CHAPTER VI. BE DECIDED FOR GOD AND HEAVEN. BE not satisfied with half heartedness in religion. Consecrate yourself, "body, soul, and spirit," to Him who created, and who has redeemed you. Remember you are his, and not your own. Count it an unspeakable honour, as it really is, to be regarded as one of his children. The most glorious privileges and blessings are theirs. Their transgression is forgiven, their sin is covered. There is no condemnation to them, for they are accepted in the Beloved. They have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The great God will never leave or forsake them. The very hairs of their head are all numbered. No weapon that is formed against them shall prosper. Angels are their ministering spirits, and excamp around them. They shall not want any good thing. Their life is hid with Christ in God. They are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. It is their Father's good pleasure to give them the kingdom of glory and nothing, through time or eternity, shall separate them from the love of Christ. : When tempted to be ashamed of religion, think of these glorious things, and be decided for God and for heaven. What, beside vanity and momentary good, has the world to give you in exchange for such substantial and eternal blessings? Frequently call to recollection the great sentiments which you have so often heard from the lips of your teachers. Let me remind you of a few of them. There is nothing to be ashamed of in religion; it inculcates every thing which can glorify God and do good to man. The soul, which is to live for ever, must be of infinite worth. The favour of the great Creator of the universe must be the "one thing needful;" nothing can, for a moment, be put in competition with it. All the world, with its smiles and its frowns, with its honours, and riches, and pleasures will be regarded shortly, by every one, as unworthy even of a thought. The great God will assuredly bring every secret thing into judgment. There is nothing gained, either in this world, or another, by sin; and none but fools make a mock at it. Religion is not the worse because wicked men ridicule it, no more than a medicine which would cure the plague, would be of less value, because some senseless individual should laugh at it. Though a swine should trample a wedge of gold in the mire, he could not take away from its worth, it would still be a wedge of the most precious metal in the world. Though an idiot might laugh at a drawn sword which was pointed against him, a wise man would wish to avoid it. How much more rational is it to "flee from the wrath to come. ." Whatever you may hear to the contrary, the experience of all ages proves, that there is no happiness, and no safety, my dear young friend, but in the religion of the Gospel. Truly, it is this, and this only, "That streaks our morning bright: 'Tis this that gilds the horrors of our night; And when disease invades the lab'ring breath, When the heart sickens, and each pulse is death, Ev'n then, religion shall sustain the just, Grace his last moments, nor desert his dust." CHAPTER VII. BE ON YOUR GUARD AGAINST THE BEGINNING OF EVIL. THIS has justly been regarded in every age as a most important precept. Heathen writers have remarked, that no man becomes exceedingly wicked all at once. The general character of the individual is not good, who has many small faults. It is from little sins that we are most in danger, because we are less on our guard against them. If any one should tempt us to murder a fellow creature, the very mention of the crime would shock us beyond expression; and yet many individuals have been brought to commit such an atrocity, by the indulgence of envious, angry, or malicious thoughts. For lesser sins, unless checked, certainly lead to great ones. So Cain was at first only angry with his brother; but soon afterward he rose up against him and killed him. "The beginning of strife," says the wise man, and we may justly also add, of every sin, "is as when one letteth out water." The "little cloud, no bigger than a man's hand," soon overspread the heavens and deluged the country. A single garment, infected with the plague, brought into a city, has been the means of cutting off multitudes of its inhabitants. A little gate has sometimes let in a foe who has taken an otherwise impregnable fortress. The prophet told Hazael how cruelly he would act toward Israel; and he said indignantly, "Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this?" Yet he became, by degrees, that very wretch, at the thought of whose character he shuddered. Listen not to the tempter when he says, you are not obliged to take more than one step in the wrong path. One wrong action generally produces another. The way of sin, it has been often said, is down hill; and the descent is easy, alluring, and imperceptible. Beside, a single sin indulged in the heart will ruin a soul, just as one dose of poison will bring the body to the grave. "Keep the heart," then, my young friend, "keep the heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." I would especially apply the admonition, "Crush sin in the bud," to unholy and impure thoughts. These, if indulged, will infallibly lead to improper words, and ruinous connections. Stop your ears against indecent stories; or if you are compelled to hear any thing that is indelicate, pray that you may never hear it without abhorrence. 66 Impurity," says Paley, "corrupts and depraves the mind and moral character more than any single species of vice whatsoever. That ready perception of guilt, that prompt and decisive resolution against it, which constitutes a virtuous character, is seldom found in persons addicted to these indulgences. They prepare an easy admission for every sin that seeks it; they are usually the first stage in men's progress to the most desperate villanies." As by degrees from slow, though gentle rains, Great floods arise and overflow the plains; So men from little sins to great proceed, Guilt grows on guilt, and crimes do crimes succeed. The striking cautions of one of our best poets on this subject, are very important : "Call'd to the temple of impure delight, He that abstains, and he alone, does right, you pass the threshold, you are caught; Die then, if power Almighty save you not!" It is not improbable, that our first parent, in Eden, was improperly loitering around the forbidden tree. She was, perhaps, admiring the beauties of its foliage and of its fruit. What harm could there be in only looking at them? But she looked, and admired, and resisted not temptation, till she touched, and gathered, and ate; then, to use the expressive language of Milton, "Earth felt the wound, and nature from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of wo, That all was lost." All the unhallowed passions which have ever afflicted the human race,--all the horrible wars which have devastated the fair face of God's vorks; all the numberless diseases which have |