us to relish them; moderation, to use them, and temperance, to truly enjoy them.

Before I quit the subject of social recreations and public amusements, permit me to raise a warning voice against the pernicious tendency of some, excessive indulgence in many, and the abuse of others. Those which are dangerous in their tendency, by familiarizing your minds to the scenes and instruments of vice and villainy, as games of hazard in general, you had better shun altogether. Those which are apt to be rendered injurious by an immoderate indulgence in them, had better be avoided, until a course of self-denial shall have given energy to the will, and strength to the resolution, when they may be indulged in with safety, within the proper and determinate boundaries.

To illustrate. In very early youth your speaker became fond of reading. Undirected how and what to choose, I eagerly read every thing that came into my hands. In a short time, indulgence decided my taste for reading legends, novels, and fictitious narratives of every kind. My love of reading increased to a perfect passion, and often rendered me deaf, blind, and dumb to all around me. It became necessary for my parents to interfere. After reading a novel or tale half through, and becoming passionately interested in its details, my father would take it from me, and prevent my reading it, in some cases, for months. I was made sensible of his kindness, and of the propriety of his conduct, and after a short time acquired sufficient resolution to practice his system on myself. Two very interesting works that I then read half through, I never yet have finished—and never since then, has my resolution faltered when it became necessary to lay aside an interesting book.

Trifling as this incident may appear to you, it has been important to me, and I would that I had

been wise enough to have profited by it in other practices than reading. May it teach you the benefits of restraining your immoderate desires for amusement, and lead you early to discipline your resolutions to fortitude and perseverance. As reading may thus be perverted from a benefit to an injury, so may many other amusements and recreations. Make, then, necessity the rule for applying to them for relaxation—and benefit, not merely pleasure or desire, the rule for prolonging the duration of the enjoyments they may yield.

III. Let us now consider the temper and disposition which, only, can make all your amusements pleasant and useful. In the great flow of animal spirits and generous enthusiasm which social amusements naturally excite, you will find an ungovernable and uncontrollable temper the most fruitful source of destruction to all peace and enjoyment, in yourself and others. If sympathy, that mental electricity of intelligent creation, can render us miserable in others' miseries, and happy in their joys, then the surest way of being pleased ourselves, is to please others. To govern and control your enthusiasm, and keep die temper regulated by it within proper bounds, remember this infallible rule for enjoyment. Enter into the social circle with a determination to increase and promote its enjoyments, even at the expense of your own ease, and the sacrifice of your own desires.

Reflect that the mode of innocent enjoyment can not be a matter of importance—that any difference of opinion on the subject, must appear very trifling, if not ridiculous, in a few weeks or months after it occurs—and that it is not only foolish, but wicked to destroy your own and others' peace merely to establish your superior wisdom in trifles. Besides, others will contend for their opinions and plans, also words will grow into strife, strife to wrath,

and wrath to destruction. We can not be happy and displeased at the same time—we can not harbor peace and wrath in the same bosom—as well might we attempt to serve both God and mammon in equal sincerity and truth. And can you hesitate as to which you will choose? No! Enter into all amusements with a determination to please, and thus to be pleased—make your temper pliant as the waving willow, which, by yielding before the opposing winds, saves itself from loss of verdure and destruction, and rises again in majesty when the wrath of the storm has passed over it.

"The wildest ills that darken life,
Are rapture to the bosom's strife;
The tempest in its blackest form,
Is beauty to the bosom's storm:
The ocean, lashed to fury loud,

Its high wave mingling with the cloud,
Is peaceful, sweet serenity

To anger's dark and stormy Bea."*

For your own sakes, then, as well as for the sake of all associated with you, permit me to urge on your attention the cultivation of humility tempered with dignity, and the courtesy arising from affection; you will ever find it the best preparation to impart pleasure to others, and receive it from them again, in return. Pride and discourtesy mark the selfish man—and the cold and selfish man can not be happy. Besides, the religion you profess is not a religion of gloom and haughtiness of discomfort and sadness—of exclusion and partiality. Why, then, should your amusements be such—why should your lives bear such impress? Let, then, all your amusements be characterised by freedom and innocence—let them be joyous amid propriety— let them be but minor instruments for promoting your usefulness and happiness, and let them embrace, not only your own pleasure and benefit, but

that of all within the circle of your affections and influence. And may that great and good Father of our spirits, who has wisely blessed you with abilities to labor in the great field of human virtue and improvement, and implanted in your tender frames the upspringing impulses that lead you to alternate labor and rest—toil and amusement—keep your minds and your hearts pure, and crown you with all the real pleasures of this life, and the joys of immortality through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE DUTIES OF YOUTH.

BY A. B. GROSS.

"My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments: for length of days, and long life, and peace shall they add unto thee."

Proverbs iii: 1, 2.

Yoth

YOUTH has been compared to Spring. have very appropriately been termed the season of hope. And what beautiful emblems are they both of this animating and cheering atmosphere of the soul! How excellently is hope pictured to the eye—personified and materialized—made living and visible by the freshness, hilarity, and exulting joyousness Of youth; by the budding glories, and flowery fragrance, and springing verdure of Spring!

But if Spring give not her blossoms, Summer will be shorn of its glory, and Autumn deprived of its fruit—if the golden seed be not sown—if the germ appear not above the earth in the infancy of the year, where shall the husbandman seek his stores of provision against wintry cold and hungry want? So, if youth makes no improvement, maturer age will be overladen in work, or barren in intellect and utility, and old age will lack respect, or be drear in happiness.

Among the many considerations which press on the mind in such reflections, permit me to urge on your attention,

I. The importance of acquiring correct moral and religious principles.