fuperintend and guide in the fear of God a household or progeny of your own; ftrength to labour in the difcharge of the duties attached to the ftation in which He who difpofes the lot of all men has ordained that

you should labour for Him. Rejoice, ye young: rejoice and glorify your Redeemer. Be not partakers of other men's fins: keep yourfelves pure. Bear fruit abundantly unto Chrift. Lay up treasures for life everlasting. Employ your unbroken, vigour, your unclouded minds, as inftruments of righteouf nefs unto holiness; inftruments for promoting the temporal and eternal welfare of yourfelf and of all with whom you are connected. Be diligent in well-doing. Be not ensnared into a pursuit of trifles. Work, thou who art entering, on the days of thy prime, work for God and for man. Then, when thy limbs tremble with age, and languor creeps over thy frame; then fhall. thine heart be cheered with the remembrance of past exertion; then fhalt thou bless the grace of God, which difpofed and enabled thee to bear with faithful perfe verance the burthen and heat of the day.

In the fubjects which have occupied the present and the preceding difcourfe, you have contemplated, my youthful friends, the principal marks of that fcriptural character, for the attainment of which your God commands you to come forth and be Separate from the world. Touch not the unclean thing. A folemn and most compre

henfive

henfive injunction! You are surrounded by contagion. Contamination lurks on every fide. The objects which custom and example obtrude on your regard are too often like unto whited fepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleannefs. The paths which you are invited to tread lead among graves which appear not,

and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. Linger not in the precincts of deftruction. Sport not amidst the breath of infection. Pity the wretched victims of corruption: but come out from among them and be ye separate. Such is the mandate ! Does the Father of mercies iffue a command unaccompanied with encouragement to obedience? Never. What, in the prefent inftance, is the encouragement? I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye fhall be my fons and daughters, faith the Lord Almighty. What though folly fhuts her doors against your return? My portals open at your approach. What though pride difclaims your friendship? I will love you as a Father. What though the world difowns you as her children? Ye shall be my fons and daughters, saith Jehovah. Within the scope of this promise what bles

fing is not comprised! To be refcued from the dominion of darkness and tranflated into the kingdom of light; to be tranfformed from enemies into fervants of the Moft High; to be made objects of love to Infinite Goodness; to be fheltered under the wings of Omnipotence; to be guided by the fuperintendence of Eternal Wisdom; to be washed in the blood, sanctified by the grace, accounted as the brethren, of God's Incarnate Son; to receive into our hearts the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father! to have the Spirit itself bear witnefs with our fpirit that we are the children of God; to be heirs of God and joint-beirs with Chrift; to rejoice under every earthly trial with joy unspeakable and full of glory in the hope of an incorruptible inheritance of blifs: these are among the privileges of the fons and daughters of the Almighty. Having therefore thefe promifes, dearly be loved; let us cleanfe ourselves from all filthi nefs of flesh and fpirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Mark the earnestness of affectionate entreaty with which the Apostle animates you to labour for the high prize of your calling. I fpeak, he cries, almoft immediately before he delivers the words of the text, Ifpeak as unto my children.

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