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5. This subject presents useful lessons of instruction to parents.-They form the minds of their children. And it is too much to be feared, that many of those unhappy persons who have been brought to ruin have been brought to it chiefly by the operation of those very principles which their parents instilled into them and encouraged. From them, perhaps, they imbibed the love of dress and the desire of admiration. Their parents nursed and fostered their infant vanity. From their parents they received the habits of indulgence which led them to consider wholesome restraint as an intolerable evil. By them they were encouraged to display their childish wit at the expense of the follies or infirmities of their neighbours, and taught to cultivate an uncharitable or deceitful disposition. The parents added fuel to their dawning resentments, adopted their trivial quarrels, and thus taught them malice and revenge. From their parents they imbibed the love of money and by them were taught to value others, not according to their real excellence, but according to their wealth and the advantages to be expected from them. From their parents they learned to make no account of religion, and to consider the Bible as a dull, useless, or a dangerous work. And can parents be surprised, if, after the pains they have

thus taken to implant and to cherish evil principles in their children; can they be surprised, if they reap the fruits of it themselves? Can they be surprised, if by and by they see their children immersed in pleasure and sensuality, profligate and licentious, influenced by no good principles, or mainly instigated by the spirit of gain? Can they wonder if they find their children disobedient and irreverent to themselves, and injurious and cruel to others? Can they wonder if they see them live disliked and die unpitied? Surely these are but the consequences which might be expected from such an education. It was formed upon a plan which tended to cherish and cultivate vice; and the pains taken could not be expected to be other wise than productive in a soil which is of itself. so fruitful of evil, that we see the wisest and most judicious methods of instruction and the most pious education not always able to era dicate it.

6. The consideration of the subject of my dis course should lead us also to deep humiliation on account of our great corruption, and to earnest prayers for the grace of Christ to pardon and to cleanse us.-Persons who have superficial views of their duty, and low apprehensions of the evil of sin, are ready to look upon themselves as tolerably moral, while they are free from

gross vices; and therefore they regard themselves as needing no repentance but what is occasional, no habitual watchfulness, no constant prayer, no daily endeavours to obtain the grace of God. But let those little sins which are every hour committed, those seeds of vice which are continually springing up in the heart, those ebullitions of a corrupt fountain from which the life is never free, be taken into the account, and we shall perceive the need we have to be earnest in our prayers to be sanctified and to be pardoned. Alas! when nothing appears wrong to the superficial observer, all may be wrong within. The state of the heart, the general system, may be totally wrong and corrupt. Every principle of action may be polluted. The fear of man, the love of applause, the desire of self-indulgence, the thirst of lucre, may be the springs and the only springs of action. One may succeed another, occupy the whole heart, and influence the whole conduct, without its being directed for one hour by the pure principle of love to God or real benevolence to man. Here in the heart is the lamentable power of corruption seen! Here we have need to be cleansed! The tree must be made good, before good fruit can be expected the fountain must be made sweet, before its waters can be so. Here, therefore, we must begin. We must pray to God to give us a new heart. We

must be engrafted into Christ Jesus, the living vine; and, by union to him, receive a new power to bring forth new fruit.

7. And as we see evil arrive at its perfection by small gradations, so let us remember that good advances in the same manner.-We should not despise little things, either in what is good or bad; for, as the apocryphal writer observes," he that despiseth little things shall fall by little and little.". The character is formed very much from the repetition of little acts; and a progress in religion is made by small successive steps, none of which ought to be despised. And be not discontented, because you cannot at once arrive at those things which are most excellent. To attempt too great a height at once often tends to discouragement. Try to do a little, and that little will prepare you for more. Take the first step, and that will prepare the way for a second. Use the same rules of prudence in religion which you find useful in the ordinary affairs of life. In this respect, imitate the children of the world, who are often wiser in their generation than the children of light. Above all, seek to obtain that holy principle which respects God, and which acts out of love to his name and gratitude to him for his goodness. This will rectify the whole of your conduct, and each successive step you will then take will lead you nearer and nearer to Him who is the Source of all good.

Remember how short my time is. Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain ?

THE Psalmist composed the psalm of which the words just read are a part, under very great depression of mind. Disappointed in hopes which appeared to be founded on the promises of God, and reduced to a state of the lowest misery and distress, he surveys, as was natural, the miseries of human life, and considers its shortness and its vanity. Impatient of the sufferings allotted to him, he at length breaks out into the prayer of my text, "How long, Lord, wilt thou hide thyself? For ever? Shall thy wrath burn like fire? Remember how short my time is. Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?" "Oh spare the rod