You might thus have realized in your own person the fulfillment of the divine promise, "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever." Yea, the great King of the celestial world might have called you forth in presence of angelic hosts, and placing a sparkling diadem upon your brow, have said to you, "Come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Come up hither and "sit with me on my throne; even as I also overcame and am sit down with my Father on his throne."

But all is lost,-forever lost! Say, dear youth, is not all this too much to lose? Come then to your duty. Come now. "To-day if you will hear his voice harden not your heart." This warning slighted may prove fatal; this call refused may leave you in sin forever.

CHAPTER XII.

MORAL POWER OF YOUNG MEN.

"Because ye are strong."

THE inspired writer addresses a word of instruction and encouragement appropriate to every age. The children he reminds of the tender and forgiving love of God; the fathers, of their mature experience and knowledge; the young men, of their moral power.

In this chapter I shall attempt to show you the GOOD which it is in your power to do, and how you may do it. It is very important that you should know what is meant by the "luxury of doing good."

The first and most indispensable step towards doing good in the highest moral sense, is to give yourself up to God, choose him for your supreme guardian and portion, prefer his favor before all other things, identify your interests and hopes with his kingdom, commit your personal salvation entirely to the Saviour, and make it your ruling object and ultimate end in life to "glorify

God and enjoy him forever,"-in conferring both temporal and everlasting benefits upon his creatures. This is what is technically called conversion. It is that moral change which the mind undergoes when it becomes reconciled and devoted to the divine government.

Let us then proceed to show the good which, with such a character, you may confer upon your fellow-beings.

It was evidently the wise intention of the Creator, that the moral influences of virtue and religion should flow very much in the social and domestic affections. Of these, the paternal and filial are first and strongest. The influence of a son upon his parents, is in some respects greater than that of parents upon their son; for parental affection ist usually stronger than filial. It may not be more excitable and ardent; but it is a deeper, more constant, more tenacious affection. A cause adequate to sunder the heart of a son from his parents and send him forth an exile from their dwelling, is by no means sufficient to sunder their hearts from him. No. The mother's heart still follows her son with unutterable longings, and a father's compassions still yearn towards him; yea, although he may have suffered greatly from the conduct of his prodigal son, although he has wasted his substance

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in riotous living, has forged notes against him, has tarnished his honor, has even conspired with his foes against his life yet let a fatal disaster befall him, and the father instantly cries aloud with agony of spirit, "O, my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! Would to God I had died for thee,

O Absalom, my son, my son!"

Such is a parent's love; and hence scarcely any other moral cause on earth strikes so deeply and powerfully upon his heart, as the conversion of a son. I have seen an aged father, whose head was whitened with the frosts of sixty-five winters, and whose heart was exceedingly cold and hard in sin, melted and subdued by his son's repentance-a son converted to religion in the city, and returning to his home in the country to tell his parents what the Lord had done for his soul.

Of the few instances in which men become pious in advanced life, very many of them are effected through the direct or indirect influence of their children, who have found the pearl of price abroad and brought it home to their parents.

A little daughter, whose parents were universalists and unfriendly to evangelical religion, providentially attended a religious meeting and became interested. The father was displeased. She was desirous of attending the meeting again, but he forbade her. She waited anxiously for the next,

and renewed her request. Again she was forbid

den. She begged with tears. Excited by that hostility to religion which sometimes overcomes parental love, and renders the parent "without natural affection," the father said to her, "If you ever go to that meeting again I will turn you out of doors." The daughter, moved with that peculiar emotion in which the soul is at once overwhelmed and aroused to unwonted energy, lifted a meek, glistening eye to her parent, and replied, "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." It went to the father's heart it was irresistible. Parental af

fection was awakened; a conviction of his unnatural conduct rushed upon him, and with a full and bursting heart he replied, "Go, my daughter; I will never throw another straw in the way of your religion." The consequence was that the parents soon followed their daughter. Thus did this child become an angel of light and salvation to her parents.

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A young man once said to me, I wish I was a Christian, that I might do some good to my parents. Neither of them is pious. They are becoming advanced; they cannot long survive. They do not enjoy a faithful ministry, and since I left home I have thought more of them than I ever did before." This was noble. It was through this channel of filial affection, that grace first moved to turn his heart to God. He soon became a decided