and his companions first beheld them, how melancholy, how desolate, must have been the prospect! How deep the darkness, in which they were involved! How entirely pathless the desert, in which they groped their way! With what emotions must these messengers of salvation have regarded the miserable sufferers, in this state of gloom, solitude, and despair! With what yearnings of evangelical compassion did these ministers of Christ light up for them the lamp of hope; and guide them into the path to endless life! How joyfully did they behold them enter the straight gate, and go on in the narrow way! With what animated expectations did they mark their future progress; their victory over obstacles, temptations, enemies, and sins; their faithful adherence to the precepts of the Gospel; and the steady direction of their course towards heaven!

In Paul and his companions their converts beheld those, who in this world had been pre-eminently wise, and had turned many to righteousness; and who, therefore, were in the future world to shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars, forever and ever. In these illustrious ministers of Christ they beheld those, who, as instruments in the hands of God, had done to them greater good, than the universe beside was able to do: good, which could never be repaid; good, which no created mind can comprehend; good, which no limited duration can ever unfold. With the blessing of God, these men had accomplished their salvation; and secured to them an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and eternal in the heavens. The benefit, communicated, was the greatest of all benefits and the disposition, by which it was produced, the best of all dispositions. At the final day, when future things will begin to be actual, realized, and enjoyed, they will see in them the best of all created friends, and the noblest of all created benefactors: friends, whose kindness will appear more lovely; whose beneficence, more valuable; and whose characters, more excellent; through every succeeding age of eternity. Thus connected, thus related; how can these ministers and their converts fail to rejoice in each other at this solemn day; or to increase their joy continually, as they advance through the successive periods of endless duration?

No labour is necessary to persuade my audience, that from a subject, so solemn, so interesting. so delightful, many inferences of high importance might be derived.

Particularly is the integrity of Paul and his fellow-labourers most clearly evident from the sentiments, expressed in this pas sage of Scripture. They are obviously sentiments, which no impostor, no dishonest man, would devise; or, if he had devised them, would have adopted. The hope, the joy, of such a man would have terminated, of course, in this world; and centred wholly in the means of enhancing his influence, and establishing his control over the Thessalonians. The Epistle, if written by such a man, would have abounded in artful refutations of the censures, thrown upon his character; and in insidious contrivances to gain the ends, which ambition, pride, and cunning, promise themselves from their successful efforts. Fraud and hypocrisy would have floated on the surface; and wealth, power, and pleasure, would have been seen at the bottom.

With the like clearness are the excellence, and amiableness, of these men unfolded in this passage of Scripture, thus examined. The objects, proposed, display a benevolence singularly generous and noble; and the exhibition of these objects presents this character in a light, eminently happy. Warm from the heart; uncontrived; unaffected; the sentiments expressed array the men with all the beauty and loveliness of Evangelical charity. The portrait is formed of enchanting lines, and charming colours: and the eye discerns, and acknowledges, the likeness without a momentary hesitation.

From this character of the writers is inferred, irresistibly, the integrity of their writings; and from this, in a manner equally obvious and necessary, their divine origin. But from these, and many other, reflections of a similar nature the time, barely sufficient for my present purpose, compels me to withdraw my attention. The peculiar design of this discourse requires, that I devote the remainder to its accomplishment.

You, my young friends, for whom this discourse is particularly designed, stand in a relation to me, in several respects the same with that in which the converts, so often mentioned, stood in relation to Paul and his companions. You have, also, been connect

ed with me by a relation, highly endearing, which could not be predicated even of them. During an important period of your life, you have been my pupils; and, in no insignificant sense, my children. Your parents with a confidence, which I hope has not been misplaced, have resigned their own immediate care of you into my hands. Your prime interests have been under my direction; and have, I trust, been promoted with parental care. I know they have been regarded with parental tenderness.

Through the same period I have been your Minister. Christ, as well as your parents, has committed you to my direction. In this solemn office permit me to say, that I am unconscious of having taught you a single error, or of having willingly withheld from you a single truth. The knowledge, which may especially qualify you for usefulness and honour in the present life, I have endeavoured to communicate in the best manner, in my power. I know not, that I have shunned to declare unto you any part of the whole counsel of God. I know not, that I have kept back any thing which was profitable to you: but I have shewed you, and taught you publicly and privately; testifying to you all, repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. I have warned you, I have prayed for you, day and night with tears. If I have ever been sincere in my endeavours; if ever I have voluntarily laboured to do good; I have laboured in this manner for you.

Your own conduct, in the mean time, (and I feel myself bound to declare it on this solemn occasion,) has been highly honourable to your character. You came to my immediate superintendence with the most cordial good will, and the best recommendations of your former instructors. Throughout the year, which is now finished, you have proved that this good will, and these recommendations, were amply deserved. In your behaviour to me you have been respectful and amiable on every occasion; and have distinguished yourselves by diligence, good order, and universal propriety. It is not too much to say, that you have equalled in these respects, and in your literary attainments, any of those classes, which have gone before you.

Almost one-fourth of your number have made a public profession of the Religion of Christ; and have this day surrounded the Sacramental Table. Several others, for a considerable time,

have been the subjects of very solemn impressions concerning their salvation; and will, it is rationally hoped, be found, ere long, encircling that hallowed board. The rest, with exceptions too small to merit attention at this time, furnish many hopes, from their irreproachable behaviour, that they may follow their companions in this happy course. Thus you have already acknowledged me in part; that, as a Minister of Christ, I am your rejoicing, even as you also are mine. Should it be my happy lot to be pronounced faithful over the few things, committed to me; may I not, on solid grounds, look forward to the day of the Lord Jesus Christ; and believe, that you, together with your precursors, and your successors, in knowledge, piety, and usefulness, will then be my glory, and my joy?

To bring home to your hearts the subject, here referred to; to impress upon them its solemnity, and importance; let me remind you, when, where, on what occasion, and before whom, this joy is to be found: not first; not alone; yet pre-eminently, and in a degree which cannot be described.

It is first found in the present world; in the silence of devout meditation; in the serene contemplations of the solitary walk; in the fervent aspirations of the closet, in the pure precepts, and rich promises, of the Sacred Volume; in the cheerful devotions of the Family; in the solemn services of the Sanctuary; and in the public communion of Christians at the Table of Christ. It is found, also, in no unhappy degree, in the delightful private intercourse of good men; and in that train of beneficent actions, by which they become immediate and rich blessings to the world.

In a more glorious manner will it revive, when we enter the world of spirits, and render to our Lord an account of the manner, in which we have employed the talents entrusted by him to our care. If we shall then appear to have occupied them faithfully in his service; we shall be permitted immediately to enter into his joy.

But the time, mentioned in the text, is different from all these. It is that, which in the Scriptures is emphatically called the time of the end: when Christ will come to judge the world in righteousness; and all, that are in the graves, will hear his voice, and come forth: they that have done good, to the resurrection of life; and

they, that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation. earthly things will then have finished their course. Avarice will have ceased to dig for treasures in the secret chambers of the earth; Ambition to climb the precipices, which in his eye seemed the ascent to Heaven; and Pleasure, to bathe and wanton in the stream of sensuality. Oppression will have ended the work of grinding the faces of the poor; and dropped from his withered hand the iron rod. Persecution will feast no more on the blood of Martyrs; Conquest no longer sit and smile, over the tomb of departed nations; nor Pride sigh over the expiring train of menials, the vanishing tables of Luxury, the fading paradise, and the palace of Splendour, crumbled into dust.

The trumpet of civil discord will then have blown its last breath. The frenzy of faction will have terminated; and its final sound have died upon the ear. Its scramble for power, and place, will then be over; together with all the follies and crimes, the base cabals, the foul slanders, the innumerable falsehoods, the black perjuries, and the sale of souls, with which it has been attended. Even liberty itself, that golden image, which the world has worshipped instead of JEHOVAH, will enrapture and engross, will inspire and terrify, will rouse to madness and plunge in misery, no more.

Even the honest, commendable, and delightful, employments, of mankind will be finished. The cheerful sound of the axe, and the hammer, will be dumb. The industrious plough will stop in the unfinished furrow; and the adventurous sail be furled for the last time. The father will no more survey his children at the fire-side with hope and delight; the mother will cease to smile with inexpressible fondness over the cradled infant; and the husband and wife, to interchange the unequalled tenderness of conjugal love. To the earth it will be truly said, as, in the awful language of prophecy, to Mystical Babylon. "The voice of harpers, and of musicians, and of pipers, and of trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee: and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee: and the voice of the bridegroom, and of the bride, shall be heard no more at all in thee."

Even the most venerable and sacred things will then find their earthly termination. The sabbath will dawn in peace and beau