provement ;-when they are most exposed to temptation, and most need the protecting and guiding influence of judicious instruction. Something to supply this sad deficiency, has recently been attempted in the city of NewYork, and with the fairest promise of success. Every attempt of this kind deserves encouragement, as it tends to check the progress of vice, and throw a shield around the morals and happiness of the rising generation.

6. All good members of society ought to make it an object, to give special patronage and encouragement to young men of worth and character. This would operate as a reward to virtue and good conduct, and as a punishment to vice and misdeeds. And if young men could once be convinced that the patronage and favor of the respectable part of the community, and consequently their success in life, depend on their possessing a fair, unimpeachable character, it would have the happiest influence on their morals and habits.

Here is a field, my young friends, which you, especially, are called to cultivate. You ought to bear a constant and united testimony in favor of good principles and good morals,— to lift up an indignant voice, against all the intemperate and profane, against Sabbath

breakers and gamblers, and vicious persons of every description; and as from time to time, youths of fair and promising character come among us, special pains should be taken to attach them to good society, and to prevent their being drawn away by those who lie in wait to corrupt and destroy. You ought to perform the angelic office of guardians and advisers to those who are younger than yourselves, and who look to you for example. O what a protection might you afford to the youthful and the inexperienced among us; what a safeguard, throw around the morals of the rising generation and the interests of the community, if you would but unite your influence and resolve that it shall all be on the side of God and human happiness.

Finally, if you would be secure from the dangers that threaten you in this state of your probation, put your trust in God. There is no sufficient safety, but in the protection and guidance of your great Creator and final Judge. And to this you can have no title without true religion. Without the love and fear of God reigning in your bosom, you are cast unshielded into the midst of a world that is full of temptation and evil;-you are abroad upon a dark and boisterous ocean, with nothing

to protect or guide; and though you may fear no danger, and, for a time, seem to be making the voyage of life in safety, lowering clouds and fierce storms will ere long gather around you, and you will be driven upon the rocks,wrecked and lost on the shores of a miserable eternity.

But, putting your trust in God, you shall be safe amidst all dangers, and happy amidst all trials;-you shall outride every storm, escape every peril, and attain the eternal rest of heaven" cheered and directed by the star of Bethlehem."

LECTURE III.

IMPORTANCE OF ESTABLISHED PRINCIPES.

DANIEL, vi. 10.

NOW WHEN DANIEL KNEW THAT THE WRITING WAS SIGNED, HE WENT INTO HIS HOUSE; AND, HIS WINDOWS BEING OPEN IN HIS CHAMBER TOWARD JERUSALEM, HE KNEELED UPON HIS KNEES THREE TIMES A DAY, AND PRAYED, AND GAVE THANKS BEFORE HIS GOD, AS HE DID AFORETIME.

This Daniel, while yet a youth, was carried captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. By the singular integrity and excellence of his character, aided by the smiles of a favoring providence, he rose from the condition of a captive, to preside over the affairs of the empire. He lived under the reign of three successive monarchs; from each of whom, he received the highest honors, which it was in their power to bestow. This excited the jealousy of the other courtiers, who could not endure to see one raised, from the humble condition of a captive, to an elevation so much above themselves. They therefore formed a conspiracy

against his life. Having sought in vain to find occasion against him, concerning the affairs of the kingdom, they resolved to attack him on the ground of his religion. To accomplish their wicked purpose, they assembled before Darius, the king, and proposed to him a decree, that whosoever should ask a petition of any god or man, for thirty days, save of the king, should be cast into the den of lions. Flattered by this incense offered to his vanity, the king signed the decree, and made it, according to the laws of the Medes and Persians, irrevocable. This brought Daniel into a condition of extreme peril. He had now to make his election, between the renunciation of his religion, and death, in its most terrible form. And what was his choice? Trusting in the God of his life, he remained firm to his duty, and "braved, in calm devotion, the decree that consigned him to the den of lions." When he knew that the writing was signed, he repaired to his house, and there, in his chamber, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, the city of his fathers' sepulchres, then laid waste, he kneeled upon his knees, three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

Here you see the influence of established