baptism. I have seen you grow from infancy to childhood, and from childhood to youth, and have the satisfaction to see you now appear in this assembly as professing christians. Your parents, I trust, have fulfilled their baptismal vow, they have enabled you to read the holy scriptures, they have given you some acquaintance with the gospel of Christ, they have brought you up in that purity of morals of which the baptismal water is only a significant visible emblem; as your christian minister it is my duty to co-operate with them in instilling into your minds those divine principles which will preserve you from the dangerous influence of temptation, and direct you in the practice of the various duties which are constantly increasing upon you, as your mental capacities expand and your sphere of action enlarges; which will brighten your youthful prospects and exalt your youthful joys; which will fit you to appear with dignity, usefulness and self satis faction in the active pursuits of manly life; will ensure the serenity, the pious resignation and respectable cheerfulnesss of your old age; or, if length of days should not be allotted you, will take away the terrors of an earlier death.”

He then proceeds to shew that a regular attendance upon the public services of religion are adapted to afford that consistent, comprehensive and well-digested knowledge of religious truth, which will raise the young to eminence in their christian character, and give them capacities for extensive usefulness. After which he continues thus:

"But at your time of life even such an attendance will not, I am apprehensive, fully answer every purpose. The sermons delivered on the sabbath are unavoidably detached, and in general are most properly miscellaneous; to you it will be highly advantageous to be instructed in a more regular and more familiar manner. As soon as the severity of the winter is over, I shall make you a proposal of this kind, and invite you to a more private explanation of christian principles, to be delivered to you in a few distinct sets or classes, suited to your different ages, your past advantages with respect to education, and your prospects of future rank in the present life. In the mean time, permit me to offer you some general hints of advice and admonition. You will, I am persuaded, give me full credit when I assure

you that I am earnestly solicitous for your happiness, no less in this world than in that which is to come. I regard you with that kind of affection which you receive from your parents, though not altogether in an equal degree. I speak to you as a father to his children, and *if your hearts be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine","

The counsel which he offered was most judicious and salutary. They to whom it was originally delivered will not be displeased to have an opportunity of fixing it more deeply upon their minds; whilst other young persons, into whose hands these memoirs may chance to fall, may improve by the wisdom and experience of one who, though he was most affectionately attached to the youth who had grown

up

under his own observation, and had begun to form their character after his instructions, was yet most anxiously desirous of the improvement and the comfort of the whole rising generation.

"Let me exhort you," said he, "to a decided and in some measure to an independent character. I by no means wish you to be vain, self-sufficient and tenacious of your own opi

nions; you cannot be too humble, too modest or too diffident of your own judgment; you cannot form too low an estimate of what you have already acquired, or have hitherto done, In your early years your acquisitions must be comparatively small, your beneficial actions cannot have been very numerous, your inexperience must have led you into many errors, the liveliness of your spirits into some indis cretions, the warmth of your passions into a few, I hope but a few, irregularities: of none of these am I disposed to be a severe censor; for I know that I myself was once also young, and I remember what I then thought, how I then felt, and how I then frequently acted. But at the same time, I assure you, that you can scarcely form too high an opinion of your actual capacities and powers; you will always be satisfied with doing little, if you be not convinced that you are able to do much. Remember that you are human beings, and that with proper diligence and with similar opportunities, you may always do whatever has been done by men. Whatever be your situation in life, whether you are to obtain your needful M

support by the daily labour of your hands, ör possess higher advantages from the external rank of your family and friends, turn your first attention to the particular kind of application which will lead you to eminence, which will make you expert workmen, ingenious designers, ready accountants, intelligent merchants, skil ful practitioners, or accomplished scholars. To which ever of these pursuits you are professionally led, resolve never to relax your endeavours till you can vie with those who have attained to the highest excellence; never think you have made sufficient improvement while you see any superior to yourselves, and you may be assured that your success will be equal to your exertions; you will at length rise to the height of those to whom you once looked up with aspiring emulation; you will acquire that kind of personal independence which is suited to your rank in life; instead of seeking you will be sought; instead of soliciting, you will be courted; instead of receiving, you will always be able to confer an obligation. But do not mistake me, I do not promise that by these methods you will always secure yourselves from disappointment, and that you will