the world itself shall be no more, the consequences of your conduct to thousands of your fellow men, will be nothing less than everlasting destruction, or eternal life. 4. While you aim to fulfil the duties which you owe to society, you take the most effectual measures to promote your own respectability and happiness. The young man, of inconsideration and thoughtlessness, of gayety and fashion, may shine and sparkle for a little moment; and during that moment, he may be the admiration, and perhaps envy, of persons as vain and thoughtless as himself. But he soon passes the season of gayety and mirth, and what is he then? A worthless, neglected cypher in society. His present course of life has no reference to the scenes and duties of riper years. His youth is entirely disconnected from his manhood. It is a portion of his existence which he throws away; and perhaps worse than throws away, because he contracts habits which unfit him for sober life, and cleave to him as an enfeebling, disgusting disease, all his days. Beaux and fops, and the whole pleasureloving fraternity, are short-lived creatures. They look pretty in the gay sunshine of sum mer; but, poor things, they cannot endure the approach of autumn and winter. They have their little hour of enjoyment, and that is the end of them. On the other hand, the young man who seriously considers the nature and design of his being; who shuns the society and flees the amusements of the thoughtless and the vicious; who devotes his vacant hours to the improvement of his mind and heart, and aims at the acquisition of those habits and virtues which may qualify him for the duties of life, such a young man cannot fail to rise in respectability, in influence and honor. His virtues and attainments make room for him in society, and draw around him the confidence and respect, the affection and support, of all worthy and good men. The pursuits of his youth bear directly on the enjoyments and usefulness of his manhood. There is no waste of his existence; no contraction of bad habits to obscure the meridian or darken the decline of life. The course upon which he enters, like the path of the just, shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. This motive, my young friends, you cannot duly consider without feeling its constraining influence. You are all in the pursuit of happiness; you all desire the esteem and respect of your fellow men. Here is the way, and the only way, to attain it. An enlightened mind, a virtuous character, a useful life;-these are the dignity and the glory of man. They make him lovely in the sight of angels and God; and secure for him present peace and everlasting happi ness. 5. Consider again, how pleasant will be the retrospect of past life, if you faithfully serve God and your generation according to his will. It is but a little time, before you, who are young, will be looking upon a generation rising up to take your places, just as the fathers are now looking upon you. You will soon pass the meridian of life, and be going down. its decline to the invisible world. Consider that time as come, as present. Think of yourselves as retiring from the scene of action; your heads whitened with the snows of age, and your limbs stiffened with the frosts of winter. O, how cheering to be able now, to look back upon a life of beneficent and useful action; a life spent in the service of God and for the good of mankind! How pleasant and consoling to reflect, that you have done your duty as members of society, and have sustained, honorably, the great interests that were committed to you! How animating, too, the prospect before you,-how glorious the anticipations of the future! All the great interests of society safe; all its institutions secure and flourishing; a generation rising up under the influence of your example and training, intelligent, virtuous, enterprising; prepared to fill your places, and carry on the system of human affairs. To them you commend all that you hold most dear on earth,-the high interests of the church and society,-happy in the assurance, that they will sustain the sacred trust, and transmit the precious inheritance entire to those who shall come after them. To a mind gladdened with such reflections and prospects, how bright and benignant shines the sun of declining life? The shades of evening gather around him in peace; he reposes in joyful hope, and all his powers are invigorated and cheered by the delightfu visions that burst upon his view. And now, in view of the whole, may I not hope, that ere you rise from your seats, and in every future emergency of life, prompted by the warm impulse of duty, you will raise to Heaven the expressive prayer, "Father of light and life! Thou good Supreme! O teach me what is good! Teach me Thyself! Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, From every low pursuit! And feed my soul |