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you will call down upon your heads the punishment of disobedience. Dare you do this, and incur the displeasure of God, and become one of those with whom he is angry every day? Remember, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." This is the way which God would have you avoid.

4. You should also walk in the "pleasant way" from love to your fellow-men. If you choose the way of death and destruction, you will probably carry others with you, and thus become the murderer of their souls. O, what a fearful guilt to incur! But if you are journeying towards heaven, you may perhaps be the means of leading some soul with you, which would otherwise have gone to ruin. Besides this, the course you pursue will have great effect in this life. The man who is destitute of virtue, is a terror and a curse to all around him, and he does much injury to his fellow-men. If you love your neighbor as yourself, therefore, you will certainly avoid

You

such men, and detest their vices. will always be found with that blessed company who walk in the ways of pleas

antness.

5. Love to your country should also stimulate you in the path of virtue and religion. I will not ask you if you love your country; for I think I hear you already saying,

"Before all lands in east or west,

I love my native land the best."

It is natural and right that you should do so; and it is pleasant to find this patriotic feeling beating in the youthful heart. But, my young friends, if you love your country, will you not show it? Do not say that there is nothing to do. Our country must have a character; and you, and I, and all our countrymen, are to decide what this character shall be. Our pious fathers laid. the foundations of this nation in religion and virtue; and even now, the Statute Book of this State recognizes the virtues

which I have been urging upon you as "the ornament of human society, and the basis upon which a republican constitution is founded." The same book also declares it to be their tendency "to preserve and perfect our republican constitution, and secure the blessings of liberty." We see, by this, how important these virtues appear in the eyes of those who make our laws.

But if the people neglect those virtues upon which our country rests, and depart from God, we shall undoubtedly lose our liberty, and peace and happiness will give way to anarchy and destruction. It is for these sins that the Jewish nation has been so remarkably peeled and scattered among all people. It was these sins that brought the renowned and splendid republics and kingdoms of antiquity to nought. And if our own country should ever share a similar fate (which God forbid), it will doubtless be owing to the same sins. How important, then, that the young should early learn to avoid these sins, that they may

shun them when they become the citizens and rulers of the land! How important that they should early practise the virtues and govern themselves by the rules of the "pleasant way," that in after life they may carry them out! Young reader, as you love your country, beware how you slight these virtues; lest you have occasion to take up the mournful lamentation of the prophet," Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. Our necks are under persecution; we labor and have no rest. Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand. The joy of our heart is ceased: our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head: wo unto us that we have sinned!"

6. If all these reasons are not sufficient to persuade you to walk in wisdom's ways, there is another, which I will mention. It is this, your own happiness requires you so to do. Do you expect to be happy in

the service of sin? Have you not yet learned that each sinful action is a root that beareth gall and wormwood?" Have you not yet learned that "the way of the transgressor is hard?" I can assure you that you will find it out, if you ever walk in the transgressor's ways. But I trust you will never know it by experience. I hope it is your intention to live a virtuous and pious life, and thus render yourself and all around you happy.

7. The seventh and last reason why you should walk in the "pleasant way" is, because death will soon overtake you, and then you must render up your final account. My young friends, do you think you are too young to die? Do you put death far away? It was a remark of a very wise Roman, that though death may be before the old man's face, he may be as near the young man's back. Have you forgotten this? Remember, in future, that death may be close at your side, though you are young, and in the bloom of health; for "death loves a shining mark." Ah

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