to facilitate the operations of his providence. That the ark might be preserved from falling, it was not necessary, that Uzziah should commit sacrilege.

The field of legitimate benevolence was never more extensive, nor more inviting, than it is at present. Never was there a period, which afforded a fairer opportunity for exerting a beneficent influence. In that comprehensive system of charitable effort, by which the present day is so honourably distinguished; there is some place, in which every person may operate to advantage, some spring, which he may set at liberty, some wheel, which he may put in motion. If he cannot endow a hospital, or institute a professorship; he may, at least, instruct some child, ignorant, vicious, and forlorn, in the first rudiments of knowledge, and the first principles of duty.

When I consider the harmony, which prevails, and gains strength in our own beloved country,the pacific aspect of Europe, and that impulse of munificence, compassion, and piety, which seems to have been simultaneously felt in every part of christendom, and the essential tendency, which a knowledge of the scriptures has to establish peace on earth and good will towards men; it is impossible not to cherish a confident hope, that a change for the better is soon to be effected, in the character and

condition of man. To a mind, that is gladdened by these prospects, the sun seems to shine with a more benignant and uniform radiance, the clouds seem skirted with colours of uncommon richness and beauty, a deeper green rests on the face of nature; and all the powers of life are exhilarated, as its blessings are multiplied. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree. The mountains and hills shall break forth into singing: and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

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But, whether our anticipations are too sanguine or not, your duties, young gentlemen, are not doubtful. According to the sphere, in which you are placed, and the abilities bestowed on you, you are debtors to every man, whose knowledge, moral feelings, or happiness, may be influenced by your endeavours. These obligations you will feel with culiar sensibility, if conscious, that, during your collegiate life, you have received impressions, more valuable than those, which are made on the intellects, and have enjoyed consolations, more rich than those, imparted even by the acquisition of knowledge.

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But let your expectations of enjoyment, and your purposes of usefulness, be formed with distinct reference to human frailty. Reminded, as I have

been, that the loveliest flowers may blossom, but for the grave;* admonished, as you are, by the gradual decays of a fellow pupil,† whom disease prevents from participating the exercises of this day, we should both be criminal, did we forget, that every earthly hope may be blasted, and every human purpose may be rendered vain, by the uncontrollable decrees of infinite, but unsearchable wisdom.

Young Gentlemen, I can add nothing, but to assure you, that, in departing from this seminary, you carry with you, in no ordinary degree, our confidence and our affection.

*The President's youngest son, an interesting child aged two years, died Oct. 19, 1817.

† Isaac P. Anderson here alluded to, died Dec. 16, 1818.

INTRODUCTORY

LECTURE.

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THE DANGERS OF A COLLEGE LIFE, AND ITS SECURITY.

I AM not solicitous, that the present should be termed a theological lecture. It will have for its immediate object no individual doctrine of christianity; but that general regularity of life, which, as students in science and literature, and believers in revealed religion, you are bound to maintain.

I shall, first, enumerate some of the dangers of a collegial life secondly, consider, in what way you may obtain the greatest security in the midst of them.

Under the first division I observe, that one of

the dangers, to which literary youth are exposed, arises from the opinion, that the standard of morals is not, to all persons, the same, and that, in regard to the students of a college, the laws of revealed religion are either repealed, or rendered more lenient. That such a sentiment, if not avowed, is secretly entertained, appears from this circumstance, that practices, which, in other situations, are universally condemned, as immoral, are sometimes viewed by associated literary young men, with little, or no displeasure.

If such a sentiment is cherished by any, I fear indeed, that the error is invincible. That want of thought, which gave rise to it, will probably render ineffectual any efforts of mine for its removal. It is doubtless true, that the external duties of a statesman are different from those of the soldier;-that the external duties of the physician are different from those of the artificer: that is, the same moral principle, piety to God, and benevolence to man, would require different actions of persons, whose conditions in life, were so various; because the virtue and happiness of the great mass may be most effectually advanced by sedulous attention to their respective employments. But persons in neither of the situations mentioned, can be at liberty to lose sight of these great objects. The artificer is as really bound