notwithstanding, went to them, forgot all his serious thoughts when there; was drawn into the revelry of the night; the following day went abroad; and the next news his friend heard of him was, that he was killed in action. Thus his vain companions extinguished his serious thoughts, diverted his good resolutions, and, by his own consent, robbed him of his eternal salvation.

Another cause of irresolution is, the feeble and uncertain perceptions which many persons have of divine and spiritual things. They have a dim view of the truths of revelation, but they appear like objects in a mist, too indistinct to be made the matter of pursuit. Hence it is of tremendous consequence, that when a young person becomes in any degree serious about religion, he should instantly betake himself to all proper means for informing his judgement on the nature of true religion. He should read the Scriptures with intense application of mind, listen to the preaching of the word with great fixedness of attention, and peruse good books with much seriousness of mind.*

The dominion of some one prevailing sin, if cherished and indulged, has a most fatal influence in preventing decision. Herod would do many things, but not part from Herodias. Felix was moved by Paul's preaching, but he would not give up covetousness. Thus it is with many; they admit the claims of religion; admire its beauty; are moved by its force; resolve to submit to its influence; but then there is some besetting sin, which, when they come to the

* Doddridge's "Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," is a standard treatise.

point, they cannot be induced to sacrifice. Every plant has some leading root which connects it with the soil in which it grows, on which more than any of the rest it is dependent for support and nourishment. So it is in the human heart; there is in most persons some prevailing corruption of nature, which more than any of the rest holds the heart to an unregenerate state, and to which very particular attention must be paid in the business of religion. This sin may be different in different persons: but whatever it be, it must be destroyed, or it will destroy us.

Fear of persecution operates in many to prevent decision. You are deterred probably, my children, from giving up yourselves to the influence of piety, by the apprehensions that you shall be called to endure the ridicule of those with whom you have been accustomed to associate, and who, being unfriendly to religion, will vent their scorn and contempt on those who submit to its claims. It is impossible that I can be so ignorant of the irreconcileable enmity existing, and destined ever to exist, between religion and the depravity of human nature; or the usual practice of those who hate religion, as to promise you an exemption from the sneers of the scorner, if you walk in the paths of wisdom. The only weapons which many are able to wield against Christianity are sneers; for there is no mind so imbecile, no fool so foolish, as not to be able to laugh; the individual, who could no more argue than an infant could use the sword or brandish the spear of Goliath, can shoot out the lip, and cry methodist, puritan, and fanatic. The power to argue is comparatively rare, but almost every village in the kingdom

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will furnish a mob of little minds, to follow after religion as it passes by, and which, like the children of Bethel, persecuting the prophet of the Lord, will ridicule its venerable form.* morbid sensibility to shame, I am perfectly convinced has kept not a few young people from piety. They cannot bear the broad loud laugh, the contemptuous sneer, the witty jest. They cannot endure the attack of the profane, nor the raillery of the impious. They blush, and conceal their secret attachment to piety directly it is assailed. But, my children, where is the dignity, or the courage of your mind? Are you indeed convinced of the truth of Christianity, and the justice of its claims, and suffer yourselves to be vanquished by the laugh of folly? What! flee from the enemy of your souls, and surrender your salvation, when he only hisses at you in the skin of a fool! What though the world were to unite its scorn; shall this deter you from acting, when God, truth, heaven, the bible, conscience, salvation, saints, angels, are all on your side? What! when your spirit has plumed her wings of faith and hope for flight to heaven, shall she give up the dazzling object of her high ambition, and cower down on earth, because she is watched and ridiculed by the witling? Or shall her eagle pinions be blown from their lofty course by the scoff of the scorner? Be decided, and all this mean and feeble kind of persecution will soon cease.

*Never did Satan invent a more successful weapon against religion than ridicule. This apparently mean and contemptible engine, like the pike-head of modern warfare, may be circulated widely, and put into ten thousand hands, which could make nothing of a more dignified kind of instrument. By this means he can arm the levy en masse of his dominions, who could do nothing in the ranks of the regular troops, or with the artillery of infidelity.

Before that sublime and unbending decision, which dares to be singular, which nothing can divert from its purpose, which nothing can diminish in its ardour, which clings the closer to its object for all the efforts that are employed to detach it from the pursuit; I say before that inflexible spirit, it is astonishing to see how the space clears away, and how soon she is left to pursue her course, while all the tribe of little, pecking, cavilling, noisy minds, drop down into their hedges, and leave the eagle to her course.

"This invincibility of temper," says the profoundest and most eloquent essayist in the English language, "will often make the scoffers themselves tired of the sport. They begin to feel that against such a man it is a poor kind of hostility to laugh. There is nothing that people are more mortified to spend in vain than their scorn. A man of the right kind would say, upon an intimation that he is opposed by scorn, They will laugh, will they? I have something else to do than to trouble myself about their mirth. I do not care if the whole neighbourhood were to laugh in a chorus. I should indeed be sorry to see or hear such a number of fools, but pleased enough to find that they did not consider me one of their stamp. The good to result from my project will not be less, because vain and shallow minds, that cannot understand it, are diverted at it, and at me. What should I think of my pursuits, if every trivial thoughtless being could comprehend, or would applaud them; and of myself, if my courage needed levity and ignorance for their allies, or could shrink at their sneers?'"*

*See Foster's "Essay on Decision of character."-I should deem it an insult to my readers, to suppose they have not read these Essays,

My children, think of the importance of the matter to be decided upon-the service of God, the pursuit of immortality, the salvation of the soul-and shall a false shame deter you from the pursuit? Think of the example of Jesus Christ, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. Look at this divine sufferer, as he is presented to us in the hall of Pilate, when he was made the object of every species of scorn and indignity, and will you shrink from a few sneers and scoffs for Him? Remember our Lord's most alarming language, "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, and with the holy angels." Anticipate, if you can, the shame, the disgrace, the mortification, the torment, of being disowned, rejected, and abandoned by Christ, before assembled worlds; and let that be a preservative against being ashamed of him now.

It is time now to set before you the evils of indecision, as a motive to induce you to seek after the opposite temper.

Such a temper is most unreasonable, if you consider both the importance of the subject, and the means you possess of coming to a speedy and right decision. Is it a matter of trifling moment? Yes, if God, and eternity, and salvation, and heaven and hell are trifles. If religion be a trifle, where, in all the universe, shall we find and not less so to their Author, to suppose that they needed my recommendation. I cannot help, however, enjoining on my readers to read the Essay from which the above extract is made, with the resolution to seek, and the prayer to obtain, all that decision which is there so eloquently described, not only in reference to every good work in general, but to religion in particular.