promise, trusting in God, HE will graciously enable you to redeem your pledge; he will save you in the hour of trial, and enable you to triumph over temptation; and to come out at last purified from the dross and corruption of this life, and prepared for the felicity and glory of the

next.

To enable all of us to enter into new resolutions, and to keep them too, I know of no better plan than to set aside a small portion of our time for solitary meditation. If daily or weekly, we should make it our practice to retire for a while into solitude, to commune with God and our own hearts; to review the past current of our thoughts and deeds in a prayerful disposition, and with a view to future improvement and usefulness; we might eventually be able to comply with the injunction of our blessed Saviour "Be ye also perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect." It was Dr. Young, the amiable and pious, if not the brilliant, sublime and beautiful author of Night Thoughts, who said— "'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, "And ask them what report they bore to heaven : "And how they might have borne more welcome news.'

He was well aware that no practice could be more salutary to the soul of man than calm and frequent reviews of past time. He knew it by his own experience; for his heart was chastened-his moral sense purified, and his virtues invigorated by such calm and frequent reflections upon what he had been, what he was, and

0*

what his Creator designed him for: He weighed life and all its enjoyments in the scales of true religion and sound philosophy; and hence it was, that in the fullness of his heart he was enabled to exclaim-and the exclamation is worthy of all remembrance, for the salutary admonition it conveys :

"Lean not on earth; 'twill pierce thee to the heart;
"A broken reed at best; but oft a spear;

On whose sharp point peace bleeds, and hope expires !"

The illustrious Boerhave, whose talents threw new light on the science of medicine, and whose faith and piety reflected honor on his profession, made it his daily practice through life to rise early, and retire for one hour, at least, for private prayer, and for meditation on some part of the holy scriptures: And when questioned by his friends, how it was possible for him to endure the great labor and fatigue of his profession, he said it was this practice that gave him. spirit and vigor for the business and cares of the day. In every age and clime, indeed, the good and the great have felt the benefit of seasons of retirement from the cares of the world, to the consolations of solitary and calm reflection. Thus Abraham retired at Bethel: Isaac went out to meditate at even-tide: Jacob worshipped, leaning on his staff: Thus Moses sought communion with himself and his Creator: For Moses said unto the people, ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make atone

Thus
Thus

ment for your sin. Exod. xxxii, 30. Thus also did the Apostles fortify their faith, and invigorate their zeal; and thus even did the Saviour seek the garden of Gethsemena, and other secluded retreats, to strengthen and prepare himself for the great work which he was called upon to do, and the mighty martyrdom which he was to suffer for the salvation of mankind.

With such illustrious examples before us, shall we forbear to seize every proper occasion to improve and purify our minds and our hearts; to prepare them for the unavoidable toils and struggles of life; to fortify them by principles which will stand the test of investigation, and promote our temporal and eternal happiness? And what better season can we choose for communing thus with our own hearts, and with the spirit of HIM who made us, than that point of time in which we are forcibly admonished of our progress to the tomb-the house appointed for all living: That point of time in which whilst one year departs with all its cares and its comforts, its sorrows and its joys; another commences, in whose untried paths we have to encounter many a rugged steep, and many a piercing thorn, as well as to rove through many a flowery field, and enjoy many a blessing from the hand of our all-bountiful Creator?

How many of our nearest and dearest connexions; how many of our most valued friends, have sunk into eternity during the past year: And how often have the tears of the mourner

fell upon the new made grave! Husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, lover and friend, have alike seen their fondest affections embittered, their brightest hopes extinguished in the darkness of the tomb !-have alike felt the bitter pangs of separation, and wept over scenes of death and desolation, that must have convinced them, if any thing could do it, of the folly of leaning upon earth-the weakness of looking to any other foundation either of temporal or eternal felicity, but Christ, the Rock of Ages, and the only hope of future glory.

This, then, my hearers, is the season for serious reflection, though a bad custom has converted it into a season of thoughtless hilarity and dissipation. We rejoice-and for what? That Divine Providence has brought us to the commencement of a new year. But do we feel that we are brought nearer Heaven; for otherwise our rejoicing is the fruit of our folly, and not of our wisdom. Do we rejoice as christians and rational beings ought to do? And do we reflect, that although the mantle of eternity has fallen upon the past year; yet unfortunately for us, we cannot make use of that mantle to hide from ourselves, much less from the all-seeing eye of Heaven, the follies which have degraded us, or the vices which have disgraced us, during that period of time, over whose dissolution we are now rejoicing without reason, as the fool who "saith in his heart there is no God."

We are far from wishing to discountenance

rational glee and gratitude, for present and past enjoyments. But we could wish to hold up to the finger of scorn, all that idle revelling, dissipation and licentiousness, which have marked so many successive eras like the present, in this country, so highly favored by the God of Nature. This is the perversion of joy-the degradation of a passion or sentiment, noble in itself, and which our Creator intended should be called forth only by noble motives, and spent upon proper objects. Let us, then, be grateful to Providence for our past enjoyments; but let us be careful that our gratitude be properly expressed: And whilst we rejoice over "our past hours," let us also "talk with them ;" and not only ask them "what report they bore to Heaven;" but "how they might have borne more welcome news." Let us examine seriously whether we have spent the past year as we ought to have done? How many follies we might have avoided? How many vices we might have escaped from? How many rash vows we have made, or rash deeds we have committed: How many acts of injustice or oppression may have stained our souls! If we have intentionally withheld charity from the poor-beneficence and consolation from the widow and the fatherless-reward from the honest mechanic or laborerfrom the creditor his just dues-from our secular employments that industry and vigilance which can alone deserve if not command success-and from our Creator that pious gratitude