nity of sin, to look for new associates,→→ and that he who yields himself to any known vice, is not only in the way to the ruin of his own soul, but is in the way also to become at last the agent of the enemy of mankind, in the ruin of the innocent souls who trust, and are betrayed by him.

It is thus, my brethren, that "evil com"munication corrupts good manners.”" It is thus also, often, that this is done by those who are unconscious of the evil they produce. It is a reason to all of us, as I said, to call our ways to remembrance, to the young to consider the great and eventful journey upon which they are going,-to those who are more advanced in life, to consider the example they are affording.

May God grant that these reflections may dwell with us all! that they who are entering into life may remember, that

to the innocent is promised the kingdom of Heaven; and that they who are advanced in it, may remember the mighty rewards which await those "who lead "others into the way of righteousness."

SERMON XIII.

ON THE FAST, FEBRUARY 27, 1806.

PSALM 1xxx. 19.

"O Lord God of Hosts! shew the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole."

THESE words of the King of Israel contain a very striking representation of that piety, which, amid all his errors, was yet the prevailing principle of his character. In some one of those seasons of national danger, of which his reign was full, "when his people were fed with the bread "of tears, when they were made a strife

"unto their neighbours, and their enemies

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laughed them to scorn," we see him in silence ascending into the sanctuary of God, and hear him soliciting the aid of Him" who sitteth upon the cherubims.” Amid the darkness which surrounded him, he implores, not with the usual presumption of earthly prayer, that the God of Nature should visibly descend to their relief, but with the sublimer invocation that his religion taught, that " He would shew "the light of His countenance ;"—that he would shew them what was the course they ought to pursue ;-that he would display to them the path which their own wisdom could not discern; and then, with the confidence of faith, he foretells, that the prosperity of his people would return, that the dangers in which they were involved would be dispelled,-and that they at last "would be whole.”

The sentiment which is here expressed

by the Psalmist, is one in which every man and every age has participated. Amid the lesser evils of life, we are apt to trust to our own wisdom, and the wisdom of man is indeed mercifully proportioned to many of the common evils which assail him. But there are evils of another kind. There are seasons of darkness and calamity to which experience bears no relation; when various passions struggle for the mastery in the divided bosoms of the people; and when the feeble eye of human wisdom sees not the ends which it is fitting to pursue. In such moments, there is an instinctive impulse which leads us to prostrate ourselves before the Throne of Him" who inhabiteternity." Under a conviction, (which lies at the bottom of the human heart, but which adversity alone calls forth,) under the conviction, that there is an order in nature, and that there is a

"eth eternity."

R