scribed as waking from this sleep, and a resurrection from this death.* And will you voluntarily relapse into a state so nearly resembling that of nature's darkness, whilst Jesus Christ is proclaiming himself to be "the light of the world," + and is declaring that "he that followeth him shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life?" And will you indulge a habit which has furnished the spirit of truth with his most frequent metaphor, to convey a suitable idea of the deadly effects of sin? Oh! rather listen to the awful interrogatory, "What meanest thou, oh, sleeper! arise, call upon thy God; "+ attend to the warning voice, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."§ Know" that it is high time to awake out of sleep, for the night is far spent, the day is at hand: cast off, therefore, the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light." || Recollect too the representations which * Rom. vi. 13. John v. 24. loss. ii. 13. 1 Peter ii 24. nah, i. 6. § Eph. v. 14. Eph. ii. 5; v. 14. Co† John viii. 12. + Ju Rom. xiii. 11, 12. the word of God has exhibited of the life of the Christian. It is made up of constant exertion. It is a life of vigilance and of war. It is described as fighting, wrestling, striving, and contending in a race. We are emphatically called "children of the day;" and it is this which is to distinguish us from the world which surrounds us. We are compared to watchful virgins having oil in their lamps; servants waiting for their Lord's return; and labourers in a vineyard. The scriptures abound with exhortations to watchfulness;* and our blessed Saviour repeatedly enforced this injunction by the parables which were designed to illustrate it. And "for yourself," my dear Charles, remember, and "know perfectly, that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night;" but be “not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." "You are,” I trust, a child "of the light, and a child of the day;" "we are," neither of us, I hope," of the night, nor of darkness. * Matt. xxiv. 42; xxv. 13. Mark, xiii, 33, 37. Luke, xxi. 36. Acts, xx. 31. 1 Cor. xvi. 13. 1 Thess. v. 6. 2 Tim. iv. 5. 1 Pet, iv. 7; v. 8. Rev. xvi. 15. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breast-plate of truth and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath; but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ; who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him."* * 1 Thess. v. 2—10. LETTER XIV. To the same. MY DEAR CHARLES, I SAID that it was probable, that there might not be any injunction contained in the word of God, which, in its original application, was designed to enforce the duty of the habit of early rising, or any passage expressly written to reprehend the contrary practice: but I am inclined to think that I was mistaken, and that you will agree with me that there are several parts of Scripture, which directly command the one, and forbid the other. A few of these when brought to your recollection, may tend to confirm the resolutions which you profess to have already formed; and I am very sanguine in hoping, that if any arguments of mine could produce so beneficial a result, the imperative claims which those I shall now urge must have upon your attention, will completely effect that change in your future habits which I have so anxiously desired. The word of God, whilst it derives its principal value from its exhibiting the way of salvation, and revealing to us the Saviour of sinners, abounds at the same time with moral precepts, which afford the wisest directions for our conduct through life. They who diligently peruse its contents, and sacredly observe its commands, find, by their own experience, that godliness hath both "the promise of this life and of that which is to come." And were the Bible to be regarded only as a code of ethics, an attention to its maxims, and a submission to its rules, would produce a very material change in the manners and habits of mankind: the happiness of society at large would be increased, and the comfort of each individual would be greatly augmented. It directs its censures not only against those vices which carry their own reprehension with them in their effects upon others, but it also reproves those sins, which, appearing to be less mischievous in their tendency, are nevertheless productive |