sity, and courage; and mocked at the slow rewards of labour and sober industry; and promised quicker profits, which were to be won by higher talents, and to be spent in higher joys. To them, too, the voice of female treachery came, and laughed at the innocence of their early days;-and won them to confidence in their hollow faith,-and severed from their "youthful brows," all the honours which God had shed upon them them; and delivered them at last "into "the hands of their enemies" to be made a publick spectacle of the weakness of youth, and "of the de"ceitfulness of sin." These were the arts by which they were betrayed; and where is the rank or station in which vice employs not the same? and what is the dread moral which now rises to you from their early graves, but that which ancient and experienced wisdom has given;--" keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are all the issues of life?"

66

Nor think, my young brethren, in another view, that the sad fate which they have met, extends not to the vices of your rank or condition. It is true, indeed, that every vice is not terminated by the scaffold; yet forget not that there are things in nature more awful even than publick punishment;-forget not (amid all the pride or exaltation of affluence or of rank,) that there are such things as publick ignominy, and publick scorn ;-that there are such things as the altered eye of youthful friendship," and the gray hairs of parents descending in sorrow to the grave;"-that there are such things as secret agony, and conscious fear, and an offended God;-and

66

66

that, dark as the course of every guilty life is, it may end at last in a death unprepared, and incapable of the repentance and the hopes, which, it is our only consolation to know, the minds of these unhappy young men so mercifully had felt and known.

3. There is yet one farther instruction, my younger brethren, which this awful example has to you. The characters and manners of the great body of a country, are determined by the character and the manners of those of rank, of education, and of condition; but the manners and character of the youthful world are determined by yours;-by the influ ́ence which your conduct produces, and the example which your lives afford. Is there not something in this reflection, which at this solemn hour becomes you?---and when you see the awful termination to which the young of inferiour condition may come, is it not a call upon you "to call your ways to remem

"brance."

You are raised, my brethren, above the ordinary level, of your countrymen; and the youthful world around you pay you a ready respect and a willing homage. Is there nothing then, that is due from you to your country,-nothing by which you may vindicate your claims to this fortunate superiority? If it be your influence and example which is to determine the manners and the morals of the young beneath you, is there not some wisdom necessary to use this lofty influence, and some virtue required to afford this important example? Was it by low vices, or by sordid dissipation, that the honours or the afflu

ence which your forefathers have left you were acquired? And while so many of your young fellowcitizens are at this moment braving all the hazards of war, and all the dangers of the ocean, in the service of their country, would you not blush to think, that you were remaining ingloriously at home, in pursuit of nothing higher than selfish indulgence, and poisoning the morals of that land which they are bleeding to defend ?

You are distinguished, my brethren, in a higher view, by the greatest blessings which a beneficent Providence can bestow; by education,—by religious knowledge, by power which enables you to be the patrons of the virtuous, and wealth which empow ers you to be the instructers of the ignorant and the poor. "Of those to whom so much is given," is it not just "that much also will be required?" and when you think of the glories which are promised to those "who lead others in the ways of righteous"ness," can you forget the miseries which, in the same righteous system, must await those who lead others in the ways of wickedness? Does not every noble and every generous principle of your nature awaken, when you think of the high commission of usefulness with which Providence has invested you? Is there one folly, or one indulgence which can be dear to you, when you think that it may mislead the young around you into guilt and wo; and would you not tremble, even to imagine, that the example of your vices has led others to the prison and the scaffold, and buried many families of your

fellow countrymen in hopeless grief and indelible

dishonour.

--Such are the reflections, my brethren, which seem to me best fitted for our consideration upon this melancholy day. Let us all, whether young or old, lay them to our own hearts.-Let us return to our homes in silence and meditation; with the feelings of men whose country and whose religion have received a stain, but with the feelings also of men who make it their wish and their duty to remove it. Let us assemble our children and our families around us; and go over again the instructive story; and conjure them to write its awful moral upon their hearts; and pray that the eyes of our country may never again

witness so dread a spectacle, nor pour such bitter

tears.

From these dark prospects of the world, let us, lastly, lift our eyes in thankfulness to HEAVEN, for that dispensation of mercy, which reaches even to the prison and the cell; and which is able to create a "new heart and a right spirit,” even beneath the fetters of sin. Let us bless that holy Spirit which moves upon the troubled waters of the human soul, for that repentance with which he so powerfully had touched the hearts of those youthful sufferers, and for that humble resignation with which he enabled them to bear all the wretchedness to which they were doomed. And let us hope, that that divine and compassionate Voice, which we all pray may one day plead for us, hath now also pled for them!

SERMON XV.

OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE EDUCATION OF THE

POOR.*

LUKE X. 21.

"In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O "Father! Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these

66

things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto "babes; even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight."

WHEN these words were spoken, our Saviour's ministry had for some time begun. He had announced himself to the Jewish people as the Messiah who was so long predicted. The twelve Apostles had been chosen, and (as we read in the beginning of this chapter,)" he had appointed other seventy "also, and sent them, before his face, unto every city "and place where he himself would come," commissioned to go forth in his name, and to proclaim unto whatsoever city or place they entered, "that "the kingdom of God was come nigh unto them.” In the verses immediately previous to the text, we are informed of the return of the disciples. Their embassy had been successful. The cities and places which they had entered, had received them with gladness, and they had been able to excite in them

* Preached December 26, 1813, when a general collection was made in all the churches of Edinburgh, for the institution of publick schools, upon the principles of the British Society for Education.