into all its secrets, comprehend all its principles, study all its bearings. Care nothing about pleasure; but find your recreation in your employment. It is astonishing how few rise to eminence in their calling, either in trade or in the professions. The summits are gained by a very small number; the multitude grovel below. Why? Because they did not seek nor begin to ascend during their apprenticeship. They did not give themselves wholly to these things during this important season. Excellence in any department of human affairs, can be looked for, only from diligent and early culture. Industry and close application will keep you out of the way of temptation. Let your mind be occupied with business, and there will be neither leisure nor inclination for polluting amusements.

5. If your attention to business leaves any time unoccupied, I advise you to carry on a course of reading.

Make companions of useful books, and you will need no other. And as it is every man's chief praise to excel in his own profession, let your reading bear a relation to that in which you are engaged.*

6. If you can find a pious and intelligent associate, embrace the opportunity of innocent and pleasurable companionship; "for as iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." With such a friend, carry on some course of intellectual improvement, and both give and receive the stimulus which fellowship affords.

* The Author hopes he shall be pardoned for the frequency with which he urges a task for reading. He knows the importance of the subject.

Again and again, remember the tremendous importance which attaches to the period to which this chapter more particularly refers; and believing, as you must, that it is from fourteen to eighteen, the character, in relation to both worlds, is generally formed, judge what manner of persons ye ought to be at that time, if you wish to be a good tradesman, and real Christian upon earth, or a glorified and happy spirit in heaven.*

CHAPTER XVIII.

On public spirit.

You are born, my dear children, in no common age of the world. You have entered upon the stage of existence, when some of the most interesting scenes of the great drama are being presented. There are eras, when the moral world seems to stand still, or to retrograde; and there are others, when it is propelled with accelerated movements towards the goal. Ours is of the latter kind. After the dark and stormy epoch, which was terminated by the glorious revolution of 1688, the churches of Christ, blessed with religious liberty, sunk to inglorious repose. Little was done, either to improve the moral condition of our own population at home, or the state of heathen countries abroad. Whitefield and Wesley broke in upon this

* See an excellent little work, entitled "Character essential to Success in Life, addressed to those who are approaching Manhood," by the Rev. Isaac Taylor, of Ongar.

slumber, when it seemed to be most profound. From that time, the spirit of religious zeal awoke, and increasing its energies, and multiplying its resources till our days, it now exhibits a glorious array of means and instruments, from which in the long run, might be expected the conversion of the world.

Christendom presents at this moment a sublime and interesting spectacle in its Bible Societies, Missionary Societies, Tract Societies, with all the other institutions adapted to the moral wants of every class and condition of mankind. War is not only declared, but prosecuted with vigour, against the powers of darkness; the hosts of the Lord are marching forth to the field of conflict; the sound of the trumpet is heard, and the call of warriors floats on the gale. Spiritual patriotism is breathed into the souls of all denominations of Christians. Instruments of the holy warfare are invented and distributed, which suit the hands of persons of every rank, condition, stature, and strength; while females are invited to emulate the Spartan women of antiquity, and assist in this conflict by the side of their fathers, husbands, and brothers.

All young people ought to enlist themselves in this cause. They should rise up into life, determined to do all the good they can, and to leave the world better than they found it. To see them reluctant to come forward, is an indelible disgrace to them. It is a poor, miserable kind of life to live only for ourselves; it is, in fact, but half living. It is an opposition both to reason and revelation. He that does nothing to bless others, starves his

own soul. You must therefore set out in life, my children, with a resolution, by God's help, to act the part of a religious philanthropist. "He that converteth a sinner from the error of his ways, shall save a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins." Aspire to this honour. Think how many things you can already do. You can instruct a class of ignorant children in a Sunday school.* You can teach adults to read. You can distribute religious tracts. You can join in the labours of bible associations, or the exertions of juvenile missionary societies.

Here, however, I must suggest a caution or two. Females, who are employed in the labour of collecting gratuitous contributions to public societies of any kind, should be very watchful against the least infringement on that delicacy and modesty of character which is the chief ornament of their sex. Their exertions, I know, are the life's blood of some causes; be it so: but let their benevolence flow like the vital fluid through the veins-unseen, unheard. I believe, that, in general, the strictest rules of modesty have been observed by the female collectors of our Missionary Societies; but I have heard of instances very much to the contrary. Happily, such cases are rare. I think it quite questionable whether very young females, whose characters are scarcely formed, should be thus employed.

It is more necessary still to caution young men against acquiring, by their activity, a bold,

*It is to the great dishonour of many young people, in affluent circumstances, that they are retiring from our Sunday schools, and leaving the work to those who are in humbler life. Well, we must do without them; but let them remember, that for their indolence, or pride, or whatever else be the cause of their secession, they must give an account at the bar of Christ.

forward, obtrusive, and dictatorial temper. If zeal should render them conceited, vain, and meddling, it would be a heavy deduction from its clear amount of usefulness. There is some little danger, lest Satan, perceiving it to be impossible to repress the ardour of youth, should attempt to corrupt it.

Observing these cautions, you cannot be too ardent in the cause of religion, and the interests of the human race. Those who are likely to occupy the middling classes of society, who are the sons and daughters of persons in comparatively affluent circumstances, and are likely, by the blessing of God, to occupy the same rank themselves, should feel most specially bound to consecrate their energies to the public welfare, inasmuch as they possess far more means of usefulness than others, and are likely to have greater influence in society. But even the poorest can do something. There is no one who is destitute of all the means of doing good. In France, during the reign of the late Emperor, the conscription law extended to persons of all ranks in society; and, in the same regiment, the sons of the rich and of the poor contended, side by side, for the glory of their country: nor did the former think themselves degraded by such an association; they felt that to fight under the imperial and victorious eagle, was an honour sufficient to annihilate every other consideration. How much more justly will this apply to persons who are marshalled under the banner of the cross!

It is of the utmost importance that young people should begin life with a considerable portion of public spirit in their character; since