as dropsies, consumptions, melancholy, and the like, which, according to all human views, might have been prevented by useful activity? The difference of sloth and industry in the acquisition and enjoyment of the good things of life, is too evident to need my illustration here. From hence we may take occasion to reflect,

1. That an indolent life is blameable, whatever excuses may be made for it.

It is certainly wrong, that persons in affluent circumstances in life, should think themselves excused from activity and employment. Superior advantages in life are chiefly valuable as they give an opportunity of serving God, and doing good in a more extensive way: but their design is per verted, when they are made a plea for sloth and luxury. If your own condition does not require the improvement of your fortune, the wants of others do, and the welfare of your soul may render an employment highly expedient. A thousand vices are produced by idleness. The human mind without exercise, like standing water, soon grows corrupt; and a life spent in the cheerful service of GOD, and usefulness to mankind, will doubtless yield a more pleasant reflection in the decline of years, or

the prospect of death, than time trifled away in inactivity and doing nothing.

It is not a sufficient excuse for slothfulness that any have been hitherto unsuccessful in business. Let such exert themselves with vigour, and consider their disappointment as a motive to greater diligence and prudence, rather than a reason for indolent despondency. One attempt may succeed, though others have been fruitless. Instead, therefore, of sitting down discouraged, let persons in this case use care and diligence to find out the cause of their unsuccessfulness, and endeavour to correct it; whether it be imprudence, indolence, unskilfulness, credulity or vice: and having done this, let them endeavour to introduce themselves again into business, with greater caution, with more steady resolution and diligence, and with a humble dependence on GOD, the giver of wisdom, and fountain of happiness.

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If inability is pleaded, take care it be geal and not imaginary. There is no persop to whom GOD has given the exercise reason, but may employ himself in some way or other; and an industrious mind will break through many difficulties, rather than stand as a cypher in the world. Indeed if we are wholly disabled by infirmities, GoD

himself gives a release from labour. Patience and submission to his will, are the proper duties of that state; which, however it may and should be borne with patience, will always be considered as an affiction by an active mind. It is to be feared, the cause of persons loitering away their lives very frequently is, that their purses are too low for high and honourable employments, and their spirits too high for those that are mean: they would live without labour, and enjoy plenty without pains: and their unwillingness to action, and not their inability, is the true cause of an indolent life.

2. Let parents be persuaded to educate their children for a life of business and use

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fulness; let not such noble powers and faculties produce such worthless lives, as are a reproach to human nature; for if you are rich, the wealth you give them without an employment will only be fuel for their lusts and make their present folly the more conspicuous, and their eternal ruin the more inevitable. If you are poor, the injury you do to your children is almost irreparable; you direct them in the way to shame and misery, and betray the trust which God has committed to you; whereas, by placing them in some honest calling,

they might be happy in themselves, useful in the world, and respected by all about them.

Let the young be excited by these considerations to apply with spirit and resolution to acquire useful knowledge, that they may be fit for those employments by which they may be a credit to their iends, and be serviceable to mankind. hough wisdom and knowledge be dimcult to attain, and ease and pastime have more enticing view at present; yet the fruits of industry in riper years, will abundantly recompense your present labour and self-denial. Folly and want are easy acquisitions, but wisdom and wealth are only to be procured under the blessing of heaven, by industry and care.

What egregious folly it is to neglect religion, the great business and end of life; and that in which the safety and happiness of our immortal souls is so intimately concerned? If diligence in common affairs is so important, if negligence there is so culpaple, they are infinitely more so here.That the soul should be adorned with the moral image of God; that its beauty in this respect should grow; that by a sincere faith in Christ, and an humble repentance towards GOD, we should be made meet

for final and everlasting glory; and the lively expectation thereof should grow into the full assurance of hope. These are objects that will repay the most assiduous application, the greatest diligence. This is a case so plain that children, and almost idiots, might seem capable of judging in it. In such cause, we might expect to find ardour and perseverance even in the most sluggish minds, in those which no prospect of casinly honour or wealth can

warm.

But how preposterous is it! These infinite concerns are overlooked, this important necessary business is neglected, not by the ignorant, the indolent and sluggish alone; but by the prudent and shrewd; by men of business, steadiness, and unwearied application. There are those that rise up early, and lie down late, that eat the bread of labour and carefulness for a little, it may be a very little, temporary gain, who will not find a moment to think of GoD and their souls, though reason, conscience, and the word of God, assure them that the neglect must prove destructive of their eternal happiness. O ye prudent and toiling mortals! Are the unsatisfying, transient enjoyments and honours of this life worth so much; and