In shewing, first, that young persons ought to fear the Lord, I must beg you to consider the examples and the exhortations written in your bibles. Examples have generally a great effect upon mankind. Of course the good examples which are recorded in the holy scriptures, ought to have a great and good effect upon ourselves. What then, my dear young friends, can so powerfully tend to convince you of the importance of fearing the Lord in your youth, as the examples of those holy men of God, who in their early years became truly religious? To some of these excellent characters I will refer you, Samuel, even when a child, was called of the Lord, and obeyed his voice. David, when he was but a youth, ruddy, and of a fair countenance, discovered the most astonishing boldness and zeal in the cause of the God of Israel. Josiah, very early in life, manifest, ed great devotedness of heart to the Lord, Obadiah feared the Lord greatly from his youth; and Timothy from a child knew the boly scriptures.

These are examples which you must con fess deserve to be imitated. Those young persons therefore who do not seriously attend to religion, are certainly acting very foolishly. And this is the language of their conduct:"Many great and eminent men whose characters are recorded in the bible, thought it their duty, and felt it their privilege to

serve God in their youth; but we think differently from what they thought--for we think it is the better way to neglect God while we are young to put off religion for the present, and not to attend to it so soon.' Such is the language, I say, which the omniscient eye of Jehovah reads written upon the conduct of every careless irreligious young person. And does the eternal God, my youthful hearers, see this language inscribed on the conduct of any of you? Does he see those hearts secretly disliking the religion of the bible, or preferring a life of folly and of sin to it? Ah! what then can God think of you? Can he be pleased with your ways? Is it a matter of indifference in his view, whether you serve him or not? You know to the contrary. You know that the Almighty requires you to serve him all the days of your life. Your youthful days are your best days; and can you be so deluded as to spend your best days in the worst of services?-I ask you seriously-I ask you affectionately, if you think that God gives you health, and strength, and youthful faculties to use them in a way which displeases him? Come and let us reason together. Your hearts are tender-you are not yet arrived at a state of total hardness and insensibility. Well, Well, my dear young friends, the great God has created you for his own glory; he favours you with health, that you may improve that health in his

service; he gives you strength, not to encourage you to put at a distance the day of death, but to give you an opportunity of devoting yourselves wholly to him. Nay he has so loved you, and is so solicitous to obtain your services, and to secure the salvation of your immortal souls, that he has given his only beloved Son to die for you. What can the Great Eternal Being do more to induce you to serve him? And can you, then, after all this goodness of God, be unconcerned about pleasing him, and regardless of your own immortal souls? Oh, thoughtless, hardened, and rebellions creatures, if thus it can be with you! But let me hope differently respecting you, and that henceforth you will be able to adopt the words of the text, "I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth."

I might now call your attention to the exhortations of the sacred writings, but the copious manner in which I have enforced the scripture examples upon you, seems to render this unnecessary. Let it therefore -suffice, merely to mention the following im-portant exhortations :-"Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them.*"" "Rejoice, Ŏ young man, in thy

Ecclefiaftes, chap, xii. ver. 1.

youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." It being thus evident that young persons ought to fear the Lord, let us proceed to shew,

II. That this fear wil render them good children to their parents.

I begin with remarking that the fear of the Lord will induce young people to highly reverence and honour their parents. From them under God, my young friends, you derived your existence. They watched over you with tender anxiety, when you were totally unable either to support or help yourselves. The greatest solicitude they have frequently experienced for your welfare; many restless nights and painful days they have endured on your account; and their own comfort and interest were bound up in yours. These are considerations which lay you under indispensable obligations to reverence and honour them.

But the greatest obligation arises from the authority of God. His positive command is, "Honour thy father and mother." Could no other reason be assigned than this, it

+ Ecclefiaftes, chap. xi, ver. 9.

would doubtless be sufficient to ensure a proper affection and reverence towards parents in all young persons who fear the Lord. Hence, in proportion as this fear sways the heart, a reverential esteem for their fathers and mothers will be cultivated and exercised. Their persons will be held in high respect and veneration; their counsels and wishes will be treated with affectionate submission and regard; their comfort and advantage will be consulted as much as circumstances will allow; their characters, if praise-worthy, will be admired and revered; and if the contrary, will have a veil drawn over their imperfections. How desirable, therefore is it, that children should be under the influence of the fear of God! It is, you observe, a pure regard to his authority that ensures this conduct.

Here then allow me to inquire if this fear governs all of you, who are the younger branches of this assembly, in your deportment towards your parents? Are you duly reverencing them from a conviction that God has invested them with authority over you? Alas! instead of reverencing them, how many feel only a slavish dread of them while they are very young, and are disposed to treat them with indifference when they no longer need their assistance. Indeed, that godly reverence of parents which the bible enjoins, seems almost universally dis