son concerning righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come; if we produce no impression that can stem the torrent of fashionable errors, or mortify the most inconsiderable propension to vice. It is in vain that we preach the spotless sanctity, the severe justice, and the resistless power of God; if the fear of man can prevail to defeat the influence of his laws. O! how many sins of omission and commission take their rise in this base principle!

Heads of families; we tell you to make your houses, houses of prayer; to lead your children and servants to the knowledge and communion of that God who is the author of domestick happiness; but family worship is not the fashion, and you are afraid to be singular.

Young people; we tell you to remember your Creator in the days of your youth; we tell you that peculiarly graceful, in early life, is a religious deportment, and followed by the especial favour of God; that filial piety is the first and noblest of social duties; and that respect for the authority of age is essential to your best interests; but your companions make a mock at all these things, and you are afraid to incur their ridicule.

Professors of our holy religion; we tell you, be not conformed to this world; renounce its vanities; disclaim its principles; abstain from the appearance of evil; avoid modish dresses, modish places, and modish amusements, that minister to sin; walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called; and adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things; but this is being righteous over much, say the men of this world; and ye are afráid that they should entertain a mean opinion either of your understanding or your spirit.

Perhaps in no one instance is this misplaced fear more conspicuous than in the practice of duelling, so frequent in the present day; a practice, in which it is hard to determine what most to admire, its stupid absurdity, or its audacious wickedness. It is absurd; stupidly absurd; because it can

bring no real satisfaction to the injured party. It is wicked; audaciously wicked; because it directly and daringly contravenes the law of God, which, on this point, as on all others that involve moral obligations, is express, unequivocal, and unqualified, and which, although it allows us to repel forcible aggression, does not allow us wantonly to destroy, or even expose our own lives, or the lives of others. Thoughtless of this, how many professing Christians are there whom the fear of the world and of its scoffs and of its frowns sends unbidden into the Eternal Presence! Presumptuous sins are, of all others, most dangerous to the soul; and a sin so presumptuous as this can scarcely be named. He who takes hours, if not days and months, to deliberate, before he commits the crime, if there be truth and justice in God, provokes that God to cut him off before he can repent; and in the records of my faith I learn that no unrepented sin shall ever be forgiven. It is not for me to limit divine mercy; it is not for me to decide the destiny of the duellist, or of any other criminal; but this I will say, ten thousand universes should not bribe me to stand with him in judgment.

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But, my brethren, were I to pretend to calculate the full effect of this pernicious principle, the fear of the world, its laugh, and its frown; I should not know where to stop. Suffice it to say, that it is not more pernicious than unreasonable. Suppose you were to gain the whole world, al its smiles, and all its caresses, would this be a compensation for the loss of the soul? O! consider those awful words, "whosoever shall deny me before men, him will also deny before my Father which is in Heaven." •Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels." "Fear not them," therefore, which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul;" far less be ye afraid of those whose contempt or hatred may be directed against Christian piety and virtue; "but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

Spirit of my God! Vouchsafe to enforce the admonition upon the consciences of this people, that in this their day, they may attend to the things which belong to their peace, before they be hidden from their eyes forever.-AMEN.

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Ir must be evident to every attentive observer of human nature, as exhibited in real life, that steadfastness, fixedness, and perseverance in the practice of piety and virtue, is an excellence extremely rare. Impressions of truth and goodness too generally become faint, where they are not totally effaced; religious zeal languishes, where it is not extinguished; the purposes of virtue are broken off in the midst; and to multitudes, the apostle's expostulation is not inapplicable, “Ye did run well; who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth?" There is a particular reference in these words, it is true, to a mischievous interference with the faith of the Galatians, in consequence of which they had stepped aside from the simplicity of the truth as it is in Jesus; endeavouring to connect it with the obsolete rituals of Judaism. But in the very same style, with the very same earnestness of address, ministers of Christ may remonstrate against every aberration from sound doctrines once received; against every deviation from the course of duty; every intermission of pious activity; every dereliction of good and holy undertakings. "Ye did run well; who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth?"

Men are mutable in that which is good; they permit