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comfort in adversity, your health in sickness, your wealth in poverty, your light in darkness, and your life in death. Yes, it will be your 'pillar of cloud by day, and your pillar of fire by night;" your bright and cheering lamp, kindled by the hand of God himself; and which all the storms and billows of the tempestuous ocean of the world shall never be able to extinguish, till the inconceivable brightness of eternal day shall shine around you for ever.

CHAPTER II.

BE ESPECIALLY CONCERNED FOR THE WELFARE OF YOUR SOUL.

Ir is abundantly evident that you possess a soul, which is your chief treasure: this would be true, if you could even say, the whole world, with all its inestimable wealth, is mine. The Lord Jesus Christ has solemnly assured us that this is the case. He has declared, that though men may kill the body, yet they cannot kill the soul, Matt. x, 28. Your soul will live when your body is dead, and be happy or miserable for ever. The body is made of flesh, and blood, and bones; these, you know, cannot think. The matter, of which every object around us is formed, does not, cannot think. If it be ever so large, it does not think. A mountain can no more think on any subject, than a grain of sand: if it be ever so refined, still there is no thought:

there is no more thought in the sunbeam, than in a piece of lead or of rock. If it moves ever so swiftly, yet there is not the smallest proof of intellect. There is no more rationality in the planet which revolves around the sun, so much more swiftly than a cannon ball, than there is in the Alps, or the Andes. In this point of view, a little child is a more important object than the sun in the firmament; for he can know, and adore, and love, and serve his Creator; but this orb, with all its grandeur and beauty, knows not who at first kindled, and who it is that perpetually maintains his mighty and unrivalled splendour.

Forget not, then, my dear young friend, that the present and eternal welfare of this neverdying spirit, is the great business of your life. Nothing, however important, can be named with it, even for a moment. Well, then, does Mr. Baxter say on this subject :

"This done, the poorest can no wants endure; And this, not done,-the richest must be poor."

CHAPTER III.

YOU ARE DESERVEDLY EXPOSED TO RUIN ON ACCOUNT OF YOUR SINS.

You know, my dear young friend, that "to sin against God, is to do any thing which God forbids, or not to do what he commands us." The law of God requires obedience in the heart

as well as the life, and extends to our most secret thoughts, motives, and affections. We are sure, then, that every one has sinned against God. Be not, however, satisfied with the knowledge of this general and unquestionable truth; but bring the subject home to your own heart.

Consider a little,-Have you always done what God has commanded? Have you always avoided and detested what he has forbidden? Have you always loved him, and with the whole heart? Have you consecrated the entire Lord's day to his service, in your thoughts, as well as in your words and actions? Have you always willingly, and as you ought, obeyed your superiors? Have you sincerely loved your brothers and sisters, and all around you, never indulging emotions of anger or of malice? Have you never taken what was not your own,—or refrained from giving to God the praise and gratitude which are justly his due? Have you never said any thing which was false? Have you sought, above all things, the kingdom of God and his righteousness? Have you done to others, as you would have them do to you? Have you been supremely careful to please God, not only in your external conduct, but in your thoughts and affections? Now, in all these things, and in many others, your conscience cannot but unite with the word of God, in declaring that you have sinned; that is, you have not done what you ought ought to obey all the commands of God. our Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor:

for we He is and he

has never given his creatures one précept which is not right, and which is not as much their interest, as it is their duty, to obey.

As you have not done what is right, you deserve to be punished. If you had been told by your parents and teachers, and many times, to do something which you ought, and you would not do it, would you not deserve their displeasure? Now, if a parent or superior ought to be obeyed, how much more ought the great and good God? Nor can you plead, that you did not know what was right; for you have the Bible in your hands, and you have been often told your duty toward God and man. Surely, the servant who has known his master's will, and has not only neglected to do it, but has done that which was contrary to his plain commands, deserves to be beaten "with many stripes."

What, my dear young friend, what will you do? Will the great God forget or overlook your offences? O no: he cannot forget any thing. He knows us altogether. And he has solemnly declared, that "though hand join in hand," to prevent it, yet the wicked shall not go unpunished." "God will bring every secret thing into judgment." "The soul that sinneth," God has said, "shall die."

Will you try to hide yourself from his displeasure? You cannot. There is no spot in the wide world which he does not see. You cannot, indeed, go out of his immediate presence. You are every instant standing before him, and your most secret thoughts are known to him. The

darkness which no human eye can penetrate, cannot conceal you from his inspection.

Can you, then, resist his power? No. Wo be to the man "who contendeth with his Maker!" "Who has an arm like God? Who can thunder with a voice like his ?"

Nor can you bear his awful displeasure. "The mountains quake at him, the hills melt, the earth is burnt up at his presence, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth." "Who can dwell in devouring flames? Who can dwell in everlasting burnings?"

What will you do, my dear young friend? Will you still live in your sins, and go on in them till, in some dreadful moment, you die and perish?

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Say, have you an arm like God,
That you his will oppose?

Fear you not that iron rod

With which he breaks his foes?

Canst thou stand in that dread day,
When he judgment shall proclaim;
And the earth shall melt away,

Like wax before the flame!"

CHAPTER IV.

THE OFFENDED GOD HAS PROVIDED A GLORIOUS WAY, BY WHICH SINNERS MAY BE SAVED.

THOUGH you cannot save yourself, or do any thing to recommend yourself to the Divine favour; though the wages due to your sins is death; yet