and the valued situations of life, to which all others naturally look up,-and it is their manners which necessarily give the tone and fashion to their age. Of what value therefore is it to every age, when these manners" are found in the way of righteous"ness;" when power is exerted in the support of piety and virtue,--and wealth employed in designs of publick and private usefulness. Of what fatal consequence, on the contrary, is it to every generation, when the reverse is the case,-when rank and fashion are only the leaders of folly, and when riches are employed in vice and sordid dissipation ; -and, what is even worse, when the manners of the higher ranks of mankind are assimilated to all that is base or degrading in the lower. How many, alas! of the young are the victims of these abuses of prosperity! how many, whom the fascination of this rank has led unawares into extravagance and folly ;-who, deceived by exaggerated hopes, or seduced by fantastick manners, have forgot their condition, deserted their most important duties, and permitted the most valuable years of life to pass away in idleness and prodigality! How many, I fear, who, from the same cause, have gone farther on in misery; who, acquiring habits of dissipation altogether unsuited to their means, now fill up the melancholy catalogue of adventurers of every base description; and who look back, with unavailing sorrow, upon the fatal hour which first led them from the sobriety of early life, into

the society of those who possess prosperity only to abuse it.

2. There is, in the second place, an evil communication to the young, which arises from the abuse of learning and talents. Of all the employments of human wisdom, the noblest certainly, and the most genuine is, that of the instruction of the ignorance, and the support of the innocence of youth. Yet the world shews us, that there are men who have deserted this sublimest duty,-who please themselves in spreading doubt and unbelief, and, under the magical name of prejudice, who delight to employ their powers in withdrawing all the most sacred principles of religion and morality. I stop not at present to tell, my brethren, from what weak vanity this inhuman conduct proceeds. I stop not to point out to you the tremendous effects which such doctrines have had, and ever must have upon the minds of the young. I would only recal to your remembrance, that, in this evil, we of elder years are concerned; that for their first and deepest sentiments of religion and virtue, the young must ever look up to us; that it is not our serious, but our careless conversation, which shews them the secret of our minds; that the levity of humour or of wit, is more fatal to their hearts than all the reasonings of infidelity ;—and that, if we could leave them the wealth of worlds, we never could repay them, if we leave in their

tender minds one seed or moral doubt, or one principle of religious skepticism.

3. There is, in the last place, an evil communication to the young, from the society of the aged in vice itself. The cases I have hitherto mentioned, are those in which the young are rather corrupted indirectly than directly; and where the guilty are. themelves in some degree unconscious of the evil they are doing. There are, however, we know, cases of another kind; there are men, who live to seduce the innocent, to betray the unwary,-to initiate the thoughtless into the ways of guilt,-and who can look with apathy upon that present and final ruin of the human soul, which they are preparing. I speak not, my brethren, to such men. They meet us not here,-would to God there were nowhere else they met the young! Yet, I must say to all, that to this last stage of human baseness and infamy every vice conducts,-that it is the natural malignity 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 communica❝tion 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 IXXX. 19.

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

THESE Words of the King of Israel contain a very striking representation of that piety, which, amid all his errours, 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 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