of little innocents, surrounding the knees of an afflicted mother, and crying for bread, how strong would be their sympathy! Did they but behold the mother, pale and emaciated with want, expressive anguish painted on her countenance, while endeavouring to silence her children's clamours with the bare sustenance of words, what tender emotions it would raise in their breasts!

Sincerity signifies a simplicity of mind and manners, in our conversation and carriage one towards another; singleness of heart, discovering itself in a constant plainness and honest openness of behaviour, free from all insidious devices, and little tricks and fetches of craft and cunning: from all false appearances, and deceitful disguises of ourselves in word or action; or yet more plainly, it is to speak as we think, and do what we pretend and profess, to perform and make good what we promise; and, in a word, really to be what we would seem and appear to be.

Frugality is good if liberality be joined with it. The first is leaving off superfluous expenses; the last bestowing them to the benefit of others that need. The first without the last begins covetousness; the last without the first begins prodigality: both together make an excellent temper.

What would it profit a man, if by the secret and dark mysteries of trade he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Would the heaps of his dishonest wealth administer consolation in a dying hour? Would

these alleviate his horrors in the views of a certain and swiftly approaching dissolution? No!

That to be great is to be happy, is one of those errors which have almost at all ages prevailed among the generality of mankind. But that to be good is to be happy, is a secret reserved for the wise and virtuous few, who are the grace and ornament of themselves, their friends, and their country.

Of him to "whom much is given, much shall be required." Those to whom God has granted superior faculties, and more extensive capacities, and made eminent in quickness of intuition and accuracy of distinction, will certainly be regarded as culpable in his eye, for defects and deviations which, in souls less exalted and enlightened, may be guiltless. But surely none can think without horror on that man's condition, who has been more wicked in proportion as he has had more means of excelling in virtue, and used the light imparted from heaven only to embellish folly, and to palliate crimes.

Perhaps nothing affords greater encouragement to serious minds, than to find that men of like passions, placed in the same dangerous circumstances, and surrounded with equal trials and temptations, have, by the assistance of Divine grace, bravely conquered the difficulties of the Christian life, and run with patience the race set before them.

The humble address which the prodigal made to his father, (in the excellent parable given us by our

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Saviour,) the father's return to it, and the manner of his reception into favour, is exceedingly expressive of the becoming penitence of the one and the mercy of the other: "I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son, make me therefore as one of thy hired servants." The tender parent compassionates his distress, takes the prodigal in his arms, owns him for his son, orders the fatted calf to be killed, and rebukes the envy of the elder brother with, "This my son was dead, but is alive again; was lost, but is found." Oh! the height and the depth of the goodness and mercy of God! Look unto him all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved!

Who would not heartily engage in all the exercises of a pious life, be "stedfast, unmoveable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord," when he sees what dull sensuality, what poor views, what gross enjoyments they are left to, who seek for happiness in other ways?

It is the sense of cold, hunger, thirst, and nakedness, that supplies the poor beggar at your door with penitent expressions and arguments; he needs not the help of a friend or book to furnish him. So, if we know ourselves, and feel our condition, and set God before us as our God, able and ready to help us, he whose gift the true spirit of supplication is, understands the language of even sighs and tears, and "groanings which cannot be uttered."

The grave, to which we are all hastening, ought to

be an early lesson of serious instruction, sounding the alarm in the ears of every youth; seeing it is frequently opened to receive its victims in the very bloom of life, and before the years draw nigh in which, in the course of nature, they can take no pleasure. Boast not, therefore, thyself of to-morrow, since thou knowest not what a day may bring forth; but rather let the example of others teach thee the absolute necessity of improving the present moments, and duly to reflect upon the imminent danger of delay.

It is not in our power to command wealth, or wis dom, or authority, whereby we may assist our fellowcreatures; but a sympathetic temper may be fully approved in the sight of God without these; and the poor man who hath nothing to give, and no means of helping others, may yet bear in his bosom a heart as truly tender, as thoroughly disposed to show mercy, and as acceptable in this respect before God, as he who, in a more exalted station, enjoys the power as well as the heart.

If the spring put forth no blossoms, in summer there will be no beauty, and in autumn no fruit; so, if youth be trifled away without improvement, riper years will be contemptible, and old age miserable.

Let us not fail frequently to reflect upon the greatness and number of our own faults, and the vast need we have of allowance, both from God and man, considering how hard it would go with us, if men could see all the inmost thoughts of our hearts, or knew all the secret actions of our lives; and if God was to

judge us with severity according to them. Let us first cast the beam out of our own eye, before we pretend to remove the mote from our brother's.

Modesty always sits gracefully upon youth; it covers a multitude of faults, and doubles the lustre of every virtue which it seems to hide; the perfections of men being like those flowers which appear more beautiful when their leaves are a little contracted and folded up, than when they are full blown, and display themselves, without any reserve, to view.

Graceful in youth is the tear of sympathy, and the heart that melts at the tale of woe. Let not ease and indulgence contract your affections, and wrap you up in selfish enjoyment. Accustom yourselves to think of the distress of human life, of the solitary cottage, the dying parent, and the weeping orphan.

Submit your minds to early impressions of reverence for sacred things. Let no wantonness of youthful spirits, no compliance with the intemperate mirth of others, ever betray you into profane sallies: besides the guilt which is thereby incurred, nothing gives a more odious appearance of petulance and presumption to youth than the affectation of treating religion with levity; instead of being an evidence of superior understanding, it discovers a pert and shallow mind, which, vain of the first smatterings of knowledge, presumes to make light of what the best of mankind re

vere.

In order to render yourselves amiable in society,