nicate happiness to ages yet unborn; and which, in the emphatick language of scripture, renders him a "fellow-worker" with God himself, in the improvement of his Creation.

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3. The third great end of all knowledge is the improvement and exaltation of our own minds. It was the voice of the apostle, "What manner of men ought ye to be, to whom the truths of the "Gospel have come ?" It is the voice of nature also, "What manner of men ought ye to be, to "whom the treasures of wisdom are opened ?” Of all the spectacles, indeed, which life can offer. us, there is none more painful, or `unnatural, than that of the union of vice with knowledge. It counteracts the great designs of God in the distribution of wisdom; and it assimilates men, not to the usual characters of human frailty, but to those dark and malignant spirits who fell from Heaven, and who excel in knowledge, only that they may employ it in malevolence. To the wise and virtuous man, on the contrary,-to him whose moral attainments have kept pace with his intellectual, and who has employed the great talent with which he is entrusted to the glory of God, and to the good of humanity, are presented the sublimest prospects that mortality can know. "In my father's house," says our Saviour, "are 66 many mansions ;"-mansions, we may dare to interpret, fitted to the different powers that life has acquired, and to the uses to which they have been

applied. Of that great scene, indeed, which awaits all, whether ignorant or wise, it becomes us to think with reverential awe. Yet we know, "that it will then be well with the good, though "it will not be well with the wicked;" and we are led, by an instinctive anticipation, to suppose that they who here have excelled in wisdom and benevolence, will be rewarded with higher objects, upon which they may be employed, and admitted into nearer prospects of the government of Eternal Wisdom. "In his light they shall see light." "They shall see Him, not as through a glass, dark"ly; but as he is. They shall know, even as "they themselves are known."

Such, my young brethren, are the great ends to which all wisdom and knowledge ought to be employed; and such, also, the rewards, both in time and eternity, which the Author of Wisdom hath bestowed upon the faithful of his people. It is upon this dignified and animating scene that you are now entering:-it is to these rewards that by patience and industry you may advance. I can add nothing to the magnificence of these prospects : yet there is one additional reflection which I would wish, at this time, to recall to your remembrance.

In the scene of early life which you have left, you have all, probably, left some companions of your youthful years, who cannot follow you here : some to whom, with all their talents, poverty forbids the hope of further instruction, and who must

be doomed to pass their lives in ignorance and obscurity. Is there here, then, no call upon you to justify the fortunate superiority which you possess? And, if the Providence of the Almighty hath so early distinguished you, is there no claim which He, too, has upon your labour and your industry? In looking back upon this early scene, there are, perhaps, other more interesting images that will return to your remembrance. There are friends you will see, who now anxiously wait your course; there are relations who are eager to anticipate your honour and success;-there are parents, perhaps, who await your hands to crown their grey hairs with a crown of joy. I will not go farther. May these, and every other remembrance befitting the generosity of youth, be present with you in every hour, to animate and invigorate the resolutions of your minds !-May the blessing of Him who called the young unto Him, and blessed them, descend upon all your heads. And may you now so weigh the importance of the great journey upon which you are entering, that it may terminate in honour, and glory, and immor"tality!"

SERMON IX.

CONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT, WITH REGARD TO THE YOUNG IN THE HIGHER CONDITIONS OF LIFE.

PROVERBS iii. 13, &c.

"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding!-She is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace."

IN the preceding discourse, 1 addressed my. self to the young who are engaged in the labours of education, and who are preparing themselves to enter upon the various liberal professions of society. To them life, at present, indeed, "is "full of labour ;"-but of a labour to which the providence of God hath allotted high rewards :the hopes of honour,-the promise of usefulness, -and the lofty distinction of contributing, in their day, to the glory of God, and the good of human kind. To such objects of legitimate ambition, the generous bosom of youth is always open; and there is, perhaps, no duty of the parent or the in

structer more important, than to present perpetually to their eyes, the splendid rewards which Heaven has in store, to repay the labours of their early days.

There is one description of the young, however, to whom observations of this kind may not seem so immediately to apply;—the young, I mean, who are born to rank or opulence, and who appear not to be called upon, by any necessity of their condition, for labour. To them, life seems to open with very different prospects than to the generality of men. No imperious duty summons them to toil, -no stern necessity compels them to provide for the wants of the passing day. It is to a scene rather of inactivity and joy that they appear to be called, where gayety invites them to enjoyment under a thousand forms; and where, without labouring themselves, they may command the labours of the rest of the world around them. It is to the young of this description of our congregation that I now wish particularly to address myself. The same season which is opening to the rest of the young around them a new course of activity and labour, is opening to them a scene of pleasure, and, perhaps, of thoughtless dissipation.-Let me then entreat them for a moment to pause, on their entrance into life;-to consider what is the real aspect of their advantages or condition; and to weigh the ends for which life itself was given, and for which every noble mind would wish to live.