the arrival of the evil days, instead of retarding them, or of breaking their force. If we were forbid to use the vigour of our limbs, if we were required to break down the cheerfulness of our spirits, and to tear from our hearts all love for those delights which are ever opening upon us, we might, indeed, have some reason to complain that we served a severe master.

But religion never forbids the use of any thing which nature throws in our way. It only aims at checking the abuse. Our heavenly Father deals with us in no other way than every wise parent acts by his child. Every kind father is pleased to see his child sprightly and gay, enjoying the amusements and games of his childhood. Every wise father, however, checks his child in those amusements which he sees are hurtful; and although it may cost a few tears, yet is steady in enforcing obedience. Can we think it hard to be treated by our heavenly Father in the manner in which the wisest and best parents treat their children? and do we see those children which are wisely educated less lively and cheerful than those which are idly indulged? Where, then, is the severity of the precept, "remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth?" what pleasures will it prevent; what delights will it destroy? Will it make the face of nature appear less beautiful in our eyes? will it make us have less delight in the society of our friends, or of those who possess our hearts? Does the child appear less sprightly in his play, who recollects that his father permits certain amusements and forbids others, than one who runs thoughtless into all kinds of mischief whenever he is beyond the paternal eye? "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth," and thou wilt,

indeed, avoid the intemperate rioting of drunkenness, the insidious poison of loose debauchery, and all the other snares which lie in the path of youth; but wilt thou enjoy with less satisfaction the company of thy friend, or think with less delight on the mistress of thy chaste affections, or engage with less animation in the different occupations which suit thy years? Every period of life has its peculiar duties and enjoyments; and religion does not expect in a young man all the composure and gravity of age it, however, requires the young to be sober-minded, and not intemperately to give the reins to every eager desire. It requires the young as well as the old to remember that they are immortal beings, and that they will one day give an account of their works; but, under this caution, it permits them to rejoice in their youth. "Rejoice, O'young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the ways of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment."

So far is the remembrance of our Creator from being a hindrance to youthful pleasures, that it must clearly add to them, and give them a higher relish. The child that amuses himself under his father's smiles surely enjoys a greater happiness than when he fears to be interrupted in forbidden delights, and to be subject to his frowns and displeasure. Must it not add to the lawful pleasures of youth, when we believe that the great Father of our spirits permits them a free scope, and delights to see the happiness of his children while they confine themselves within the gracious rules of his administration? Will not the belief that we enjoy his appro

bation cheer us under every restraint? and, if we must at times submit to his chastisement, shall we not kiss the rod, and still acknowledge his paternal love? Let us not, my brethren, form to ourselves a dark and gloomy notion of the God who made us, but let us regard him as the Father of mercies, as the most mild and gracious of all beings. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame: he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children, to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them."

Let us, in the second place, proceed to enforce the argument of the wise man, by which he recommends early piety it is drawn from the consideration of the difficulty of becoming pious at any after period of life, if we have neglected the remembrance of our Creator in the days of our youth. While we are young, and enjoy life, we feel that it is a good, and we can be thankful for it; and if we have attained the disposition of thankfulness in our youth, we can retain it when the evil days come, knowing, that although there is little pleasure in them, yet they are the lot of humanity; and that, if we bear up under their inconveniences with patience and resignation, we shall in no case lose our reward. But if our religious sentiments are to be first formed in the decay of our years, when the time of pleasure is over, and life wears a dismal and fading

aspect, the task must evidently be hard, and contrary to the bent of our nature. When we have wasted our youth in intemperance, and have lost the cheerful flow of our spirits, and carry about with us a weary and worn-out mind, where is there room for those warm affections of the heart, without which our religion must be lame and imperfect? How can we, when our decaying frames, the wrecks, perhaps, of our intemperance and folly, seem rather to be monuments of God's indignation, than examples of his love; how can we then begin, for the first time, to lift our souls in gratitude to him, and to thank him for that goodness which we can with difficulty persuade ourselves that we have ever experienced?

If we do become religious in our old age, while we have neglected our Creator in our youth, our religion will be founded rather on fear than on love, and we shall look up to the Author of our being rather as a severe master, whom we must serve, than as a kind father, whose commandments are given for his chil. dren's good. The religion which first begins in the midst of the evil days, will partake of all the gloom and melancholy of the season which gives it birth; and, instead of being the solace and comfort of that declining period, will, perhaps, but cover it over with darker clouds. And yet it is evident, that old age can only be truly cheerful if it is religious. Confidence in God alone can break the force of those storms which will then probably assail us. The young may enjoy, for a time, a life of pleasure, without the thought of virtue and holiness. The warmth, the flow, the alacrity of their spirits, may carry them through much dissipation,

without great weariness, or much perception that "all is vanity." But the old, tottering on the brink of the grave, with weakened bodies and weary minds, what, O God, can give peace and comfort to them, but the be lief that thou art with them, and that thou wilt never forsake them? And how can they have this happy confidence, if, instead of looking back on a well-spent life, past in thy service, and directed by thee, they behold all their early years a vain scene of vice and disorder, and that they have only had recourse to thy protection, when all besides had failed them ?

If, then, my brethren, we are desirous, at any time of our lives, to enjoy the blessings of religion; if, when the pleasures of the world have failed us, when our eyes are dim, and our strength decayed, and we have outlived the companions of our youth, and are travelling on to the grave in solitude and silence; if, at this dreary pe riod, when we are in the midst of the evil days, we would still possess a friend" who sticketh closer than a ́ brother;" who can infuse into our hearts the truest comfort, and be a staff to our feet, and light to our eyes, let us "remember our Creator in the days of our youth." God forbid that I should suppose he may not be found at any time by those who sincerely seek him; and, even although we have been misled by youthful passions, and have neglected his service in our best days, that yet he will not accept of our sincere repentance, when the evil days have come. But, surely, repentance is much easier while our transgressions are few, than when they are multiplied; the wound can surely be more easily heal. ed when it is fresh, than when it has rankled and be

come a sore.