scenes of dissipation, those luxurious banquets, those festivities and amusements, which in the season of health and jollity, occupied perpetually his thoughts, when the anguish of pain or the languor of disease deprive him of the powers of enjoyment? How quickly disappears all that fallacious lustre of worldly glory, which dazzles to such a degree the eyes of men, and captivates their hearts in the hour of uninterrupted prosperity, when failure in the accomplishment of their ambitious enterprises, sinks them at once into insignificancy and contempt! How easily are they convinced of the vanity of that close and ardent attachment, with which, under the smiles of propitious fortune, they cleaved so fondly to the perishable riches of the earth, when they find themselves reduced to a state of penury and want. Or what sublunary object has any attraction for the disconsolate widow, when he, in whom her affections centered, is torn from her embraces, and consigned to the tomb? In these melancholy moments of distress and sadness, when nothing upon earth is capable of giving pleasure, or administering consolation, how open is the heart of man to the free ingress of the graces of heaven! How susceptible is it of religious impressions! How sensible of the emptiness of terrestrial advantages! How readily do its affections soar aloft, and seek repose in the bosom of the Eternal, when they are no longer enchained to creatures by the ignoble bonds of worldly attachment! And when

it has become convinced by woful, but salutary experience, of the inconstancy of earthly happiness, how willingly is it induced to cultivate the friendship of him, in whom there is not even a shadow of change, and whose munificence is enlarged, as his constancy is unalterable! Far therefore from considering afflictions as marks of God's displea-. sure, or instances of his severity, we should contemplate them, on the contrary, as so many gracious manifestations of his parental kindness; we should view them in the light of affectionate admonitions feelingly addressed to our hearts, by the best of Fathers, unveiling to our minds the unsubstantial nature of earthly vanities, despoiling them of their false glosses, convincing us of the unreasonableness of our extravagant adherence to them, kindling in our breasts a desire, and stimulating us to the pursuit of those pure, solid, and permanent enjoyments, which alone are worthy of beings created for immortality, and capable of satisfying their boundless appetites.

Permit me also, my friends, to call your attention to your past lives. Pass in review the series

of years which have succeeded the first dawn of your opening reason to the present hour. What kind of spectacle does the serious retrospect bring back to your view? Will it stand the test of that sacred code of laws promulgated by the divine founder of the Christian religion for the regulation of your conduct? Will it bear to be scrutinized by the maxims and precepts inculcated

in it? Will it be found in every respect conformable to the spirit of that holy dispensation? Alas! my friends, is there one among my present hearers who has preserved unsullied that precious robe of innocence with which he was clothed at the baptismal font? Where, where is the man, who on a close and impartial examination of his past conduct, will not discover in it abundant matter of reproach and condemnation? To what base and abominable purposes do not the generality of Christians too frequently prostitute the noblest faculties of their being? How often is reason, like some dethroned and greatly injured monarch, shamefully degraded into the ignominious slave of rebellious and unruly passions, of avarice, ambition, or lust, and rendered subservient to the prosecution of their unjust and lawless purposes? To what a multitude of foul and scandalous enormities, does not the tyrannic sway of these usurpers, frequently drive their miserable slaves! But are not such disorders, outrageous insults to the Majesty of heaven? Are they not of a nature to provoke the anger of the Almighty? Must they not be confessed to be deserving of the severest punishment? How many thousands are this moment suffering the most excruciating torments in the regions of despair and misery for similar transgressions? Might not sinners, therefore, who are still permitted to live, notwithstanding the multitude and heinousness of their crimes, for which, if they were dealt with according to their deserts,

they would be condemned to die eternally, and who, by the respite granted them, are still furnished with an opportunity of deprecating God's avenging justice, and of being restored once more to his favor, ought not they, I say, however hard or painful may be their lot on earth, still to regard themselves as objects of the special clemency of heaven? Instead of betraying the slightest symptoms of fretfulness or impatience under their afflictions and troubles, ought they not on the contrary, to submit to them with gratitude, as a very light and inadequate compensation for the punishments, incomparably more rigorous and dreadful, which impartial justice has a right to exact? Do criminals convicted of capital offences, and who have forfeited in consequence their lives to the violated laws of their country, conceive themselves treated with severity, do they murmur or complain, when, in lieu of death, which their crimes have merited, the mitigated penalty of fine, exile, imprisonment, or any other inferior punishment is assigned them by the gracious exercise of the royal prerogative? And what comparison is there between temporal and eternal death? What comparison between the privation of a few years of earthly existence, and perpetual seclusion from the society of the blessed? What comparison between the temporary pangs which accompany the violent separation of the body from its kindred spirit, and the extreme anguish of the soul engulphed for eternity in that un

fathomable abyss of torments, where no order, but everlasting horror dwelleth? Oh! my friends, with what transports of joy would those unfortunate victims of wretchedness and desperation, who are now groaning in the regions of woe under the weight of divine indignation, with what raptures of exultation would they consent to sustain the utmost rigors of earthly calamity, could they but upon that condition, be rescued from the evils of their present state? Shall sinners then, who live only by a special favor of the Almighty, who breathe only upon sufferance, who, on the perpetration of the first crime which gave a mortal wound to their souls, deserved to be plunged into the gulph of perdition, and who, since that period, have been accumulating perhaps guilt upon guilt, and adding fresh aggravations to their multiplied enormities, shall they, convicted and punishable culprits, repine at the lenient and temporary chastisements of relenting mercy, at a time when they are obnoxious to the rigorous and eternal vengeance of inexorable justice?

But although among Christians there are unquestionably but too many who come under the denomination of those grievous offenders whom I have just described, yet I am unwilling to include my present hearers in this black catalogue of criminals. It is to be remembered nevertheless that there are also failings of a less heinous description, which, without amounting to a degree of turpitude destructive of the spiritual life of the