however, has early received pious impressions, their happy influence will be felt both in society and solitude.

In the haunts of pleasure, indeed, these impressions, at times, may be almost effaced; but in the serious hour of calm reflection they will again return. Canst thou, utterly regardless of those good instructions which were dictated by parental affection in thy early day, forget the divine benefits, and be unmindful of the Rock of thy salvation is a question which conscience will occasionally put to him who has been trained up in the way that he should go. Indeed, the recollection of a godly parent is peculiarly tender in a distant land, and there his pious counsels the ingenuous youth will often recal. When the children of a worthy family are widely dispersed, it is pleasing to think, that, cherishing the religious principles in which they were educated, they may be offering their devotions in

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different quarters of the globe at the same moment. What although the prayers of one may ascend from the mountains of the East, and the supplications of another arise from the American wilderness, they are all heard by that great God who fills the immensity of space with his presence. In every land, to be religious is to be blessed. "O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come." When friends forsake them,—when the face on which they were wont to gaze with admiration and rapture becomes like that of an alien,when doomed to lament long-lost connections, or to behold the companions of their early days laid in the dust; in short, when the scene of life is dark and troubled as midnight storms,-how great is the comfort of drawing near unto God!

Again, It is of the last importance to impress the young with this opinion, that

they are now in a state of probation for a better world.-Educated in this opinion, they will learn to contemplate with delight the Parent of all, leading on generation after generation to higher scenes of being, while other orders rise in succession, by his decree, to fill the void below. Educated in this opinion, the hope of an eternal inheritance in the heavens will not only sustain them amid the various calamities which it may be their lot to suffer, but also animate them to a more diligent performance of the duties of life. Considering

themselves as candidates for a blessed immortality, shall they not endure with patience every present disaster, and tread boldly the path of integrity, spurning allurements which would otherwise be hardly resisted by flesh and blood? Doubtless, the prospect raises the soul to whatever is generous, and communicates a vigorous impulse to the noblest energies of our nature.

How enlivening the belief, that genius, that beam of glory which has brightened almost every land, shall not be extinguished; that when the tide of time has rolled away, this celestial fire shall never be quenched. Lo! the soul springs at last from her mansion of clay, and mounts to the habitation of God. As she ascends aloft, like Elijah the prophet of the Lord, behold her met by ministering angels, and thus accosting the celestial band :—Hail! ye inhabitants of the skies-But where, O tell me where, is "He who often brought me to his banqueting-house, and whose banner over me was love!"-Angels, conduct me to my Saviour's throne.

Do you long to reach at last his celestial throne? Remember the period of your probation fleets fast away, and be always careful to improve it. It is precious; and let it be employed accordingly in the diligent cultivation of your talents and your

virtues. No man, says the moralist, who has gotten a classical education, will ever despise it; yet, this must not engross the whole attention, as if wisdom spoke to her children only in the language of Greece and Rome. Let the improvement of moral principles be uniformly connected with the culture of the intellectual powers. As the remark of animated penetration is undoubtedly more pleasing than that of torpid dulness, as the look of sparkling intelligence is far more interesting than that of listless stupidity; so, be assured, the acquisition of virtue is more valuable than rubies. But its loss could be compensated by no splendour of genius, no delicacy of taste, no felicity of diction, no pageantry of fortune. Would not a wise parent derive more pleasure, if the child he had trained in the way he should go, obtained a character similar to the following, than if, by plodding in a selfish mercenary track, he