n the world of spirits, will probably be derived e principles you form and the habits you acquire ommencement of the journey of human life. The dignity of virtue, and the commanding authority piety, will ever procure the veneration, esteem fection of the wise and the good,* and extort - from wickedness.

ligion be the happiest course, you cannot too soon pon it. Though you should live to old age, you not on that account to put it off, because every lelay is a delay of your highest bliss, every day's trengthens the habits of a contrary nature, renders esire and power to return less powerful, and finally erthrow them altogether. How many men do we o have grown old in sin, who have the wish, but not ver, to withdraw from the world their hearts, of it has had so long possession. There are princiour nature, which render the work of conversion t, if not impossible, when deferred to a future

You may repent to-day, but to-morrow it may of your power. If you find it difficult to day to forour sins, how can you hope to find it easier to-moren to the sins of yesterday you have added those of

To-morrow is in eternity. To-morrow you ave gone down to the grave with all your sins and fections on your head.

were you sure of living, and that God would safe the grace of repentance, and power to burst amantine chains that bind the old offender, yet to t religion for one moment is to neglect your true st, and to offer the highest affront and ingratitude God who made and redeemed you, and who conto crown your life with mercy and loving kindYou would devote the prime and strength of your to your own pleasures, and then give to God the and dregs of your life, because you will then not

Abercrombie's Lectures, to which some of the above reare indebted, contain important advice to parents and ca

know how otherwise to dispose of yourself. You will be willing to leave the world when it is leaving you.If you could hope that God would accept these lame and blind and halt victims at your hands, you must confess that you have no claims to sentiments or feelings of gratitude. This were indeed an unkind requital, and a dangerous experiment. On the contrary by remembering your Creator in the days of your youth, you offer him the most acceptable service. You have, in so doing, the sure promise, that they who seek him early shall find him. Those who honour him, he will honour. Beginning the work early, you shall find it easy and delightful, and in a dying and retiring age you will have nothing to do, but to collect and enjoy the consolations of religion. To this duty your baptismal covenant binds you by strong obligations. For although you did not in your own person contract the vow, yet the nature of it is such, as makes it of universal obligation. Your parents devoted you to the Lord in baptism, at an age when you could not choose for yourselves. And now that you can understand your own interest and duty, you are called upon to ratify their contract made in your behalf. Your refusing to do this, disannuls their act, and declares that you will not accept of the Lord as your master. "Choose ye this day then whom ye will serve; if the Lord be God serve him; but if Baal serve him." Surely you cannot long hesitate which choice to adopt.-You cannot be at a loss to determine between objects so different, and where your duty and happiness are so obviously marked. Thankfully accept then the terms which your parents have negotiated for you, and labour to fulfil on your part the conditions they have stipulated for you, that you may indeed be the children of God.*

"Baptism doth represent unto us our profession; which is, to follow the example of our Saviour Christ and to be made like unto him; that as he died, and rose again for us, so should we, who are baptized, die from sin, and

*This is the object of confirmation as will be explained under

that head.

gain unto righteousness; continually mortifying all vil and corrupt affections, and daily proceeding in irtue and godliness of living." Be not satisfied with a mere profession, a decent demeanour and ar observance of external duties, unless you expee also the inward dispositions of a new nature. ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ay prove what is that good and acceptable will of

And in order to attain to this state, be much in er, and in reading, with prayer, the scriptures; avoid company, for it will be sure to extinguish in you good resolutions; "Come out from among them and e separate, touch not the unclean thing and I will ive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty."

CHAPTER XIII.

The Lord's Supper.

"THE Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another; but rather it is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death: Insomuch that to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ; and likewise the cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ."

"Transubstantiation, (or the change of the substance of bread and wine) in the Supper of our Lord, cannot be proved by holy writ; but it is repugnant to the plain words of scripture, overthroweth the nature of a sacrament and hath given occasion to many superstitions."

"The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper, is faith." Article XXVIII.

Among the ordinances prescribed by the gospel, the eucharist, or that commonly called the Lord's Supper, has ever held a distinguished place: and the church of Christ in all ages, has represented the due religious celebration of it as a duty incumbent on every soul that professed faith in Christ Jesus, and sought for salvation through his blood alone. And the great High Priest of our profession has showed by more than ordinary influences of his blessed Spirit on the souls of the faithful, that they had not mistaken his meaning, nor believed in vain; while by eating of that bread and drinking of that cup, they endeavoured to shew forth his death, and realize its benefits.

The Obligations we are under to partake of the Lord's Supper.

There lies an obligation upon all Christians to receive the holy communion, from the plain and positive command of our blessed Saviour.* It is the command of a Sovereign, and a Father. It is the dying request of our best friend, who in the night he was betrayed instituted it as a memorial of perpetual obligation. In so doing ye do shew forth your Lord's death till he come." It is a command easy and pleasant to obey. It is one which promotes our own advantage; for thereby we are strengthened, comforted, and nourished up to everlasting life. It is a command enforced by an awful sanction: "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." But "whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day: For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed."

It is a duty too, as rendering a public acknowledgment of our profession, as sanctioning by our example the Christian faith, and as being a mean of keeping it alive in the world. Under all these views it seems to be the indispensable and solemn duty of all who hope for salvation by the blood of Christ.

The Nature and Design of the Lord's Supper.

This holy ordinance is not merely a memorial of the Redeemer in general, but is expressly designed as a visible representation of his death, particularly as it was a sacrifice for sin: the broken bread being a lively emblem of his body broken; and the wine poured out, of the shedding of his blood. Our Lord substituted it in place of the passover which was of an expiatory nature, and which was designed to prefigure, what our eucharistic service commemorates, as having already taken place,

Luke xxii. 19.

†1 Cor. xi. 24, 25.