of God to serve him faithfully, and to adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things.

Now in order, my brethren, to have such a season, many prayers must be offered up. The youth must pray: their parents and friends—I hope I need not say must be peculiarly urgent in prayer: ministers, I am sure, ought to pray. And with prayer, if sincere, will follow corresponding exertion. Peculiar duties now devolve on each and all: on us to instruct and counsel the young, both in public and in private, with faithfulness and affection: on parents to second our endeavours with all that mighty and affectionate authority-the authority of parental love, wherewith God hath kindly intrusted them and the young, I am sure, will feel that, while parents, and friends, and ministers are all active on their behalf, they are not to look on as idle and unconcerned spectators. They have the work of preparation to pursue; the Bible to read and study with new interest; their baptismal vows to consider; their past lives to examine; good resolutions to make; sins to renounce; their course of life to choose; their Saviour to love; and his grace, which can alone enable them for all, to ask for in earnest prayer from day to day.

In this spirit, my brethren, of prayer, with determination for corresponding exertions, let us all consider the duty recommended in the text; and the motives which, with God's blessing, will persuade us to the duty.

THE DUTY is simply this: "Yield yourselves unto God." In these few words you have the sum and substance, not only of confirmation, but the sum and substance of the whole Christian profession; the sum and substance of the three great promises made for us at baptism, and to be renewed by every one in his own person in after life. For here is comprised the great first promise, the renunciation of every kind of sin. Only look at the preceding verse : "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Here also comes in the second great promise—the hearty belief of God's revealed truth. For when we want motives to yield ourselves unto God, it is there-at the articles of our faith, and the doctrines of our Bible-that we must look: there we are taught to know, to love, and to trust God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in their varied offices in the covenant of grace: there we have the mighty motives of the Father's love, of the compassion of the Saviour, of the grace and influence of the Holy Spirit. And here, in our text, we have also the third great promise of the Christian-obedience to all God's commands, in their wide, extensive, practical application: "Yield yourselves unto God." Submit to his easy yoke, give way to his authority; follow his commands. There is a peculiar tenderness in the exhortation, "Yield yourselves unto God." It is not "Submit yourselves as slaves unto God;" but, "Yield yourselves :" be led, be inclined, be moved, be persuaded, to give up yourselves unto God, at his kind and gracious invitations.

And this duty of yielding yourselves unto God, is, we must admit, one of very wide and extensive meaning. We are to yield ourselves. That, of course, must include all we have and all we are-our body, soul, and spirit; the outer

and the inner man: all talents and endowments intrusted to us-our time, our health, our strength-all are to be cheerfully yielded unto God. To all these (on which I shall presently enlarge more particularly) to all these we are particularly bound and obliged-graciously obliged; whenever, and at whatever period of life, we truly and heartily enter into covenant with God, through the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ: we are bound to this at baptism. For what, after all, is baptism, but the solemn dedication of ourselves to God, with earnest prayer for his regenerating grace, accompanied with the pouring of water, the consecrated sign, token, and pledge, of the purifying, refreshing, and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit; and with solemn promise on our part, flowing from the promise of God, to give ourselves (and surely it is the least, and, at best, a poor return we can make) to give ourselves truly to God: to renounce what he forbids; to believe what he promises; to obey what he enjoins.

But this great dedication of ourselves was made for most of us, I suppose, in infancy: and,when rigthly understood, a great mercy was there. Only think, my young friends, before you had strength to walk to the house of God, your friends carried you thither, after the example of the pious parents in Judea; who brought their children in their arms to Jesus for his blessing. Before your tongues could speak, or your minds could think, they thought, they spoke, they acted, for what you may now discover, and rejoice to discover, to be for your truest good. "This child,” they say, in faith, and hope, and love—“This child shall be a Christian. If the prayer of faith can obtain for him the blessing of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he shall be a Christian. If Christian education, from as soon as he shall be able to learn (for that was the promise) can assist to teach him to be a Christian, this child shall be a Christian indeed. If Christian example can conduce to this good end, this child shall be a Christian. Ourselves believers, ourselves rejoicing in the privilege of belonging to Christ, we here solemnly declared in this expressive ordinance, that the highest honour we desire for this child is, that he may fight manfully under the banner of Christ, against sin, the world, and the devil; and continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his life's end.''

Since that solemn and interesting occasion many years have now rolled by with us. And what have we been doing? How have we been acting? Has the subsequent part of our life, thus far, been according to that good beginning? Have we, in other words, been renouncing for ourselves all sin, believing all God's truth, obeying all God's commands? Has the prayer of faith once offered for us been answered? Has it, as yet, been the prayer of our own hearts for ourselves? Is the old Adam, the corrupt nature, buried and gone, and the new and holy nature truly and effectually raised? Have we, in short, "yielded ourselves unto God?" If one may speak for all, the answer would be, No: we have loved what we ought to have renounced, and served what we ought to have shunned; neglected the truth of God, and transgressed his commandments. The sinfulness of early life is a very humbling consideration: for it might have been supposed, that at that tender age we should not have had boldness enough to sin; that the loveliness of the character of God would have attracted us; and that the season of our lives, when hope was more ardent, the affections more alive, and the heart more susceptible of gratitude, would indeed have been dedicated to God-the God of hope, the God of love, the God

and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But it was not so with all of us. "Foolishness" says the Scripture (and experience confirms the words of Scripture)—“ Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child:" "Childhood and youth are vanity." With too many amongst us, any folly was in those days, preferred to God: prayer too often was looked on as a task; the Bible as a dull book; and sin was thought something manly: and those energies which, if sanctified by grace, might have honoured the Gospel and profited men, were spent and wasted in sinful rebellion against God. Many often think lightly, indeed, of youthful sins, and treat them as mere acts of indiscretion. But sin in the sight of God is always sinful. "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." There is God's recorded testimony of the sinfulness of the vain and foolish imaginations in which youth is so apt to indulge. And it is to be remarked, how very deeply some of the most eminent characters of Scripture appear to have lamented their youthful sins. Thus David: "Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O Lord." Thus Job: "Thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth." Thus in that beautiful example of penitence, given in the prophet Jeremiah: "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed; I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth." Then, again, in the same prophet, how affecting the penitential review of youth: "We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth, even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God." One, also, of the most affecting of our Lord's parables, is that of the prodigal son; the rash and thoughtless youth, who, according to the language still too common in the world, was only rather too gay and indiscreet; but when his conscience was touched, and his eyes were opened, and he came to himself, what was his confession? "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no inore worthy to be called thy son."

But here let not the young misunderstand. I am not confounding with sin, the natural cheerfulness, and the amiable vivacity of youth: neither am I condemning the ardour of character, and the flow of spirits, which usually mark that season of life. Nay, I would say to them, Be cheerful; be active; be ardent; be happy; be joyful: but still remember God, thy Creator, in the days of thy youth: remember the Saviour, who invited the young to come to him: remember to pray for the Holy Spirit, to create anew the sin-loving heart; to sanctify all natural gifts; to turn the full current of thy youthful affections towards God and goodness; to incline thee to attend to his affectionate exhortation, "My son, give me thy heart."

But here very many of us have failed; some more, and others less. But whoever has least failed in love and obedience towards God, and has the least given way to sin, vanity, and folly, has cause for deep humiliation, and penitential confession before God. Every ingenuous young person remembers, with peculiar self-reproach, an offence committed against kind parents; the

having trifled with their feelings, they disregarded their warnings; the omission of what would have pleased them; the word, the look, the temper, that evidently distressed them, and gave them pain. And if now they are far off, or if death has removed them into eternity, so that we never can again gladden their hearts, the thought is peculiarly affecting. But now I call in God's name, for all this, and far more than this, for God. Every offence committed against the just and proper commands of earthly parents, was, in fact, an offence against Him who commanded them to be honoured and if they, who themselves were imperfect and sinful, yet were grieved and displeased by the rebellious temper, the obstinate spirit, or unkind behaviour, what must God be, who is perfectly holy; and who, being an omniscient Spirit, knows infinitely more than they ever knew of us; who saw us when they could not; who heard our words when we should have been ashamed to utter them, before them; who was witness to deeds which their presence would have altogether restrained? Our offences, alas, against them are much aggravated by the recollection of their kindness. How did they protect and watch over our infancy? What labour and self-denial did they endure for us! What sympathy did they express in our little sorrows! What patience, forgiveness, and unwearied love did they evince! Then think of God your heavenly Father. Consider his forbearance, his goodness, his protecting care, his ever-watchful providence, his offers of mercy, his invitations of grace, his entreaties for reconciliation and salvation! And yet against Him, our heavenly Father, our unwearied friend, our best and truest benefactor, we have dared to sin again and again. Shame on our hardness of heart, we feel not more deeply the unspeakable ingratitude of sin! Every one of the perfections of God makes sin against him appear more sinful. Is God perfect in holiness? How must he abhor sin in his creatures! Is he perfect in justice? How must he vindicate the honour of his broken law! Is he so powerful that he can create or annihilate the world with a single word? What wonderful forbearance that he did not crush us when we sinned against him! Is he full of love, and infinite in compassion? Therefore is sin the more vile; rebellion against a gracious monarch being far more heinous than against a cruel tyrant.

But still, my brethren, though the recollection of the solemn engagements of baptism, coupled with the review of our past lives, must surely convince us all of the humbling truth, that we have not yielded ourselves as we ought to God; what a comfort to remember, that one of the great fundamental truths of Christianity-into the belief of which we were baptized, in which we have been instructed, and in which we are now, if not before, invited, yea entreated, to exercise a personal faith, is this-that sin, however much, however great, may be pardoned; ingratitude may yet be forgiven; and that our God, though holy and just, may freely pardon us, rebels as we have been before him! The gracious way provided is in and through Jesus Christ, who though the eternal Son of God, and equal with the Father in happiness and glory, yet deigned to take our nature into union with his Godhead: and here, on this earth, the spot which man's sin must have rendered vile in his sight; here, in the depth of humiliation, and scorn, and infamy; here, by obedience and suffering, even unto death, (as we have to commemorate this week,) here he worked out a full and complete righteousness to be put on all who believe on him, comprehending

the pardon of their sins, the acceptance of their persons, perfect reconciliation with God, and an interest in the great New Testament promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit, to work in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure.

If some among you just now feel the recollection of youthful sins thrill you with compunction, now let the full and gracious offer of redemption thrill you with joy. Accept heartily and truly of Jesus Christ as your Saviour: come to him, that is, as sinners: rely simply on his merits: plead his promises in prayer confess his name before men: seek to know him more, and to be yet more and more closely and vitally connected with him by faith, love, and prayer and you shall have pardon; yea, thus coming you have pardon already. God is no longer angry with you; his anger is turned away: the clouds which sin and unbelief had raised are dispersed; the smile of God's favour breaks on you; you are his, and he is yours. Henceforth how different a thing is life! Not a mere season to be trifled and frittered away in the round of amusement; not merely a time for amassing gold, and silver, and perishable goods: no, nor yet the theatre for the display of vanity and ambition, in their thousand varied forms. Love, in the Christian, united by a living faith to Christ, and filled with love to him, assumes a nobler object: it is to be alive to his praise; to be devoted to his service; to be spent in fulfilling his will, and in glorifying his name. If you truly believe on him you must and will love him: and if you love him you must and will obey the exhortation of our text, and "Yield ourselves unto God." For this was his object, the love of Christ concerning us: "He died, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God:" "He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works."

Now here, I trust, you will allow, I have shewn AN ADEQUATE MOTIVE to induce you, through the grace of God, to yield yourselves unto him. I have not rested my argument on natural religion-that God is your Creator and Preserver, and therefore has a right to your obedience, though there is some force in that appeal. I rest not the argument on mere moral grounds-the beauty of virtue, and the deformity of vice: though there is some meaning also in that. And I urge not mere topics of temporal expediency-that in serving God you will consult for your health, comfort, and usefulness to society. But, if it were possible, I would lead every one of you to the foot of the Redeemer's cross. "Behold, there," I would say to the most hesitating; "behold the mighty motive see in that suffering, bleeding, dying Saviour, a motive which ought to be sufficient to induce you to renounce all sin, to love God, and to yield yourselves unto him,' from a principle of gratitude. Let his patient silence in suffering plead: let his wounds and bruises have a voice: let his bowing his head and dying move your affections and hearts: and to what but this—' Yield yourselves unto God.'"

But he is also risen, and ascended, and sits on the right hand of God. These are all great and noble articles of our faith; and each of them forms an additional motive to us to yield ourselves unto God. Rise with him from the sleep and death of sin; ascend with him in heart and spirit. Begin, in prayer for that grace of the Holy Spirit, which he delights to send down-begin now a life of devotedness, holiness, and love. Enter, dear brethren, into the noble realities