ings of the individual, and the relative position in which he stands towards others.

And the first instance which naturally occurs is the incongruity which there is reason to apprehend exists too frequently between the thoughts and emotions which occupy, individuals in a place of worship, and those which alone accord with the purposes for which we here assemble.

To come here-here where God, the infinite and omniscient spirit, should have his presence peculiarly felt by the reference of all that passes to his will and service; here, where in supplication and praise we invoke his hallowed name, and profess directly to address ourselves to the eternal Majesty of heaven and earth; here, where transgression is confessed, and weakness is acknowledged, and pardon is sought, and strength is supplicated, and mercies are sung in hymns of thanksgiving, and desires and hopes are breathed forth from the heart's fulness; here, where we read that pure, and powerful, and varied, and everlasting word of God, that living word, by which our Father speaks to his children in their difficulties and their temptations, their sorrows and their exertions, with all a Father's wisdom and love; here, where though we have this treasure in earthen vessels-the excellence being in itself and its Author, and only obscured by the imperfect ministration which presents it to youyet that ministration relates to highest and holiest truth, to the soul, and goodness, and God, and immortal being, and heavenly happiness; here, where the young come that they may be prepared for life, and the aged that they may be prepared for death, and the

teachable that they may be taught, and the sorrowful that they may be comforted, and the rich and the poor meet together in the equality of humanity, to cherish the love of brotherhood; to come here, in a spirit of levity, or of indifference, or out of mere form and habit, or regarding it as a sort of sober amusement, or to be making a censorious application to others- this is worse than pouring vinegar upon nitre, or singing songs to a heavy heart! If there be such, let the thought of what is passing in others' minds, in the penitent, the mourning, the inquiring, the devout, shame your own into seriousness and contrition. At least, let your souls here recognize His presence who is always present. It can be only required for you to perceive and feel the incongruity of your feelings, for them to change to a more becoming character. Think of this discrepancy. Think of all that should occupy your minds and hearts. The hopes of heaven, the duties of earth, the relations of humanity, will then rise upon your imaginations; your emotions will have a growing accordance with the occupations and objects of the place and time; you will worship, you will learn, you will love; you will feel the holy pleasure, and reap the spiritual profit, the experience of which makes us glad when they say, 'Come, let us go up to the house of the Lord.' You will say, 'Truly, God is here, and I knew it not; this is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of Heaven.'

Another case of this incongruity, and which is very like singing songs to heavy hearts, is that of young persons who neglect that improvement of the opportunities of youth, which should form their minds and

characters for future respectability, worth, usefulness, the comfort; and by giving themselves up to idleness, pleasure, and frivolity, grieve their relatives, friends, and all who are interested, either in them personally, or generally, in the well-being of the rising generation, and through that, of the generations that are to follow after, and carry on or retard the progress of the hu

man race.

I am no advocate for a premature gravity. I do not want to see the young affecting the manners of the aged, or of the mature. I only want them to remember, and that to good purpose, that they will arrive at maturity; and, should Providence spare them, to age; and that Autumn brings no harvest for him who in spring time has only frolicked in the sunshine, played with the blossoms, and sung with the birds. Youth is the season of pleasure and hope; and be it so; but the pleasure ought not to be altogether unworthy of a being of rationality, nor the hope to stop infinitely short of the prospects of an heir of immortality. How is it that there are so many, who, as they advance in life,do not advance in moral worth, in useful influence, or even in personal enjoyment? There should be, and there might be, an harmonious progress. The improvability of a character throughout the whole of our mortal being depends materially upon what is done at that critical time when the boy passes into the man. He then opens, or seals up, the fountains whose ever-flowing and expanding streams should refresh him through all the wildernesses of life. He has then opportunities for acquiring knowledge, and for framing his faculties to habits of activity,

which will never occur again. It is sad to think of him, as so trifling away that period, that his resources will be ever diminishing; that, if he shall possess wealth, it will only administer to animal indulgences, or the gratification of vanity; that, if his situation shall confer influence, that influence will have no enlightened and beneficent aim; that the faculty of constant improvement, the dearest blessing of the highest minds, will in him have become defunct; that years hence he will only be living in the worthless present; that the intellect of the age will pass him by; that when he is old, there will be nothing in him, for which the young, who shall then be, will seek his society, and treasure his sayings, and crave his guidance, and desire his approbation, and do him reverence in their hearts. Look forward, look forward, youth of this congregation; and redeem some time to prepare for coming time, for a coming eternity. Train your intellects to diligent exercise and useful acquisition; and your feelings to devotional acts, and kindly charities; read, study, reflect, contemplate the end for which God created you, and determine on its realization. This is to have your feelings in harmony with your age and circumstances. On you depend the destinies of the next generation. Why is the mighty, the immeasurable power of early education, of so little avail in the world? To what might not children be trained? To what purity, independence, energy, and loftiness of thought and purpose? Why are they not? Because those who

should train them are inefficient. The teachers, the first and natural teachers, are themselves untaught. The father learned Latin at school, which is forgot

ten in his business; and the mother accomplishments, which are obsolete in the household. The future parents should be prepared to be the formers of their children's minds and hearts, to the ardent love and active pursuit of truth and goodness; and when they delegate the task, should know what to require of the professional instructer. Only then will education become a rational and Christian training, for duty, excellence and happiness; and not the flimsy work of vanity, fashion, and worldliness, that it now too often is. There are too many of the young who make one's heart heavy for futurity. Happily there are others. And when I see a youth who, even in his boyhood, discerns between the solid and the conventional in the instruction offered him, and applies most vigorously to the former; who passes with ease and grace from the temporary equality of rank in school, to his own perhaps humbler position in the diversities yet kept up in actual life; who learns, in principle and not in spite, that honest industry is ever honorable; and well to fill an useful situation, the noblest of all nobility; who diligently avails himself of every opportunity for enlarging his mind and his knowledge, and even cultivating his taste, neglecting nothing which God has given him for good, and life yields of pure enjoyment; whom it is a pleasure to preach to, because he is bent on comprehending and judging the principle, the aim, the tendency of a discourse, and appreciates and feels the harmonious influence of a religious service, and does not merely listen to pick up a few isolated sentences, to hear some few truisms repeated, which he calls religious