bark is shattered on the rock, or whelmed in the roaring gulf. Guileless and unsuspecting, you are the victims of the contrary disposition You believe every testimony; follow every voice; submit to every flattering directer; and peruse, with eagerness and credulity, the unrevised, unselected, often unchristian, literature which rolls from the press of this omnific age, There are the perils arising from the impetuosity of the tempers and passions. In youth are not these fierce and fiery? and is not self-government as arduous as important? When the ark had rested on Mount Ararat, and the billows had receded to the ocean-boundary, Noah built an altar, and presented burnt-offerings. Jehovah smiled on the father of the future race. But even then, amid the rising fragrance of the Patriarch's sacrifice, and the gracious assurances of the covenant which the "bow in the clouds" still indicates, the omniscient God uttered a most affecting sentence,-"The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." (Gen. viii. 21.) There are the fearful excitements of pleasure. There are numerous and ardent hopes; some of which, amid the uncertainties of life, must be blasted; and, not knowing how to brook the disappointments which fail not to sink the heart of matured and experienced man, youth runs to madness and desperation. There are the "fleshly lusts, which war against" the purity, the repose, and the dignity, of " the soul." How many wounds are selfinflicted, the scars of which will always remain! How do the ghastly shades of former crimes torture the bosom from which their imagery can never be expelled! How mournful the reminiscences of early transgression! How spirit-piercing the prayer, offered with tears of blood and groanings which cannot be uttered," Remember not the sins of my youth!" (Psalm xxv. 7.) There are the perils arising from society. In youth, the attractions of friendship are strongest. We picture gratifications which are like rainbow-lustre, sparkling on every mountain, as beautiful to the eye, as inaccessible to the touch. To every circle we run; and in every smiling countenance we think we read the fidelity of a friend. Hence companionships are hastily and indiscriminately multiplied. We have not learned the sobriety of deliberation, the prudence of reserve, or the calculation of the vast results which attach to such association. These are difficult lessons; for, though a wilderness of dreary. realities has often displaced a paradise of dreams, we strangely resolve to believe that the future is as full of truth as the past of fiction. Thus we hasten to deeper gulfs of danger. The influence of ungodly acquaintance is mutual. A company, beguiled by the thought of only general responsibility, will do that which an individual shudders to contemplate. The concentrated virus imbues the whole atmosphere. Honour, leisure, books, Christian' ordinances, are sacrificed for worthless society; while vanity and sin advance, in swelling volume, As brooks to rivers, rivers run to seas." There are the perils arising from the illusions of the present life.False notions of the security and happiness of the future are generally prevalent; and the man of ancient years still calculates on to-morrow. But they are especially dominant in youth. Every smiling scene then glows with more than romantic brightness. All is excitement and confidence. The sky seems unclouded. Sorrow is a sound unknown. Death is the most remote idea that can be suggested. The tabernacle is yet unshaken. There is not a single chink, through which the unwelcome light of the world to come can be admitted. So blessings become curses. The height of pleasure leads to a forgetfulness of God. As the suns of distant systems resemble mere sparks of lustre in the nightly firmament, so eternity loses all its impressiveness because youth will not be persuaded that it is nigh. Inestimably important, then, is true piety,-the guard, as well as the charm and grace, of impetuous youth. It inspires contemplation, and teaches caution. It "gives subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion." (Prov. i. 4.) Its serene light distinguishes the road of duty from every misleading by-path; and, on the first tendency to deviation, its authoritative voice cries, "This is the way, walk ye in it." It fixes the inward eye on scenes of pure and éverlasting enjoyment, and thus eclipses the fascinations of the world. It fortifies the feeblest against the allurements of unholy pleasure. It enables him to "rule his own spirit," and makes him " greater than he that taketh a city." In the struggle of militant virtue, it sustains his weakness by a wondrous alliance with the power of God. It separates him from "the counsel of the ungodly," "the way of sinners," and "the seat of the scornful." It makes him "a companion of all them that fear God;" and, "While faith unveils, to the fix'd eye, A scene of deep eternity,” it exhibits the present state in its true insignificance, and inspires the hallowing recollection, that "the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (1 John ii. 17.) 3. Youth is the season of hope and promise. Early predilections for piety are to be valued, not only because the fairest season of life is a suitable offering to God, but also because the resolves of youth generally give colour to the subsequent manhood. Its impressions are proverbially deep and lasting. They survive many a change, and the ruin of many a hope: as the new vase, stained with wine, may be dashed in pieces; but each fragment will long retain the first odour.* "Nunc adbibe puro Pectore verba, puer: nunc te melioribus offer. Between the improvement of the seed-time and the fruitfulness of the harvest, there is a proportion which has often been considered emblematic. The son of Sirach inquires, (Ecclus. xxv. 3,) "If thou hast gathered nothing in thy youth, how canst thou expect to find any thing in thine age?" On the other hand, unspeakable personal advantages are the crown of youthful righteousness. This is the prelude to honour which defies the blasts that wither all earthly distinction. It is promotive of eminent attainments in the divine life, of stability in the profession of the faith, and of deep acquaintance with the things of God. But we will refer, especially, to the promise of extensive usefulness which it yields to the church and to the world. Are not the examples of holiness in youth equally lovely and influential? Many parents have been won for Christ by the piety of their offspring. If brevity of age will not allow him to be the luminary of a neighbourhood, a child may be the useful lamp of his own family. And what may not devoted youth accomplish? Age and infirmity are sighing, "O that I had spent the strength of my years for God! O that I had been sooner influenced by such views of Christ, and of eternity, as now burst on my eyes!" Rise, ye young men, the hope of our churches! Zion will smile to see you labouring “in season, out of season;" gathering in "the outcasts, and them that are ready to perish;" scattering the imperishable seed "beside all waters; reading the divine oracles to the ignorant; instructing helpless childhood; visiting "the fatherless and widows in their affliction;" and ministering consolation beside the bed of suffering and of death. May we pursue the delightful train of hope? We see you, then, treading in your Captain's steps: spreading the light and life of the Gospel through all the land; preaching the death that gives immortality to a sinking world;-some of you announcing Christ in realms which have never heard His life-giving name;-some of you benefiting all succeeding ages, by contributing to the translation of the saving word into dialects yet unknown; and, after “turning many to righteousness," shining as the stars for ever and ever." Children of the church, receive our greeting. "We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord." Pursue your toil, till the western sun shall give you an honourable discharge, and the "voice" of the Apocalypse shall be again "heard from heaven,"-" Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." (Rev. xiv. 13.) Inasmuch as that voice may soon be renewed, and you may sink in "hoary youth," amid the church's rising hopes, O seize the winged moments. Listen to the call of Jesus. Retire not from discouragement and the expanding field of duty. Your "work is with the Lord;" your record and "reward with your God." 66 In enforcing this appeal, we may allude to the characteristic promise of our times, and to the death of those who have "borne the VOL. XVIII. Third Series. JANUARY, 1839. C burden and heat of the day." While the church is regaled with the prospect of greater glory than she has yet seen, she cries to her youth, "Your fathers, where are they? and the Prophets, do they live for ever?" (Zech. i. 5.) Holy in early years, reverend in age, mighty in labours, they are gone! Many, of briefer date, are mingled with them in the indiscriminate ruins of the dust. "The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen!" (2 Sam. i. 19.) But they died with unquenched love to the Master's service, and with hallelujahs on their lips. Their memory lives; and the record of their zeal shall "light up, in distant bosoms, the sparks of kindred excellence." In our ears their solemn charge is still echoing in the thrilling tones of death,-like that of holy Paul to Timothy: "Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry: for I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand." (2 Tim. iv. 5, 6.) ' How momentous is the duty of cultivating the youth of the church! On its faithful discharge, the weal of a nation, and of a world, tremblingly hangs. If the young be not trained for God, our candlestick " will be “removed." Like mouldering Ephesus, our churches will soon become the sepulchral memorials of departed life and glory. The institutions of charity, the revival of religion, the public good, and the consolations of peace, will be frail as human life; brief as a generation. And, O! shall our Christian empire sink? Shall it follow, to oblivion, "the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency" and the palaces of the Cæsars? For ages it has been the lighthouse of the world; and shall its warning fires be extinguished? Never!-if Britain's rising myriads be disciplined for heaven; if her "sons" be "as plants grown up in their youth;" and her "daughters," as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace." Even so, amen! Here, O God of our fathers, may there be a generation of the upright as long as the ocean girds our coasts! III. The answer to the Psalmist's inquiry is entitled to the most serious consideration. The excellence and difficulty of the attainment are admitted; but who shall devise the manner in which it may be realized?" Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?" Laborious man has striven to attain righteousness; but when did "the Ethiopian change his skin," or "the leopard his spots?" The renowned Bethesda healed the blind, the lame, and the withered; but what Bethesda avails to "cleanse a young man's way?" Jordan removed the Syrian's leprosy; but what classic or sacred stream can wash away the deeper malady of a fallen human spirit? Will knowledge, civilization, and the utmost refinement of worldly education, avail? Egypt, Greece, Italy, of old,-India, China, in modern days, and the Herculean wickedness of many among learning's most successful votaries, -suggest the humbling reply. Will schemes of infidel speculation avail? Alas! how correct is that comprehensive line of St. Peter,"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts!" (2 Pet. iii. 3.) Alas for intellectual pride! the world has never discovered "the highway of holiness: " the path of peace and security, in which "no lion shall be found," and on which "no ravenous beast shall go up." But the secret has been disclosed to millions of the humble,-including some of the wisest of Adam's children, and a multitude of "the wayfaring men;" whom the prudence of the world accounts "fools." In this royal way “the redeemed" are walking; and the "ransomed of the Lord" are returning "to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads." We approach the holy oracle for its instructive response. We consult Jehovah by the Urim and Thummim which he has deposited in his church. Thus we learn the infallible reply to our question, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word." 1. This direction involves the reverential study of inspired truth. That is a memorable testimony,-" To this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word." (Isai. lxvi. 2.) Such veneration, the habit of the enlightened Christian, is as far removed from blind credulity as from arrogant scepticism itself. God appeals to us, as to intelligent creatures; supplying rational motives to our submissive faith. His church is founded on the rock of truth. That rock has been often washed by angry billows,-as powerless as magnificent. It bears many a trace of floods that have receded; but it stands in hoary and immovable majesty. Pitiable is the folly of the " young man" who affects to despise the Bible. To use elaborate argument with the mass of our modern sceptics, so limited are their powers of mind,-is to "break the butterfly upon the wheel." For the most weighty reasons, and on the most deliberate examination, the wisest have revered the sacred pages. "The Scripture so speaketh," says one of the ancients, "that, with its height, it laughs the proud to scorn; with its depth, it terrifies those who with attention look into it; with its excellence, it feeds men of eminent knowledge and understanding; and with its sweetness, it nourishes babes and sucklings." The eminent Sir William Jones not only admired the "sublimity" of the sacred book, its surpassing "morality," its unrivalled "strains of poetry and eloquence;" but he reverently said, "Before thy mystic altar, Heavenly Truth; I kneel in manhood, as I knelt in youth. Augustine's words are, "Sic loquitur Scriptura, ut altitudine superbos irrideat, profunditate attentos terreat, viriute magnos pascat, affabilitate parvulos nutriat." (Super Genesim 19.) |