enter at once on the subject to which these general remarks were intended to lead. I hesitate not to acknowledge that I do not understand the propriety of the language so common in the mouths of those who approach for the first time, or who are about to approach for the first time, the communion table of our Saviour. They say that they are going to take on themselves new and solemn obligations. Others, in speaking of the act, express themselves in the same manner. In short, there is no phrase more common. In my opinion, there is none more unmeaning; and I shall continue to think so, till it can be shown to me how it is possible that a creature of God can take on himself a new religious obligation; how it is possible that by professing his intention to obey the divine commandments, he has added a single one to the list which already existed, and which had bound him down from his cradle with the adamantine strength of condition and necessity.

To say, that this person has just begun to entertain a proper sense of his obligations; that he has received new impressions of his duty, is perfectly correct. He may in time past have scoffed at virtue and religion, and held his own pleasure to be his only law and guide; and now he may see the folly of such a course, and repent of it, and turn to the Lord his God, humbling himself before him, and resolving to keep his commandments. But still he has taken on himself no new obligations. He was as much obliged to perform all his duty before this change of feeling, as he is now. The obligations were always upon him, every one of them; but instead of being treated, as before, with neglect and contumely, they are now soberly and rightly apprehended. What I mean to say,

is, that though to acknowledge is infinitely better than to slight them, neither their nature nor their number, their strength nor their degree, is altered in the least. The individual, let us suppose, was formerly profane; now, having made a profession of faith, he sets a guard upon his lips; but was it not as much his duty to observe the third commandment then, as it is now? Was it not criminal then? Has his confession of its criminality increased it? Has he really such a power over right and wrong?

Let us attend to a

This is perhaps an extreme case. more common one. There are those, who, without having ever been notoriously bad, who indeed have gone along through life commendably and with fair reputations, have nevertheless refused to come to the communion table, because they had no idea of giving up a certain way of living, which so long as they abstain from a profession of religion, they pursue without scruple, as being perfectly harmless, but which they regard, and which is generally regarded, as inconsistent with such a profession. They like to be gay, gay in spirit, and gay in external appear. ance; they are passionately fond of dancing; they delight in going to splendid entertainments, and in splendidly entertaining their friends in return, and they will not accept the invitation of their Saviour, because they conceive that by so doing they render that course criminal, which, till they do so, is perfectly safe. Now, I presume not to say, that the way of life which they love is not innocent; it may, or it may not be so, according as certain rules are observed or transgressed, which it would not be in place to discuss here; but I say, that if their

way of life is innocent before they become visible members of a church, it will also be innocent after that connexion is formed; and if, on the other hand, it would be criminal then, it is assuredly criminal now. What is right is right, and is not made more right by any confession. What is wrong is wrong, and cannot be made right,

by our backwardness to abjure it.

All that has been said of pleasure, may be applied to business. The man of trade hesitates to come to the altar, because he does not wish to encumber himself with any religious shackles in his road to wealth. He does not wish to enter into any new obligations, which may render his pursuits guilty or improper, and prevent him from following them. In his present situation he feels easy, feels that he is doing what others of good character do, feels that he is bustling along with the throng, and no more obliged to be scrupulous and nicely fastidious than his companions and competitors. If he should openly profess himself to be a disciple of Christ,, why then indeed he must take heed and inquire of his conscience more frequently, and guard his purity more carefully than before; but as this might be inconvenient and troublesome, he will postpone the engagement and avoid the risk. Does he avoid the risk? Will his approach to the altar, make those practices dishonorable which used to be upright? Will his absenting himself from the altar make the transaction fair, which, if he went to it, would be a blot on his name? Is virtue of this versatile character?

There is still another class of persons who delay their obedience to the last injunction of Christ, on account of

the prevalent ideas about new obligations. It is that class who omit to do right, from the fear of doing wrong; a class among whom we find some of the most valuable members of society, some of the most conscientious and pure-minded servants of God. Desirous as they are of performing their duty; strict as they have always been in discharging their known obligations, they are deterred from joining in a solemn remembrance of their Master, from an impression that it will render them responsible in some additional manner, which they know not how to define, but to which their poor ability may not be equal. To such persons I would earnestly repeat what I have said in substance before; that whatever they esteem and practise as virtuous now, will lose none of its virtue after they have become communicants, for that which is holy will be holy still; and that it is absolutely impossible, that they can, by any act, or confession, or subscription, engage to do a single thing which was not always their duty, as rational creatures of God.

That I may be somewhat more circumstantial, I would ask them whether any thing can be named or imagined, which is superadded to their existing obligations by the act of christian communion? Is it a generous and extensive bounty, and an ever open hand of charity to the poor? But it was for ever their duty to be as bountiful and as charitable as occasion would demand, and their means would justify. Is it that they should devote a certain portion of their time to self-examination, reflection, and prayer? But just such a portion as their spiritual welfare required, and their necessary occupations

permitted, was always exacted of them, or I entirely misunderstand the spirit and letter of the Gospel. Is it that they should assiduously attend upon the outward means of grace; that they should be constant in their place at church; that they should be found at all meetings called for religious purposes, and adapted to promote religious ends? But all that they could do in this way before, consistently with their real good, and with the duty which they owed to their own families, and the obligations which chained them to their own hearths and domestic altars, they ought to have done; and more than this, let me add, they ought never to do; for it then swells into an excess, and is converted into dissipation, and may, not uncharitably, be called a sin. So it is with regard to conversation, demeanor and dress. In each of these particulars there is a general standard of propriety, which ought never to be transgressed by a wide departure from it on either side. Frivolity and flippancy, levity and extravagance, are errors in any one; and an unnatural gloominess and stiffness, a dark and funereal habit of feature and gesture, required by no circumstances, and tending to no good, are also errors, and can be proper in no one. I am wholly at a loss to conceive what course a communicant should pursue, which should not also be pursued by every individual who is acquainted with the revealed word and will of his Maker.

On a subject of this nature it is highly important that I should not be misapprehended. I would guard as carefully as I am able against the supposition, that I would treat the holy communion as a light matter, and represent christian obligation as a loose and easy tie.