scene of trial as requires their conftant exertion, to be thus indolent and careless, argues the greatest debasement of character. Not to mention the motives that might spring from the interesting study of the human heart, and the contemplation of such events as frequently involve the happiness of our fellow-creatures; nor to dwell on that Christian charity which should always teach us to share a brother's fortunes; we might recommend this moral vigilance of conduct from the prevailing motives of self-love. In the daily conflict of human paffions we must sometimes expect to bear a part; and happy will it be for us, if we are prepared, by habits of reflection, previously formed, to repel such temptations as might affail us in the evil hours of angry pride, of disappointed ambition, or worldly forrow.

To a wife man, indeed, the experience of every disaster in life will afford fome good; and one of the best distinctions that can be formed, perhaps, between him who

who merits this appellation, and one whom the scriptures, with great propriety, deem a fool, is, that the former studies to fashion his mind, character and disposition to the condition of his nature; while the latter, from a blind indulgence of every defire that rises in his foul, and the want of exercising those faculties which distinguish him from the brute, journeys through life as though the difcipline of its cares and forrows, its pleasures and temptations reached not him, and therefore foon becomes wretched, and perhaps guilty, before he well knows that he has strayed from the path of duty.

THIS indolence and inattention to our principles and conduct, is one of the most fatal errors. It operates infenfibly, and often leads to the worst consequences. We are, for this reason, justly commanded, " to keep the heart with all diligence, for " out of it are the issues of life."

To you, therefore, let the various scenes which daily pass before you, and those

concerns in which we all are interested, never wear an indifferent aspect. Confider them, study them, and meditate on them. With regard to the forrows of life, we all of us, I suppose, have it in our power to appeal to experience; and on no occafion can we appeal to her with greater advantage. From past afflictions we derive the most soothing comforts, and in the severest trials, the most amiable principles are formed, and the gentlest sympathies of nature originate. These too are the precious moments in which the foul dwells with more grateful adoration, and, perhaps, with a more lively faith, on the merits of a crucified Redeemer; whose transcendant love and glorious example derive additional force, from his having been himself " a man of forrows and acquaint"ed with grief." Confider, also, if ever you have been under the pressure of calamity, with what an aching heart you viewed the unkindness and neglect of fome, and with what gratitude and joy your foul expanded to the friendship and benevolence

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lence of others. Remember what kind emotions and what pious wishes fuch conduct excited in your bosom, and do not forget your duty to others.

FROM a knowledge that forrow has this happy influence in forming the temper, and regulating the conduct of man, our heavenly Lord pronounced his peculiar bleffing on " those that mourn." It is from this pleasing, though melancholy experience alfo, we acquire that equani mity and patient fortitude, which are fo necessary for us in this probationary state of our existence. From having already felt the preffure of calamity, you are no strangers to its nature or its force. When fome fudden and unexpected blow, therefore, shall overwhelm your foul with anguish, let experience teach you by what imperceptible degrees the heart has again recovered its repose. Confider the filent operations of time. Call to your remembrance how the storm of adversity, like the tempeft in the air, has fpent itself as it paffed,

paffed, till all around you was ferenity and peace. Reflections like these will fortify your minds against those ills of life which are yet to come, and, in fome meafure, secure happiness, by repelling the force of mifery.

LET me now direct your attention to a subject in which we are all equally interested, a subject which never fails to fill the guilty bosom with terror, and the heart of a religious man with a mixture of awful pleasure and melancholy joy ! I mean, "the house of mourning," and the chambers of death. Among the strange variety of events that happen to mortals, death is common to all. How foon that awful period will arrive, which alters the mode of our existence, and wafts us into another world, we know not; all we are assured of is, that it must come, and cannot be very far off. Death is the debt due to nature; and as it is the last, fo it is the most important event, that can happen to us in this world. Here,

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