ney through life be one of independence and comfort, or of mortification and inquietude. If you will read over the curious document embracing the minute expenses of Washington, during the whole of the revolutionary war, and which he kept with his own hand, you will be struck with his economical habits, and feel that such traits properly go into a great character. That is a mistaken notion which supposes that a want of economy is a mark of genius, and that profusion, extravagance and debts are inseparable from a man who is to be distinguished for mental attainments. Nothing is beneath you, which will keep you from anxiety, and permit the mind to pursue the paths of knowledge unclogged and unfettered. While it should be impressed on the student, that "wealth cannot confer greatness, because nothing can make that great which the decrees of nature have ordained to be little; that the bramble may be placed in a hot-bed, but can never become an oak;" it should, at the same time, be equally impressed upon him that he must feel prodigal

of his mental powers who can strike for a high character, knowing that much of the strength of these powers is to be expended in the embarrassments of debts. As to being useful, there ever has been, and ever will be, so much of disgrace connected with being in debt, that you cannot be as useful while you owe. If you must be in debt, strive to make the bondage as light as possible, and seek for freedom the first hour that you can.

Finally, one of the very best safe-guards against the least waste of property, is to consider yourself accountable to God for all that you have—that you must answer to him for its use or abuse; and especially if you have not of your own, but live by borrowing of others, will he hold you most strictly accountable for all that you expend. While you have no items on your book at which you cannot look with pleasure, be careful, also, to have your conscience on this subject, enlightened by a regard to the eye of your God.

My reader will have noticed, that I have said little or nothing thus far on the high subject of the moral feelings. The omission was designed; not that I deem this subject of small importance to the student, but because I wished to present each topic by itself, hoping thereby that the light which fell upon each would be stronger, and that thus each would make a deep and distinct impression. The two chapters which now remain of this little book are, in my view, by far the most important of any; and I cannot but hope that they will receive the attention of the reader in proportion as they are important.

One of the first steps to be taken, if you would have a character that will stand by you in prosperity and in adversity, in life and in death, is to fortify your mind with fixed principles.

There is no period in life in which the heart is so much inclined to scepticism and infidelity as in youth. Not that young men are infidels, but the mind is tossed from doubt to doubt, like a light boat leaping from wave to wave. There is no positive settling down into deism or infidelity, but the heart is so full of doubting, that the mind has no position, in morals or religion, fortified. If

the restraints of education are so far thrown off as to allow you to indulge in sin which is in any way disgraceful if known, you will then easily become an infidel. "The nurse of infidelity is sensuality. Youth are sensual. The bible stands in their way. It prohibits the indulgence of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.' But the young mind loves these things, and therefore it hates the bible which prohibits them. It is prepared to say, 'If any man will bring me arguments against the Bible, I will thank him, if not, I will invent them.' I never gathered from infidel writers, when an avowed infidel myself, any solid difficulties, which were not brought to my mind by a very young child of my own. 'Why was sin permitted? -What an insignificant world is this to be redeemed by the incarnation and death of the Son of God;-Who can believe that so few will be saved?' Objections of this kind, in the mind of reasoning young persons, prove to me that they are the growth of fallen nature. As to infidel arguments, there is no weight in them. They are jejune and refuted. Infidels are not themselves convinced by them. What sort of men are infidels ? They are loose, fierce, overbearing men.

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There is nothing in them like sober and serious inquiry. They are the wildest fanatics on earth. Nor have they agreed among themselves on any scheme of truth and felicity. Look at the need and necessities of man. 'Every pang of grief tells a man that he needs a helper; but infidelity provides none. And what can its schemes do for you in death?' Examine your conscience. Why is it that you listen to infidelity? Is not infidelity a low, carnal, wicked game? Is it not the very picture of the prodigal-Father, give me the portion of goods which falleth to me?' Why, WHY will a man be an infidel? Draw out the map of the road of infidelity. It would lead you to such stages, at length, as you could never suspect."

This is the testimony of one who had faithfully travelled the road of infidelity; a man whose testimony would have rung through the world, had he continued a low, grovelling, sensual infidel; but whose testimony has never been noticed by infidels, since he became a better man, and an eminent Christian. I will here put it to my reader to say, whether he can recollect, in all he has known of men from history or observation, a great, discrimi- | nating, and efficient mind-a mind that has blessed the world in any degree-which was thoroughly imbued with infidel principles? Take the writings of such a mind, and you will be astonished at the vulgarity, sophistry, puerility, and weakness, which are continually marking its progress. Suppose him a politician. In the unpublished language of a young friend of mine, "it may be said that his religion has nothing to do with his political opinions. But this is not clear; it is justly remarked by some writer, I know not whom, 'that the mind which has been warped and biassed upon one great subject, is not safely trusted upon another.' And can we say of a man, 'It is true that the evidences of the Christian religion, which carry along with them the soundest judgments, and the most profound minds, did not meet a reception in his? It is true that his intellect did not lead him to such conclusions on this subject as we consider to be the necessary conclusions of a balanced mind—but yet, in politics, he was great, deep, searching, divine!"" Learning, poetry, and literature, walk hand in hand under the light of the gospel. They are destined to do so; and no where else on earth can they now be found. It is absolutely impossible for any mind, amid all this light to veil itself in infidelity, and expect to be known, revered, or influential among men. Were there no warpings of the mind, and no outrages committed upon it, when it was led to embrace infidelity, still it asks too much of its fellows, when it demands admittance to their communion, and asks permission to reach

other minds, when it pretends to pour nothing but the cold light of a December evening upon them. There is so little of sympathy between the mind of an infidel and the enlightened, Christian part of the community, that, if he hopes to have any influence upon men, it must be upon those who have already made shipwreck of character and hopes, and who will hear him speak or write, because he holds out the last, faint glimmering of hope to them, ere they are thrust off upon the dark waters, upon which nothing else sheds a ray of light.

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Should you be among those who have no fixed principles in morals and religion, for your own peace and usefulness, I beg you to settle this subject at once and for ever. God ever spoken to man? If so, when and how? These are the most important questions ever asked. And they should be answered and settled, so that the mind may have something to rest upon so firm that nothing shall move it. "We are mere mites creeping on the earth, and oftentimes conceited mites too." We can easily unsettle things, but can erect nothing. We can pull down a church, but without aid, cannot erect a hovel. The earlier in life you settle your principles, the firmer, more mature, more influential, will your character be. Search the Bible, and try it as you would gold in the furnace. If you doubt its inspiration, sit down to its examination with candour, and with an honest desire to know what is truth: let the examination be as thorough as you please; but, when once made, let it be settled for ever. You will then have something to stand upon. You will then have an unerring standard by which to regulate your conduct, your conscience, and your heart. The ship that outrides the storm with the greatest ease, is the one which has her anchors out, her cables stretched, and her sail furled, before the strength of the storm has reached her; and the navigator who must stand at the helm through the long, dark night, does not wait till that night comes, ere he sees that his compass is boxed and properly hung. He who has his religious principles early fixed, has nothing to do but at once and continually to act upon themto carry them out in practice. He has not the delays and the vexations of distrust and doubt every little while, when he stops to examine and settle a principle. Every reader will be convinced of this, who will read over the seventy resolutions of President Edwards, all of which were formed before he was twenty years old, and the most important of them before he was nineteen. No mind could form, and act upon, such principles from early life, without becoming great and efficient. I cannot refrain from selecting a few of these as a specimen.

"1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God, and my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved, to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved, so to do, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many soever, and how great so

ever."

"4. Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God, nor be, nor suffer it, if I can possibly avoid it."

"5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can."

"6. Resolved, to live with all my might while I do live."

"7. Resolved, never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life."

"20. Resolved, to observe the strictest temperance in eating and drinking."

"21. Resolved, never to do any thing, which, if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him."

"34. Resolved, in narrations never to speak any thing but the pure and simple verity."

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"46. Resolved, never to allow the least measure of any fretting or uneasiness at my father or mother. Resolved, to suffer no effects of it, so much as in the least alteration of speech, or motion of my eye, and to be especially careful of it with respect to any of our family."

The whole of these seventy resolutions are every way worthy the attention and the imitation of every young man. And while this example is before you, allow me to present a few brief resolutions which were formed by a young man before he entered college, and which formed a character known and revered widely, and whose death was sincerely lamented.

"For the future direction of my life, I resolve,

"1. That I will make religion my chief

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“5. That I will daily pray to God in secret. "6. That, upon all proper occasions, I will reprove vice, and discountenance it, and, to my utmost, encourage virtue and religion.

7. That I will dispute only for light, or to communicate it.

"8. That I will receive light wherever and however offered.

"9. That I will give up no principle before I am convinced of its absurdity or bad consequences.

"10. That I will never be ashamed to confess a fault to an equal or to an inferior.

"11. That I will make it a rule to do no action, at any time or place, of which action I should not be willing to be a witness against myself hereafter."

It is frequently the case that young men have an idea that there is something in the cultivation of the heart, and in the restraints of religion, which degrades or cramps the soul; that a mind which is naturally noble and lofty, will become grovelling and contracted by submitting to moral restraints. This is a mere prejudice; and it does little good to deny a prejudice. But go into that library, and examine the shelves, and see who are those who have penned what will be immortal, and influence other minds as long as earth shall endure. In almost every instance, the work which will hold its place the longest, was dictated by a Christian heart. The loftiest minds, the most cultivated intellects, and the most solid judgments, have bowed at the altar of God, and have been quickened and ennobled by the waters which flow from his mount; and if we go up from man to those higher orders of beings who compose "the presence" of the Eternal, we shall find them, after having shouted for joy over the creation of this world, when the morning stars sang together; after having watched the providences of God, and seen empires rise and fall; after having hung around the good in all their wanderings on earth, still studying the Gospel, to have their views enlarged, their conceptions of the infinite wisdom expanded, and still desiring to look into these things. May not the sublime idea of the modesty of these "angelic students" rebuke the ignorance, the darkness, and consummate pride of those who feel that their greatness would be diminished by bowing to the gospel of God? The angels diligently look into the mystery of the gospel; and they are the companions and fellow-students of all who thus study it.

By disciplining the heart, I mean bringing it into subjection to the will of God, so, that you can best honour him, and do most for the well-being of men. I shall suggest some means by which the heart may be disciplined and the feelings cultivated.

1. Let it be your immediate and constant aim to make every event subservient to cultivating the heart.

We are in danger of acknowledging the importance of this subject, but at the same time of putting it off to a convenient season. You suppose your present circumstances are not favourable. There are difficulties now, but you are looking forward to the time when things will be different. Your studies will not hurry you so much; they will become much easier; and you will have conveniences which you have not at the present time. But when you shall go to another place, or commence a new study, or enter upon a more pleasant season of the year, or have a new companion in your room, then you can begin to take care of your heart, and have intercourse with God. But you greatly misjudge. Every thing, every circumstance in your condition, is designed by Infinite Wisdom as a part of our moral discipline; and He who watches the sparrow when she alights, and directs her how and where to find the grain of food, he directs all things relating to our situation, and he designs to have every thing contribute to your moral improvement. There is not a temptation which meets you, nor a vexation which harasses you, nor a trouble which depresses you, but it was all designed for your good. Do not put off, and plead that the path in which your Heavenly Father is leading you is different from what you would have chosen, and therefore you are excusable for not doing his will. No principle of action is of any worth, unless it leads you continually to take care of the heart. I have spoken already of the difficulty in subduing the mind, so as to make study easy. You will find the heart more readily subdued. Every indulgence of vice, every neglect of duty, strengthens the habits and propensities to do wrong and to go astray.

Should the hand of Providence strike down your best earthly friend, you would feel that you were called upon to make the event contribute to moral culture. But do you feel that it is best to wait for such providences?—to tempt God thus to visit you with afflictions? Every event under his government is designed to do you good; and he who does not make it his daily business to cultivate his heart, will be in great danger of never doing it. You cannot do it at any time and in a short period. A virtuous and holy character is not built up in a day; it is the work of a long life. Begin the work at once, and make it as really a part of your duties daily to cultivate the heart, as it is to take care of the body, or to cultivate the intellect.

2. Make it a part of your daily habits to cultivate your conscience.

A man never became intemperate or pro

fane at once. He never became a proficient in any sin by a single leap. The youth first hears the oath, blushes as he falters out his first profane expression, and goes on, step by step, till he rolls "sin as a sweet morsel under his tongue." It is so with any sin. In this way, the conscience is blunted and the heart hardened. In this way, too, the conscience is recovered and made susceptible to divine impressions. Were you seeking only for a powerful motive to impel you onward in your studies, and were you regardless of your moral culture, still I would urge you, on this ground alone, to cultivate conscience most assiduously. I will tell you why.

There are but few men who can be brought to task their powers so as to achieve much by motives drawn from this world only. With the mass of educated men this is true. Wealth cannot bribe to steady, unwearied efforts; ambition may lay an iron hand on the soul, but it cannot, excepting here and there, do it with a grasp sufficient to keep it in action; the soft whispers of pleasure can do nothing towards shaking off the indolence and sluggishness of man; and fame, with a silver trumpet, calls in vain. These motives can reach only a few. But conscience is a motive which can be brought to bear upon all, and can be cultivated till she calls every energy, every susceptibility, every faculty of the soul into constant, vigorous, powerful action. Every other motive, when analyzed, is small, mean, contemptible, and such as you despise when you see it operating upon others. The soul of man is ashamed to confess itself a slave to any other power. But this is not all; any other motive soon loses its power. Trials, and misfortunes, and disappointments, damp, kill any other governing motive. But this is not so of the man who acts from conscience. You can crush him only by destroying his life. Shut him up in the prison, and he writes the Epistle to the Hebrews-a work which is yet to do wonders, I doubt not, when the "scattered, peeled sons of Israel are called in. Shut him up in prison, and his conscience arouses him, and carries him onward to exertions unthought of before. The cold walls of his dungeon grow warm while he describes the Pilgrim's Progress up to eternal day, and scatters the food of angels over the earth-while he describes the Saint's Everlasting Rest, and actually does more for the good of man, under the pressure of conscience, in adversity, than during all the days of his prosperity.

Only fix the impression on the mind, so that it will be abiding, that we are accountable to God for all that we accomplish, and the amount of effort and success will be almost unmeasured. Connect the immeasurable demands of eternity with every effort

to conquer sin, to subdue your appetites and passions, and thus make the soul and body more disciplined instruments of doing good, together with every noble resolution, and every exertion, whether it be for life or for a moment,—and you will not do small things; you will not walk through life unfelt, unknown, and you will not go down to the grave unwept. Every unholy desire that you conquer; every thought that you treasure up for future use; every moment that you seize as it flies and stamp with something good, which it may carry to the judgment-seat; every influence which you exert upon the world for the honour of God or the good of man,-all, all is not only connected with the approbation of God and the rewards of eternal ages, but all aids you to strike for higher and nobler efforts still, till you are enabled to achieve what will astonish even yourself. Think over the long list of those men who have lived and acted under the direct and continued influence of a conscience which chained every exertion and every thought directly to the throne of God. Go, stand at the grave of one of these men ; and you will go away musing and heartsmitten, to think that he finished his work, and did it so soon, and went home to his rest, in the morning of life, while you have never even contemplated doing but little good. The stone over the dust of such a one will soon crumble away; but the light which surrounds that grave will grow brighter and brighter, till seen the earth over, because his faculties were under the continued direction and controul of conscience.

Had I no other aim, then, than merely to excite you to high and noble enterprise, to make great efforts while you live, that motive which I would select as incomparably superior to all others, to lead you to effort, is a cultivated, sanctified conscience. But I have an aim higher than even this, in urging you to cultivate your conscience.

The path of life is beset with temptations. This is a part of our moral discipline. We must meet them every day: we cannot go round them, nor go past them, without being solicited by them; and nothing but a conscience increasingly tender will enable us to meet and overcome them. For example, you will, every week, if not every day, find seasons when you are tempted to be idle, to waste your time. There is no motive at hand which will arouse you. These fragments of time are scattered all along your path. Nothing but a cultivated conscience will enable you to save them. But this will. It cannot be created and brought to bear upon you when indolence has seized you. No, it must be done before.

You will often be tempted to smite with the tongue. The company indulge freely

in their remarks upon absent characters. Opportunities occur in which you can throw in a word or two handsomely, and therefore keenly. You can gain credit by the shrewdness with which you judge of character, and for your insight into human nature. No motive of kindness, of politeness, no sense of justice, will now avail to meet this temptation: nothing but a tender conscience will do it.

You are a student. Your health may not be good, your nerves are easily excited,you are easily thrown off your guard, speak quickly, and evidently with a great loss of self-respect, which aids in increasing your illhumour and your tartness. You cannot reason yourself or shame yourself into a good temper: a cultivated conscience is the only thing which will sweeten the temper.

In the course of your life, you will be making bargains, and be more or less in habits of dealing with men. You may intend to be an honourable and an honest man; but you will be strongly tempted, at times, to cheapen what you buy, and over-praise what you sell, or to do as you would not that others should do unto you, unless you are under the direction of a clear, discriminating conscience.

You know how much we esteem our character in the sight of men. Many will fight for it, and quarrel for it, and prefer death a thousand times to the loss of character, in the eyes of their fellow-men. This love of character is as it should be. But what is it to be judged of men in comparison to being judged of God? Of what consequence is it what men say of us, or think of us, in comparison to what God thinks of us? Who, that believes in the justice of God, and in the immortality of the soul, would not prefer to have his approbation to that of the universe besides? But you can never gain his approbation; you can never stand fair in his sight; you can never have him for your friend, unless you have a heart that is continually under the discipline of a well-regulated, cultivated conscience.

3. Avoid temptations.

It is wisdom in beings as frail as we are, not only to use every possible means to overcome sins which beset us, but, as far as possible, to avoid meeting them. If you are on a journey, with a high object in view to be attained, and you may be beset with enemies, you will feel anxious, not merely to be so well guarded that they cannot overcome you, but, as far as possible, to avoid meeting them. There is something in the simple piety of Baxter which pleases us, when he gravely tells us what a blessing he received in narrowly escaping getting a place at court in the early part of his life. We all believe in a superintending Providence; and we know that