confumes his days in toil, and waftes his nights in anxiety: But for what does be labour? In our worldly affairs, we are told, by the highest authority, that we difquiet ourfelves in vain, and experience amply confirms the melancholy truth. We labour for wealth like flaves in the mine, we grow rich, but we are ftill reftless and diffatisfied; we grafp after authority, and fall from the dangerous pre-eminence; we look forward to diftant periods, and death cuts off all our prospects. But in the patient continuance in well-doing, we find no uneafiness or disappointment; in the exercise of faith and hope, we meet with no airy exaltation and precipitate fall; in the practice of charity, our good deeds are not loft in the duft and buried in the grave, but the bread which is caft upon the waters, is found after many days*. Have we not often affented to the truth of this?

* Ecclef. xi. I.

SERM,

v.

SERM. Have we not often heard, have we not often Vacknowledged, that to fear GOD and to

keep his commandments is not only the duty but the happiness of man? Why then are we still so eager in the purfuit of a shadow, and negligent of the substance? Why do we fix the attention of the rifing generation on that which we know to be unprofitable and vain, and forget to shew them the true riches?-Without that content which religion infpires, abundance is tasteless, and magnificence is oppreffive; in vain may we fix the objects of our care on the pinnacle of human greatnefs, in vain may we clothe them with the treafures of the east, in vain may we crown them with the garland of fame, if we neglect to fortify their minds with those principles of holinefs which alone can give folid enjoyment to the most unbounded power, the most dazzling fplendour, and the most exalted reputation.

V.

If, without the knowledge of GOD, they SERM. cannot enjoy the good things of life, how fhall they be able to endure the evil? The means we take are often inadequate to the end; and should all our plans for their advancement be defeated by unforeseen events, fhould misfortune haunt their dwellings, and the hand of poverty weigh them down, how feverely will they feel the want of a religious education! for wretched indeed are the afflicted who cannot look up to heaven for confolation, and intolerable is the burden of calamity, when it is not suftained by conscious integrity and trust in an all-ruling Providence. Had they been early fhewn those never-failing sources of comfort which Christianity supplies to all who are broken of heart, they might have found reft unto their fouls; had they been early taught to contemn all pleasures and advantages that came in competition with their duty, they might have hoped for deliverance from every enemy, and relied implicitly

V.

SERM. implicitly upon the ROCK OF AGES. Righteousness would have clothed them with impenetrable mail; hope would have added ftrength to their arm, and faith have pointed to a great and glorious prize.

If we should be induced to train up a child to piety, as the means of obtaining happiness in this world, how much more forcibly are we called upon to make this the chief object of our attention, when we reflect that religion is the only road to the happiness of eternity. Can all the enjoyments we are here labouring to procure for those we have nurtured, be opposed to that felicity which eye hath not feen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived?

But our own intereft, the most powerful motive with mankind, prompts us to lead the young into the ways of wisdom. Nothing is more common than complaints of the decay of filial love, and of the little deference

9

V.

deference and respect which is paid by SERM. children to the authors of their being; yet, although the moft cruel returns are sometimes made to parental tenderness, perhaps, it will too often be found, that the difobedience of the child hath proceeded from fome neglect or mismanagement in the parent.-Youth is naturally impatient of control, and hath need of all the reftrictions of religion, as well as the ties of natural affection, to check that ardent defire of self-government, which, if not diligently watched, will foon grow too powerful to be refifted. Nothing can fo effectually curb this ardour as the love of God and reverence for his laws: But where thefe are not cherished, we fhall frequently obferve, that every principle of union is foon weakened, free indulgence given to paffion, and profligacy established upon the bafis of infidelity. That father who hath educated his fon only for the world, must not be furprized if filial duty is forgotten when