momentous results, and I have inquired, whence all those powerful influences, by which, this life, and motion, and ceaseless activity are sustained? Who move those main-springs, by which the whole system is animated and kept in vigorous operation, and directed to its varied results? and I find all the principal agents and movers to be men in middle life.

Who are the men that sway the destinies of the nations at the present time? Who fill the highest offices and exert the widest influence in the different cabinets of government? Are they not the same class? Examine all the different departments of society-the different professions and callings from the highest to the lowest, and learn the chief sources of influence-and you will find ample illustrations of my subject. And the more you examine, the more you will be impressed with a sense of your important relations and great responsibilities.

If these remarks should avail to produce a just impression on your minds, and make you feel in any good measure the value of that station in society which you now occupy, as affording you the means of doing good, then suffer me to remind you that the period during which you can keep this station is exceedingly short. Your

present relation to the other portions of the community is, by this very circumstance, rendered doubly important both to yourselves, and to them. The aged have already passed the meridian of their days, and the period of their most active usefulness. If they have suffered this season to pass away without a wise improvement of its golden opportunities, they may weep over their loss, but retrieve it, they cannot. Right feelings may even now, spring up in their hearts, and they may have strong desires to redeem the time past of their lives; but alas! what can give to their purposes and decisions their former energy and promptness? what can restore to them their former ardour and resolution of mind, or their bodily vigor and capacity for spirited and persevering exertion? But I am permitted to address you, my friends, as those to whom God has hitherto spared these gifts and capabilities. You still occupy a commanding elevation in society. Yet important as is the ground upon which you stand, it is at best but a narrow isthmus; and is every moment growing still narrower. The whole life of man is as a shadow a vapour that appeareth for a little season and then vanisheth away. What, then, must be said of the brevity of that particular

period which we have marked out? Besides, it should not be forgotten, that as individuals we have no right to calculate, that short as this period is, its full measure will be allotted to us. Making a fair estimate of life, it is far more probable that God will weaken our strength in the way-if he does not cut us off in the midst of our days.

Some of those whom I address, have moreover to reflect, that they have already arrived at the extreme limit of middle life; and more of us may call to mind that not a few of its best years have gone by, with perhaps little accomplished for the glory of God, and the good of our fellow men. Who among us, then, may not bring home to his soul the exhortation of inspired wisdom? What thine hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest.

Nay my brethren, by so much as the period of active usefulness is shorter than the whole term of human life, by so much stronger motives are we urged to give all diligence to the duties of our several callings; and to make all our powers actively and steadily subservient to the great end of life-that of glorifying God and doing good to our fellow creatures. No truly benevolent man

liveth unto himself, and no such man dieth unto himself. He lives and dies for higher and nobler ends. Be ye, then, diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

In conclusion, I would say, let each individual whom I address, set before him all the varied relations which he sustains to others to his family-to the youth under his care or influenceto society to the cause of God-the cause of truth and righteousness. Let him consider how much his efforts are needed in sustaining and advancing the momentous interests,' connected with these relations; and thus let him measure his responsibilities. Let him further inquire, how far, hitherto, he has met these responsibilities. The sense of past deficiencies in duty, should quicken his future efforts. He should adopt the noble resolution of redeeming the time, by exerting a better and more efficient influence, than he has hitherto exerted.

Above all things, my brethren, see to it that the precious years of active life be not so spent that the weight of your influence shall be thrown into the wrong scale; and instead of advancing, counteract and hinder the cause of God, of rightcousness and human happiness. A just scrutiny upon this point, will demand of you a careful in

spection of all the relations you sustain, the business you pursue, the principles by which you regulate your business, the moral and religious sentiments which you disseminate, the habits you indulge, the customs and practices which you encourage, and in general, of all the various modes in which you employ your time, spend your property, and exert your influence. No man can live wisely, who refuses thus to think on his ways, and ponder the path of his feet, or who suffers selfish considerations to influence his judgment and warp his decisions. Many have madly and blindly pursued courses of business as well as of pleasure, which were not only ruinous to society, but in the end, to themselves, their families and to those who stood in other near relations to them. In these courses they have actively employed the best years of their lives, regarding nothing as too dear to sacrifice to their own pleasure and profit. They have acted the part of corrupters of the publick morals, have scattered around them the seeds of vice, disease and death-filled families and neighborhoods with the poison of their influence, and by ministering to the appetites and lusts of men, and prompting them to crime, have sent multitudes before them to the eternal world, not to welcome