pursuits, amusements, indulgences, we should at least make one item in the calculation-their effect on others, the possibility of their becoming a stumbling-block, and causing any to transgress. If there be a man so clear of judgment, so pure in heart, so firm of purpose, that he can abide uncontaminated in the tents of wickedness; that he can pass through situations of the severest temptation without swerving a hair's-breadth from the strictest line of duty; that he can be the frequent associate of the profligate, and yet their evil communications corrupt not his good manners; unless some paramount obligation of justice or benevolence compelled him to do so, he ought to abstain for their sakes who, where he safely advances, may follow to their own peril and perdition. Such obligations there have doubtless been; as on those who had a divine mission for the reformation of man- kind, or those who have had before them the fair and animating prospect of accomplishing some glorious object of philanthropy; but these are rare-the exceptions, not the rule, of human life; and rare also, O how rare! is the firmness and elevation of character which has just, for argument sake, been supposed. The very disposition needlessly to brave temptation is an indication of not having arrived at such perfection.

Perhaps the prayer of the text was prompted by observation of others, and grief at their aberrations. They have gazed on vanity till they became its votaries, slaves, and victims; turn mine eyes away. The failings of others are our warnings; and impressive ones they are. Are you prone to defer future advantages to present gratifications; to underrate the

respectability, comfort, influence, which may be a comparatively remote, yet an attainable prize in this world, and the seemingly still more remote things of the world to come; to be impatient of personal privations and self-denials; to strive for the prompt accomplishment of your desires at any rate?-Look at Esau, a character with many estimable qualities— frank, generous, and affectionate-selling his birthright for a mess of pottage; bartering, for the immediate indulgence of his appetite, or relief of his exhaustion, the privilege then most dearly cherished; selling at that pitiful price the first blessing of his father and his God; and entailing on himself years of tearful and useless repentance. Are you the favored child of prosperity, raised to that eminence of fortune from which the toils, and struggles, and endurances, of the great mass of your fellow-creatures are only matter of philosophical or charitable contemplation; the enjoyments of sense, of taste, of intellect at your command, and those of piety not foreign to your heart? Look at that king of Israel in whom this combination was carried to its highest degree; see how, in the plenitude of wealth and wisdom, he gazed on the vanity of idols, till condemnation mitigated into disapprobation, and that into endurance, and that grew into conformity, and that into advocacy and patronage, till he insulted the majesty of Jehovah by the foul altars of fabulous deities rising in immediate neighborhood and impious opposition. Pride, passion, and avarice are the modern idols, to which men thus apostatize. Or are you eager for wealth, eager for situations which place it within your reach, though

not at your command?-Look at Judas-sincere as I think we must believe him to have been, when first he attached himself to Christ, bearing the bag which contained the little store of that poorly endowed company in earthly treasure; hankering after its contents, and trespassing on them, and greedily anticipating their increase, and covering his fraud by hypocrisy, and infuriated at reading detection in his Master's eye, and, under the joint influence of r venge and avarice, betraying for a bribe the Son of God. Well may the righteous pray to be prevented taking the first step in these paths of death.

And yet this construction of the prayer has a sentiment of charity in it, identifying the writer in weakness with those who have stumbled and fallen; and ascrib ing the difference to more favorable cicumstances, which are thankfully acknowledged, and their continuance earnestly supplicated.

By the grace of God,'
But for an occurrence

event most extraor
have remained a

said Paul, I am what I am.' in which he was only passive, an dinary and unexpected, he might persecutor, instead of becoming an apostle. In that case, by his circumstances the God of justice would have tried him; but could he have had the excellence, the mental enjoyments, the glorious hopes, to which, as it was, he did attain? Obviously not. And the remembrance of what he had been, operated to keep alive his charity, and stimulate his affectionate zeal towards those who continued to be as he had been. In humility and charity should we censure (if censure we must) those who have, with us, one human heart,' though that heart may have been exposed to, and

corrupted by, malignant influences from which we have been providentially shielded?

Lastly, I ascribed to the Psalmist the devout wish,not only that he might be preserved from the snares of idolatry, but that they might no longer be spread in the land; that there might not be this 'vanity' for any eye to see. And thus the Lord's Prayer includes the petition that we may not be led into temptation, and also that the kingdom of God may come, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Our heart's desire and prayer should daily be for the diminution of human guilt and wretchedness. We should encourage, and support, to the best of our ability, whatever tends to effect that diminution. The expression of our own opinions, the observation of our example, may so tend, in a narrower or wider circle, according to our stations. Let us give their full force to the side of truth, piety, justice, and charity. The formation of some new institutions, the amendment of others which exist, may have that tendency; let them have our ready countenance and active aid. The diffusion of knowledge has that tendency, in an eminent degree; be, then, the friends of universal education, till its blessings cover the land, and are as common as heaven's air and sunshine. Religious worship and instruction are means to this end-be they the means of our personal adoption, of our constant recommendation. By whatever social arrangements men are placed in circumstances which present fewer temptations, history and experience assure us we may confidently reckon that vice itself will be di minished. These let us advance; and leave to oth

ers despairing lamentations over the total depravity of human nature, which, were they true, would reduce goodness to the result of miracle alone, and make it unimportant whether man's eyes were turned away from vanity, or ceaselessly directed towards its most powerful allurements.

May it, then, be a constant object with us to adopt that course which is most favorable to the cultivation of piety and goodness. Let us avoid temptation as the surest mode of avoiding transgression. So far as the lot of others depends upon us, what we do should be regulated by the same principle. Servants, children, pupils, relatives, friends; for whomsoever we have to act, do (in this) unto others as ye would that they should do unto you. As much as possible prevent the collision of their earthly interests with their religious and moral duties. They may be the poorer for it, and yet the better-and if the better, then the happier, here and hereafter.

And if temptation must be encountered, as often enough it must, without any voluntary addition on our part, then let us call up the energy of Christian motives in our minds, summon before us the blessings and the terrors of the world to come, endure as seeing Him who is invisible save to the eye of faith, by humble, fervent prayer invoke him to be strong in our weakness, and beseech him to turn away our eyes from beholding vanity, and fix them on the crown of glory which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give, in the day of retribution, to all thein that love his appearing, and await it in holy obedience,