all religion; in pagan and Mohammedan countries, they will espouse the entire abominations of paganism and Mohammedanism; and among savages, they will act out the full savage! So much for the principle of honor.

We next find those who are swayed by the deeper and more serious ambition of wealth, intellectual eminence, conquest and glory, rank and office, dignity and power. In these things they place their highest good; it is of course their principle of action to make all other interests subordinate to their acquisition and enjoyment. They may be fair and respectable men, in a worldly and loose sense; but do you not clearly see, that every principle of action founded upon a supreme regard to these inferior objects, must be radically wrong? Does it not violate the highest relations and most solemn obligations of our being? Does it not set aside that great law of supreme regard to God and of benevolence towards his creatures, which is equally a law of our moral constitution and of revealed truth? Is this world ever to be redeemed from its sins and sorrows, and Heaven ever to be peopled with righteousness and joy, by characters formed upon such a principle as this?

Come we then to the positive question, What are the principles of sound morality? I answer, they are such only as recognize that first great moral truth, that we are accountable, and that we ought to render supreme homage to the Supreme

Being and conduct benevolently towards all his creatures; as will more fully appear in a subsequent chapter upon religion. First of all, then, adopt this as a general and governing principle of your life in all your conduct, to have a SUPREME REGARD TO THE WILL OF GOD, and a BENEVOLENT

REGARD TO THE INTERESTS OF YOUR FELLOW-MEN.

That you may know more fully how to render supreme homage to God, and to conduct benevolently towards men, you are furnished with a moral code, called the decalogue or ten commandments.

Adopt each of them as a specific principle or rule of conduct.

The first forbids you to love any other object before God. Always make it a principle then, under all circumstances, to give to God your supreme affections, and to use all necessary means of securing them to him.

The second forbids you to worship any other object in place of God. Make it your principle then, never to allow a regard to men, or custom, or gold, or honor, or any other object, to supplant that homage, or prevent that worship, which is due to God.

The third forbids you to take the name of God in vain. Adopt the principle then, never, on any occasion or pretence, to treat God or religion with irreverence. Let every species and degree of profanity, be forever exiled from your heart and lips.

The fourth instructs you to keep the Sabbath holy. Make it your principle then, never to violate the sacredness of that day. Let neither business, nor pleasure, nor indolence, nor irreligious society, tempt you to divert any portion of the Sabbath from the sacred duties to which God has assigned it. Give it all strictly, conscientiously, habitually, to a religious purpose.

The fifth requires you to honor your parents. Make it your rule then, always to conduct towards them with filial affection, respect, obedience; never to do anything which would grieve or dishonor them, and ever to do that which shall make you their honor and their joy.

And "he that ha-
Make it your prin-

The sixth forbids you to kill. teth his brother is a murderer." ciple then, never to cherish hatred, ill-will, anger, revenge, envy, or any other feeling towards a fellow being, which would seek his harm; neither to pursue any kind of business or amusement, which tends to injure his property, health, character or usefulness.

The seventh forbids all impurity. Make it your principle then, to disallow every unchaste affection, purpose, and action; and, as far as possible, to avoid whatever might lead to or occasion it.

The eighth forbids theft. A crime so severely condemned by civil law and public sentiment in all Christian countries, that you may seem in little

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danger of committing it. But remember that fraud, deception, overreaching, or any other means by which what were honestly another's is brought into your own hands, is a moral theft. Make it your principle then, to conduct in strict honesty towards all men, and never through any means or pretence, to get or possess what were in justice the property of another.

The ninth forbids false witness. An iniquity loudly condemned both by the voice of law and of public sentiment, in all civilized countries; but still of very extensive occurrence. What a loathsome exhibition of this immorality is made in our civil courts! Aud how extensively it finds a place in the social circle, and around the domestic hearth! Adopt the principle then, never to testify of another what you do not know to be strictly and certainly true; and never to speak even truth against him, unless the good of the community requires it.

An iniquity

The tenth forbids covetousness. odious in the eyes of all, and yet one of the most prevalent and tenacious maladies of the human heart. Adopt the principle then, always to be satisfied with the portion assigned you by providence; never to indulge the incipient risings of desire for what does not belong to you; and to rejoice in the welfare of others, as well as in your own.

These are the great principles of sound morality,

handed down to our world from heaven, to regulate our conduct towards God and towards each other. They are immutably perfect and imperishable. The philosophy, science, arts, customs, and all the human institutions of the day in which these principles were presented to our race by God, have changed or passed away; but these remain precisely as they were, almost four thousand years ago. Not a jot or tittle of them has changed or failed; and exactly such they will continue, as long as the sun and the moon shall endure. Wherever they have been most known and obeyed, men have been most elevated in character and most happy. They are the everlasting principles of sound morality. Adopt them; direct your conduct by them; and you will be sure of forming a righteous character. "Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes."