Speak to him Speedily. Delays in important matters are attended with great danger. If you think of any thing neceffary to be spoken to him, take the first good opportunity to fpeak it. You may not have another. You or he may foon be dead.

Speak to him early, before he has gone to an ir reclaimable length in an evil course. "Whom fhall he teach knowledge ?" fays the prophet, "Whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them who are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast."

Speak to him seasonably, when you find him in a proper frame to hear you; when his paffions are calm, his thoughts compofed, and his mind open to inftruction.

Speak to him frequently; for "precept must be upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little." The Jewish parent was commanded to "talk with his children, when he fat in the house, and when he walked by the way; when he lay down, and when he arofe."

Speak to him pertinently; for "a word fitly fpoken is like apples of gold in pictures of filver." If you fee him ignorant, enlighten him ; if you fee him rafh and prefumptuous, check and caution him; if you fee him careless, awake him; if you fee him inattentive to danger, warn him; if you fee him engaged in wickedness, reprove and restrain him; if you fee him turning to the path of virtue, encourage and ftrengthen him.

Speak to him plainly, but tenderly. Choose out forceable, but acceptable words; fuch as may reach the heart without irritating the paffions. "As an carring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold; fo is a wife reprover on an obedient ear."

• Ye pa

rents, provoke not your children to wrath, left they be difcouraged."

Speak to him feriously; that he may fee, you are not trifling, but in earneft; are not influenced by paffion or ill humour, but by a regard to his intereft, and a fenfe of the importance of what you fay. The ferioufnefs of your addrefs will, we hope, command his attention.

In this manner you must fpeak to the young

man.

Well; and what fhall we fay to him?

Tell him that he has a GOD to serve.

The voice of nature proclaims the exiftence of a Deity : We fee innumerable objects around us, which evidently could not bring themselves into being, but muft owe their existence to some first caufe. He who is the first cause of all things, must be eternal, infinite and independent. And fuch a Being muft poffefs every perfection; wifdom, power, juftice, goodnefs; and whatever is necef fary to conftitute a perfect character. Yea, the works which we behold demonftrate these perfec tions in their Author. "The invifible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly feen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead." The belief of the existence and providence of a God is the first principle of religion. "He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Lead the youth, then, to an early acquaintance with the Creator. Direct his thoughts to the most eafy and obvious proofs of the divine perfections and government. Teach him to view his maker as always with him, fupporting his nature, infpecting his actions, attending to his words and obferving his thoughts. Teach him to confider God as a hater

of fin and a lover of righteoulness. Teach him to regard every bleffing as the gift of God's bounty, and every affliction as the correction of his hand, and to direct his heart to God in grateful acknowledgements of the former, and humble fubmiffion to the latter. Teach him that he is accountable to God for all that he thinks, fpeaks and does, and that a view to the divine approbation fhould govern all his conduct.

Tell him that he has a foul to fave; that the power within him, which thinks and reafons, loves and hates, rejoices and grieves, is fpiritual and immortal; dies not with the body, but furvives its diffolution, and will live in another world; that he was not made merely to eat and drink, fport and play for a while in this world, and then to die like the brutes; but to ferve God in his fpirit here, and prepare for an eternal enjoyment of him hereafter; that, therefore, it must not be his principal care to adorn and feed the body, but to improve and cultivate the mind; to furnish it with knowledge, store it with virtuous principles, and enrich it with noble sentiments; to fubdue the paffions, reftrain the sensual propenfities, enlarge the understanding, and become like to God in purity, truth and goodness. Remind him of the evidences of his immortality. Teach him to confider his natural defire of life, as an intimation that there is a life beyond this; and the powers of reafon and reflection as marks of his fuperiority to the brutes, and proofs that he was defigned for a nobler purpose, than they. Teach him, that as God is a holy and righteous being, he will make a difference between the virtuous and the wicked; and fince good men often fuffer, and bad men often profper in this world, there must be another

world, in which this difference will be made. Di. rect his mind to those plainer evidences of a future ftate, which he may find in the holy fcriptures; not only in the declarations which they contain, but alfo in the facts which they record relative to Jefus Chrift, who died, rofe and afcended, and now lives in glory.

Tell him, that he is a fallen creature. And that he may be apprized of the finful inclinations and corrupt tendencies of his heart, lead him to compare himself with the divine law in its purity and perfection. Tell him how fin enteredinto our nature, and death into our world; even by the revolt of the firft parent of our race. Inftruct him in the ftrictness of the divine law, which condemns, and muft in its nature condemn every tranfgreffion of, or deviation from its own commands. Hence lead him to fee, that by the deeds of the law no man can be juftified before God, or claim a reward at his hands; but, on the contrary, every foul, confidered in himself, and in relation only to the law, lies under guilt and condemnation.

Tell him, that there is a Saviour provided for finners; who this Saviour is and what he has done. Teach him, that God, in his boundlefs compaffion to fallen men, fent down from heaven his divine fon, who, being manifefted in our flesh, obeyed the precepts and fuffered the penalty of the law for us; wrought wonders to prove his heavenly miffion; marked the way to heaven by his doctrines; exemplified in his own life that manner of life which he has injoined on us; and, after his death on the crofs, rofe again and gave many infallible proofs of the reality of his refurrection, then afcended to heaven to prepare a place for us, and there lives to make interceflion for them who come to God by him. Teach him, that, through the righteousness and interceffion of this Saviour, the

greateft finners may obtain the pardon of fin, and the life to come.

Tell him what he must do to be faved; that he must believe on the Lord Jesus Chrift, the Saviour whom God has fent; that faving faith in Christ is nothing less than a hearty confent to, and compliance with his gofpel; that it includes a perfuafion of his divine miffion, a love of his heavenly doctrines, a fubmiffion to his holy precepts, a conformity to his excellent example, a repentance of known fin, and a refolution and care to walk in newness of life; that this faith purifies the heart, works by love, and forms a new creature; that confequently no man can justly pretend to be a believer in Chrift, as long as he indulges a temper, and leads a life oppofite to the goipel of Chrift; that true faith is only that, which is accompanied with repentance from dead works, and a life devoted to the fervice of God.

Tell him, that faith is the gift of God; a fruit of divine opperation; a confequence of God's opening the heart. This is the doctrine of scripture. In the finful and corrupt nature of fallen man there is an oppofition to the spiritual and holy defign of the gospel. This oppofition must be conquered;, this enmity muft be fubdued; pride must be brought down; the ftupid heart must be awak ened; prejudices against the truth must be removed. How fhall the word produce thefe great effects? It must come as a fword in the hand of the fpirit. It must come with demonftration of the fpirit and with power. It is mighty only through God. Therefore allow not your young man to indulge the vain felf-flattery, that believing to his own falvation is no more than what he may do at any time, when he may fee occafion; and hence be led to imagine, that an early attention to his