ently excellent and ornamental qualifications, for the express purpose of promoting the glory, and doing the will of the Eternal Creator, to whom we must account for the expenditure of our riches, talents and time!!

When we leave this earthly ball, what will become of our immortal parts? We shall undoubtedly be arraigned at the august tribunal of the Eternal; there to receive, from the impartial Judge, rewards or punishments, according to the merit or demerit of our actions. We shall then ascertain, that our probationary state, at least when compared to eternity, is like a dream, or a flash of lightning in the atmosphere, one moment seen, the next vanished forever. Is it then right or reasonable for us to spend our fleeting moments in gratifying our capricious passions, in indulging our unwarrantable pleasures, and in offering incense at the shrine of vanity? No. As we are not only probationary, but social and immortal beings, it is an insult to common sense, a perversion of our nature, and a mortal sin against the eternal Author and supporter of concord and peace, to spend our time in idleness and dissipation, not only neglecting to do good, but in doing much evil, prostituting our persons, time, riches, and talents to the most unworthy purposes. These are serious considerations; and however the volatile and gay may flirt and sneer at them, the day is fast approaching when sickness will seize, and medicine fail them. Then they will anticipate all the solemnities of a dying hour, and feel, as well as know, that Jehovah is inexorable in justice, and irrevocable in his decrees, as they respect the proud and impenitent; and, at the same time, great in goodness to the humble and pious, upon whom he showers in copious a

bundance his divine blessings and benedictions, He is their source of consolation under trouble. He fortifies their minds in temptations; and, when about to take a long and last farewell of all things here below, a convoy of celestial heralds are sent to bear the happy soul exulting and triumphant on their golden wings up to the palace of God and his angels.

Swift, and more swift the radiant heralds go,
As swift as lightning, and as white as snow.

For

Parents should always remember, that for every child the Almighty has intrusted to their charge, he has assigned a portion of work in his vineyard; for, surely, we must believe, that he has not, will not, and cannot create an immortal spirit without having some glorious end in view. my own part, I am confident in the opinion, that there is not an individual of the human family (idiots and lunatics excepted,) who has not one or more talents imparted, and a portion of salutary labor appropriated for the exercise of that talent or talents, by the improvement of which he may, in a greater or less degree, promote the glory of God, the cause of virtue, and the good of mankind. And on parents the important task falls, to cultivate the intellectual faculties of their children at an early age, that they may answer the salutary end of their creation, when arrived at the years of accountability. If they neglect this part of their duty to God and their children, they are guilty of the crimes they commit, and of the good the neglect: and let them flatter themselves as they may, they will have to answer for the same to the God of Nature. The natural consequences that result from children's being allow

ed by their parents or guardians to remain in ignorance and disobedience, are the contamination of the source of virtue, the perversion of their natural endowments, and the surrendering of them to the influence and domination of the most discordant passions and jarring dispositions: and when these are allowed to extend their baneful influence, the whole moral character is poisoned, the motives to laudable actions are annihilated, and disgrace, guilt and misery, are accumulated; by which means, the unconscious children of injudicious parents are too often precipitated into a labyrinth of premature misery, and, perhaps, final ruin. Swallowed in the vortex of immortality before the principles of moral rectitude were inculcated on their juvenile minds, before the super-excellence of virtue had been exhibited to their indiscriminate view, or before its transcendent beautics had been even anticipated. Their ungovernable passions produce a train of evils. First, intemperance leads the van; complicated disease follows: sloth, pride, poverty, and despair bring up the rear, and precipitate the unhappy beings loaded with sins of the deepest dye, and enveloped with sorrows of tenfold magnitude, into eternity, cursing forever the authors of their lasting wretchedness. But, alas!-it is not only the children of such cruel parents that are prematurely contaminated by sentimental or practical seduction, but even those of prudent and virtuous people when first setting out in life. while yet strangers to the syren's voice, the charming hypocrite's solicitations; when every unhallowed pleasure entices, and every new object exhibits an air of novelty; the seducing spirit gains the ascendancy; virtue retires disrobed and in t tranquillity is forever banished; irregular,

even criminal desires are gratified, being first metamorphosed to venial weakness; habit grows invincible; guilt grows gigantic; and debauchery is accounted laudable, till death stops the juvenile wantons in their mad career, and levels them with the clods of the valley; while their disconsolate parents remain unimpeached, having done their duty to them while in their minority. How often has it happened, that young persons have begun the world with blooming prospects and virtuous dispositions; but, alas! by associating with wicked companions, and by indulging in unwarrantable propensities, their blooming prospects are blasted in the bud, like the opening flower scorched by the sun, or blasted by the impetuous whirlwind; and though they bid fair to be the support, yet they eventually prove to be the pests. of civil society. Thus, the sun rises majestically grand, tips the blue mountains with a golden ray, exhilarates the plain, gilds the atmosphere with orient light, and promises a charming day; when, lo! the sable curtains of the sky are let down, the sun is vanished, the showers descend, and conclude the weeping day with solemn sadness.

Those who call themselves the rich, the great, and the lords of the creation, are often envied by the lower class; but, alas! their embarrassing and fleeting situations in life should command our pity, instead of exciting our envy. Many an aching head reclines upon a downy pillow. Many a sorrowful heart is conveyed from place to place in a gilded chariot. Many a volatile outside appearance conceals, unutterable wretchedness within. Riches nurture pride; and pride disorders the heart: and the fountain of happiness being poisoned, the streams are consequently affected. Though every other painful sensa

tion were prohibited from disturbing the rich man's mind, yet the solemn thought of the approach of death, with all his ghastly terrors, to force him to relinquish his splendid possessions in favor of others, to exchange his pompous palace for a loathsome grave, are enough to blast all his pleasures, to imbitter all his sweets, and to annihilate his hopes of future joy: especially when he takes a retrospective view of his rare virtues and multiplied crimes; of the good he has omitted to do, and of the evils he has done, he laments that he has let his golden moments pass without improvement. The concomitants that attend his departure from the paths of innocency and virtue, appear to his wounded mind. as the spectre of a murdered person appears in the midnight hour to the assassin while slumbering on his bed, calling in vain for the comforts of peaceful repose. He curses the unhappy moment he first cast his eyes on the gardens of unhallowed pleasure. He remembers with what timidity and trembling he first ventured to participate the lawless revelling of his jovial companions, still casting a longing lingering glance on the forsaken path of virtue, with a purpose to return at a future period; but, alas! one enticing snare is followed by another still more so, and the same with licentious acts, till the remembrance of his former virtue is obliterated from his mind, and even a relish for the happiness of innocence and integrity. He then becomes an easy victim of dissipation, is entangled in business, immersed in luxury, filled with vanity, degraded by iniquity, and is easily whirled down the vortex of sensuality into the ocean of complete misery, while the most superficial glance of his former happy days, fills him with. horror and regret. Thus, the man who in his.