edit I say nothing of the more direct methods by which you may in any measure influence those whose years are advanced beyond your own, because it ill becomes the young (unless especially appointed) to undertake to be teachers of the old, and because no influence will work more surely than the silent admonitions of a good exfample. od has do jot tud thewor on

Indeed in all that has been said about the inferences you are to draw from the observation of others, I speak of such observation as it is necessarily forced upon you by the intercourse of society, and would warn you most solemnly against the dangerous employment of watching for the faults of others. We have enough to do to pry into the secrets of our own hearts, to trace out the perversity of our own imaginations; and the longest life

n

a See St. Paul's admonition on this head addressed to an ordained minister, 1 Tim. v. 1. 0976er

will scarcely avail to teach the most observant the extent of his own frailty and the depth of his own sinfulness. But being placed in a social state of existence you are necessarily brought into frequent contact with the effects of the sinfulness of others, and that sinfulness you are never to observe without seeking in yourself to avoid it, and in them gently to reform it according to your abilities, means, and situation in society.

Some there are who would say that the sight of others' sin should remind you of your own righteousness, and would bid you throw off the restraints of sex and youth and station to become an open re

prover of others and an assertor of your own superiority. But may you never forget that you are to be transformed chiefly in the spirit of your mind, that you are warned not to think highly of yourself, but to think soberly, and that it is the peculiar

office of God's ministers to reprove the errors of his people. You are living in a society of whom it is impossible for you to know how far each, according to his light, knowledge, and temptations, is or is not making as great an effort for salvation as yourself. Beware then how you condemn any one individual. Be bitter against sin, but for the sinner as you have often occasion to feel sympathy so never fail to entertain compassion and charity.

More especially if in that closest circle of society, if amongst them who are of the same family, there be some whose ways of thinking and acting agree not with the serious views of Christianity which now occupy your own mind, let it be your anxious care to cherish the ardour of domestic affection, and to second it with all the pure spirit of Christian love. Remember what is "the first commandment with promise," remember what is the

new

commandment” of Christ, remember that if you have every otlier conceivable spiritual gift and have not charity you are nothing worth, som stood on sew Be not then conformed to that most

dangerous and seductive wickedness of a wicked world, a pharisaical perversity, pre

970.

valent amongst a great portion of mankind, teaching them to substitute outward form for inward spirit, to offer long prayers instead of lowly sacrifice of a contrite heart; make pretence of "corban," or a dedication unto God, instead of the fulfilment of filial and social duties; and to arrogate

to

deare

the title of God's saints whilst they are indulging in the sins he most detests. There is not a more grievous case of conforming to one of the most prevalent of fences in the world than the party spirit which animates all such pretenders to a superior degree of religious excellence. There is no case in which the individuals

of

are further from being transformed by the renewing of their minds into the state o Christian, sobriety and humility. There were no people more conformed to this world than the Pharisees of old, who yet pretended to separate themselves from its errors. Be it your care to adopt in heart the righteousness to which they made pretence, and to unite therewith the spirit of that love which is without dissimulation, which whilst it teaches us to abhor what is evil and to cleave to that which is good" does at the same time exhort us to be "kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honour preferring one another." deco ed are a yaiglubar