Of these practical admonitions some have been already brought under our consideration. The duties of parents and heads of families occupied our attention in the last discourse we are now to consider those that belong to the subordinate members of the family and household, children and servants. By the term children we are not to be understood as meaning those only of tender years: we include such also as are grown up to years of maturity, our youth-our young men, and our young women; "those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." And by the term servants, we mean not menials only, and those employed in the lowest services of the household; but those also in the counting-house, and the warehouse; and such as are in places of trust and responsibility under their employers.

In addressing those of you who stand in these relations, I would point your attention, in a special manner, to the fact that the apostolic admonitions lay the foundation of the duties and services you owe to your fellow

creatures in those you primarily owe to God. It is "in the Lord" that filial duties are to be discharged; it is unto Christ, as doing the will of God, "that servants are required to obey them who are their masters according to the flesh." There are therefore three classes of duties which it becomes me to press on your serious consideration:

I. Those which you owe to God.

II. Those which you owe TO PARENTS AND

PRINCIPALS.

III. Those which you owe TO EACH OTHER. According to this arrangement you will see, my young friends, that I have taken upon me to speak to you for God, for your parents and superiors, and for yourselves. But on each of these topics, and not on one only, I need hardly tell you, it is for yourselves I still speak. It is the promotion of your best interests at which I aim. In maintaining the claims which God and man have upon you, am but showing you the most direct means for ensuring your own prosperity,―your own happiness for time and for eternity. We are all of us accountable beings. An absolute in

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dependence belongs not to any grade or condition of human life. That person, then, who, whatever his situation in society, fulfils his obligations best in the sight of God and man, is the most honourable and happiest among men.

"Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part-there all the honour lies."

To assist you in the knowledge and fulfilment of your various obligations is my present object. With this view I beseech you to seriously consider your duties,

1. To GOD; He is your Maker, your Preserver, your Benefactor. You owe him-

1st. The love of gratitude. The first of all the commandments is "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength." This supreme love you owe him for his goodness; and consider how largely you share in the manifestations of his goodness. Look around you upon creation; and contemplate whatever there is of beauty and bounty therein displayed; and think of the gratifications and the supplies you per

sonally derive from them. Take a closer and more circumscribed view, and look at the social advantages among which you are cen tered; think of your relatives and your friends of every description, who guard and who guide, who counsel and who comfort you;and to whom are you indebted for all these? to God only, the author of all good. It is his beauty and bounty you love to contemplate in creation; and he it is who has encircled you with all the friends you can reckon, from the mother who nursed you at her breast, to the latest benefactor of your youth. But look still closer at home: think of his providential kindness to your own person," in preserving you in life and health; in affording you the means of moral improvement; and especially and above all, if the Holy Spirit has blessed the privileges of the gospel to your conversion to God. Oh, how much do you owe to your Lord? What adequate returns can you make to him? You owe to him all the powers of which you are possessed; you owe him your whole selves! How ought you to open your whole souls to the love of God, who has

thus first loved you! Under a due impression. of the number and greatness of your obligations, you will cheerfully join with David in his song of praise,-"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies."

2. You owe to God a fixed and steady faith in the revelations of his word. It must be obvious to every one who makes a right use of his understanding, that if our fallen race were ever to know the mind and will of God, a revelation from himself was absolutely needful. This revelation has been made: God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, has revealed to us, in his word, his own character, his will, and his doings. It becomes you, my young friends, to receive that word with reverential gratitude, to study it with prayerful diligence, and to yield to its contents the homage of your implicit faith and confidence. No communication can come from God that deserves not the confiding ac