hearts; acquire bad habits and a bad reputation; you raise a barrier in the way of your success in life, which you will probably never be able to surmount. I repeat the remark, young gentlemen, and I beg that it may make a due impression on your minds, that so far as success in the world is concerned, all depends upon a few short years-upon the character you form in this spring season of your being.

4. The happiness of all with whom you are, or shall be connected in life, is deeply involved in the characters you are now forming. Those kind parents who watched over your infancy and childhood, and who are looking to you as the props of their declining age; those brothers and sisters, who are allied to you by ties of the tenderest affection; all your dear relatives and friends, regard, with deep and anxious solicitude, the course upon which you are entering, and the habits, which are to stamp the character and fix the destiny of your future life. In no way can you contribute so much to the happiness of all who esteem and love you, as by sustaining a good character; and in no way, pierce their hearts with keener sorrow, than by compelling them to behold you sacrificing a fair reputation, and all your

prospects for life, in unworthy and vicious indulgences.

But more than this; you are soon to become fathers of families; to be entrusted with the care and training of immortal beings, who, like yourselves, are to act their parts on the stage of life, and then pass to a state of Just and eternal retribution. You are, likewise, soon to be the leading, acting members of society; to occupy all the places of influence and trust, and to have at your disposal all the great and precious interests of the church and state. Consider now, how much depends on the character you are forming; your own happiness; the happiness of your friends and families; and the welfare of this whole community-all depend on your possessing a character of true virtue and excellence.

Nor is this all. The effects of your influence are not confined to the present scene of action; they extend to future ages, and will be felt for ever. The character which you possess will be impressed on the next generation; and that on the next; and that on the next; and thus the character, and, consequently, the happiness or misery of countless multitudes, both in this and the future world,

depend on the conduct which you pursue, and the principles which you propagate.

Such, then, are the motives which urge you to the attainment of a good character. It is a protection against suspicions, and evil reports; it is a source of the purest and most lasting enjoyment; it secures for us the esteem and confidence of our fellow men; it increases the power and enlarges the sphere of our usefulness; it has the most direct and happy bearing on our success in life; it stands connected with the happiness of our families and friends; with the welfare of society; with the temporal and eternal happiness of unborn generations.

That you may feel more deeply the weight of these considerations, just reverse the picture, and think of the direful evils of a ruined character. It will expose you to a thousand painful suspicions and blasting reports; it will deprive you of all self-respect and peace of mind; it will exclude you from the confidence and esteem of your fellow men, and bring upon you their neglect and contempt; it will cut you off from all means of usefulness, and render you, either a mere cypher, or a nuisance in society; it will prove an insurmountable barrier to your success in life; it will be bit

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terness and sorrow to your friends, and all with whom you may be connected in the world; it will be the means of perpetuating bad principles and a bad character, in your own families, and to future generations, and thus be the occasion of eternal ruin to many immortal souls.

you are

Do you now ask for other motives? I have one more to offer.-On the character now forming hangs your own eternal destiny. Those dispositions and habits, which you now acquire, you will be likely to retain through life, and carry with you into another world.

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They are the dying dress of the soul,—the vestments in which it must come forth to meet the sentence of an impartial judge." If filthy, they will be filthy still,-if holy, they will be holy still. Yes, my friends, the character you are now forming, is that, probably, in which you will appear before the judgment seat of God; and by which your condition for eternity is to be decided. O then, be careful that you acquire a character of meetness for the society of just men made perfect in heaven; and not for the society of lost spirits in the world of wo.

LECTURE V.

RELIGION THE CHIEF CONCERN.

ECCLESIASTES, xii. 13.

LET US HEAR THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER; FEAR GOD AND KEEP HIS COMMAND. MENTS; FOR THIS IS THE WHOLE DUTY OF MAN.

I approach the subject of this evening's Lecture with a feeling of despondency. Hitherto we have gone along together; and while you have appeared to take a lively interest, in the various subjects of discussion that have come before us, it is an additional cause of felicitation, that you have given so ready and so general an assent to the sentiments that have been advanced. But we have now come to a point where I am afraid we shall part. The text will lead me to speak of religion; of the soul; of God and eternity; of heaven and hell; and the cause of that despondency, which oppresses my mind, is an apprehension that in speaking of these great subjects, I shall not find, in my hearers, the