accomplished without effort. Into that road, we are not borne by the pressure of the thronging multitude, nor the force of natural inclination. No broad and flowery avenue attracts the eye; no syren songs of worldly pleasure allure the ear: but strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth to life, and few there be that find it." Hence the admonition"Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able." This implies that there are obstructions to be removed, and difficulties to be surmounted.

The fundamental and universal obstruction with which every one has to contend, and which can be removed only by the power of the Holy Ghost, is the darkness and depravity brought upon human nature by the Fall; and the in dulged sensuality, prejudice, and enmity of the carnal mind. But this prevailing depravity manifests itself in various specific forms, according to the different circumstances, constitutions, ages, and tempers of its subjects. It is an inward, and universal evil, exhibiting its opposition to religion in an immense variety of ways.

1. Self-conceit is not uncommonly to be met with in the character of the young, and is very much opposed to the spirit of true piety.

This is a sort of epidemic disease, which finds a peculiar susceptibility in persons of your age to receive it. Young in years and experience, they are very apt, nevertheless, to form high notions of themselves, and to fancy they are competent judges of all truth and conduct. They decide, where wiser minds deliberate; speak, where experience is silent, rush forward

with impetuosity, where their sires scarcely creep; and think themselves quite as competent to determine and to act, as those who have witnessed the events of three-score years and ten. This disposition shows itself oftentimes in reference to business; and the bankrupt list has a thousand times, revealed the consequences. But it is seen in more important matters than business. In the gayety of their spirits, and in the efflorescence of youthful energy, they see no great need of religion to make them happy; or if some religion be necessary, they do not think it requires all that solicitude and caution with which older Christians attend to its concerns: they are not so much in danger as some would represent; they shall not take up with the humbling, self-abasing, penitential religion of their fathers, but adopt a more rational piety; they have reason to guide them, strength to do all that is necessary, and therefore, cannot see the need of so much fear, caution and dependance.

My children, be humble; pride and selfconceit will otherwise be your ruin. Think of your age, and your inexperience. How often, already, have you been misled, by the ardour of youth, in cases where you were most confident that your were right. When the Athenian orator was asked, What is the first grace in oratory? he replied, Pronunciation; the second? Pronunciation; the third? still he replied, Pronunciation: so, if I am asked, what is the first grace in religion? I reply, Humility; the second? Humility; the third still Humility: and self-conceit is the first, and the second, and the third obstruction.

2 Love of worldly pleasure is a great impediment to piety. It has been most profanely said, "Youth is the time for pleasure, manhood for business, old age for religion." It is painful to observe, that if the two latter allotments of human life are neglected, the first is not. Young people too often answer the description given by the apostle, "Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." In youth, there are many temptations to the gratification of this propensity; the senses are vigorous, the spirits lively, the imagination ardent, the passions warm, and the anxieties of life but few and feeble. Hence many give themselves up to the impulses of their corrupt nature, and are held in alienation from a life of piety by a love of pleasure. Some are carried away by a vain and frivolous love of dress and show; others by a delight in conviviality and parties; others by routs, balls, and theatrical representations; others by the sports of the field; others by intemperance and debauchery.

It is admitted that all these gratifications are not equally degrading in themselves, nor equally destructive of reputation and health; but if indulged as the chief good, they may all prevent the mind from attending to the concerns of religion. A predominant love of worldly pleasure, of any kind, is destructive in every point of view. It unfits you for the pursuits, and disinclines you for the toils of business; and thus is the enemy of your worldly, interests; it often leads on from gratifications which, in the opinion of the world, are decent and moral, to those which are vicious and immoral; it is incompatible with the duties and comforts of

domestic life; it prevents the improvement of the understanding, and keeps the mind barren and empty; it prevents us from becoming the benefactors of our species; but its greatest mischief is, that it totally indisposes the mind for religion, and thus extends its mischief to eternity in short, if cherished and persisted in, it ruins and damns the soul for ever.

My children, beware of this most dangerous propensity; consider whither it leads; check it to the uttermost; and ask grace from heaven to acquire a better taste. "What a hideous case is this, to be so debased in the temper of your minds, as to lose all the laudable appetites and advantages of an intellectual nature; and to be sunk into the deformity of a devil, and into the meanness of a brute! To be so drenched in malignant delights, and in sensual, fading, and surfeiting pleasures, as to forego all real and eternal satisfactions for them, and to entail insupportable and endless miseries upon yourselves by them." Yes, if you live for worldly pleasure, and neglect religion, you are giving up an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory, for light and frivolous gratifications, which are but for a moment. You are, for the sake of a few years' empty mirth; entailing everlasting ages of unmitigated tor

ments.

Besides, though worldly pleasure gratifies, does it satisfy? When the honey is all sucked, does it leave no sting behind? And then, what are the pleasures of the world, compared with those of religion, but the shadow to the substance; the stagnant pool to the fresh and

running fountain; the smoking taper to the midday sun? Shall worldly pleasure cheat you of salvation?

3. Prejudice against the ways of religion, as gloomy, keeps many from yielding to its claims.

Many young people seem to compare religion to a dark subterranean cavern, to which, as you descend, you quit all that is joyous in life; which is impervious to the light of heaven, and inaccessible to the melodies of creation; where nothing meets the eye but tears, nor the ear but sighs; where the inhabitants, arrayed in sackcloth, converse only in groans; where, in short, a smile is an offence against the superstition that reigns there, and a note of delight would be avenged by the awful genius of the place, with an expulsion of the individual who had dared to be cheerful. This religion? No, my children. I will give you another figurative view of it. "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: she hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table; she hath sent forth her maidens; she crieth upon the highest places of the city, come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled."

This is a metaphorical description of religion under the name of wisdom, and the figure of a feast. It is declared in revelation, and all the saints in the universe will confirm the truth of the assertion, that "Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace."+

*Proverbs ix. 1, 5.

See this proved at large in the chapter on the Pleasures of Religion.