which must decide our hopes and apprehenfions; and the wisdom, which, like our Saviour, cometh from above, will, through his merits, bring us thither. All our other ftudies and pursuits, however different, ought to be fubfervient to, and centre in, this grand point, the purfuit of eternal happinefs, by being good in ourselves, and useful to the world.

SECTION VIII.

SEED.

On the importance of order in the distribution of our

Time.

TIME we ought to confider as a facred truft committed to us by God; of which we are now the depofitaries, and are to render account at the laft. The portion of it which he has allotted us, is intended partly for the concerns of this world, partly for thofe of the next. Let each of these occupy, in the diftribution of our time, that space which properly belongs to it. Let not the hours of hofpitality and pleasure interfere with the difcharge of cur neceffary affairs; and let not what we call neceffary affairs, encroach upon the time which is due to devotion. To every thing there is a feafon, and a time for every purpose under the heaven. If we delay till tomorrow what ought to be done today, we overcharge the morrow with a burthen which belongs not to it. We load the wheels of time, and prevent them from carrying us along fmoothly. He who every morning plans the tranfactions of the day, and follows out that plan, carries on a thread which will guide him through the labyrinth of the moft bufy life. The orderly arrangement of his time is like a ray of light, which darts itself through all his affairs. But when no plan is laid, where the difpofal of time is furrendered merely to the chance of incidents, all things lie huddled together in one chaos, which admits neither of dif tribution nor review.

The first requifite for introducing order into the management of time, is to be impreffed with a juft fenfe of its value. Let us confider well how much depends upon it, and how faft it flies away. The bulk of men are in nothing more capricious and inconfiftent, than in their application of time. When they think of it, as the measure of their continuance on earth, they highly prize it, and with the greatest anxiety

feek to lengthen it out. But when they view it in separate parcels, they appear to hold it in contempt, and fquander it with inconfiderate profufion. While they complain that life is fhort, they are often wifhing its different periods at an end. Covetous of every other poffeffion, of time only they are prodigal. They allow every idle man to be master ef his property, and make every frivolous occupation welcome that can help them to confume it. Among those who are fo careless of time, it is not to be expected that order should be obferved in its diftribution. But, by this fatal neglect, how many materials of fevere and lafting regret are they laying up in store for themfelves! The time which they suffer to pass away in the midst of confufion, bitter repentance feeks afterwards in vain to recall. What was omitted to be done at its proper moment, arises to be the torment of fome future feafon. Manhood is difgraced by the confequences of neglected youth. Old age, oppreffed by cares that belonged to a former period, labours under a burden not its own. At the close of life, the dying man beholds with anguish that his days are finishing, when his preparation for eternity is hardly commenced. Such are the effects of a diforderly wafte of time, through not attending to its value. Every thing in the life of fuch perfons is misplaced. Nothing is performed aright, from not being performed in due season.

But he who is orderly in the diftribution of his time, takes the proper method of escaping those manifold evils. He is juftly faid to redeem the time. By proper management, he prolongs it. He lives much in little fpace; more in a few years than others do in many. He can live to God and his own foul, and at the fame time attend to all the lawful interefts of the prefent world. He looks back on the past, and provides for the future. He catches and arrefts the hours as they fly. They are marked down for useful purpofes, and their memory remains. Whereas thofe hours fleet by the man of confufion, like a fhadow. His days and years are either blanks of which he has no remembrance, or they are filled up with fuch a confufed and irregu lar fucceffion of unfinished tranfactions, that though he remembers he has been bufy, yet he can give no account of, the business which has employed him.

BLAIR.

SECTION IX.

The dignity of virtue amidst corrupt examples.

THE most excellent and honourable character which can adorn a man and a christian, is acquired by refifting the torrent of vice, and adhering to the cause of God and virtue against a corrupted multitude. It will be found to hold in general, that all thofe, who, in any of the great lines of life, have diftinguished themfelves for thinking profoundly, and acting nobly, have defpifed popular prejudices; and departed, in feveral things, from the common ways of the world. On no occafion is this more requifite for true honour, than where religion and morality are concerned. In times of prevailing licentioufnefs, to maintain unblemished virtue, and uncorrupted integrity; in a public or a private cause, to stand firm by what is fair and juft, amidft difcouragements and oppofition; defpifing groundlefs cenfure and reproach; difdaining all compliance with public manners, when they are vicious and unlawful; and never afhamed of the punctual difcharge of every duty towards God and man; this is what fhows true greatnefs of fpirit, and will force approbation even from the degenerate multitude themfelves. "This is the

man," (their confcience will oblige them to acknowledge,) "whom we are unable to bend to mean condefcenfions. We fee it in vain either to flatter or to threaten him; he refts on a principle within, which we cannot shake. To this man we may, on any occafion, fafely commit our caule. He is incapable of betraying his truft, or deferting his friend, or denying his faith."

It is, accordingly, this fteady inflexible virtue, this regard to principle, fuperior to all cuftom and opinion, which peculiarly marked the characters of thofe in any age, who have fhone with diftinguished luftre; and has confecrated their memory to all pofterity. It was this that obtained to ancient Enoch the moft, fingular teftimony of honour from heaven. He continued to "walk with God," when the world apostatifed from him. He pleafed God, and was beloved of him; fo that living among finners, he was tranflated to heaven without feeing death; "Yea, fpeedily was he taken away, left wickedness fhould have altered his understanding, or deccit beguile is foul." When S.Jom could not furnish

ten righteous men to fave it, Lot remained unfpotted amidst the contagion. He lived like an angel among fpirits of darknefs; and the deftroying flame was not permitted to go forth, till the good man was called away by a heavenly meffenger from his devoted city. When "all flefh had corrupted their way upon the earth," then lived Noah, a rightcous man, and a preacher of righteoufness. He stood alone, and was fcoffed by a profane crew. But they by the deluge were fwept away; while on him, Providence conferred the immortal honour, of being the restorer of a better race, and the father of a new world. Such examples as thefe and fuch honours conferred by God on them who withstood the multitude of evil doers, fhould often be present to our minds. Let us oppofe them to the numbers of low and corrupt examples, which we behold around us; and when we are in hazard of being fwayed by fuch, let us fortify our virtue, by thinking of thofe who, in former times, fhone like stars in the midst of furrounding darkness, and are now fhining in the kingdom of heaven, as the brightness of the firmament, for ever and ever.

SECTION X.

BLAIR.

The mortifications of vice greater than those of virtue. THOUGH no condition of human life is free from uneafiness, yet it must be allowed, that the uneafinefs belonging to a finful courfe, is far greater, than what attends a course of well doing. If we are weary of the labours of virtue, we may be affured, that the world, whenever we try the exchange, will lay upon us a much heavier load. It is the outfide, only, of a licentious life, which is gay and fmiling. Within, it conceals toil, and trouble, and deadly forrow. For rice poifons 'human happiness in the fpring, by introducing diforder into the heart. Thofe paffions which it feems to indulge, it only feeds with imperfect gratifications; and thereby ftrengthens them for preying, in the end, on their unhappy victims.

It is a great miftake to imagine, that the pain of felf denial is confined to virtue. He who follows the world, as much as he who follows Chrifty muft "take up his crofs;" and to him affuredly, it will prove, a more oppreffive burden. Vice allows all our paflions to range uncontrolled; and where

each claims to be fuperior, it is impoffible to gratify all. The predominant defire can only be indulged at the expense of its rival. No mortifications which virtue exacts, are more fevere than thofe, which ambition impofes upon the love of eafe, pride upon intereft, and covetoufnefs upon vanity. Self denial, therefore, belongs, in common, to vice and virtue ; but with this remarkable difference, that the paffions which virtue requires us to mortify, it tends to weaken; whereas, thofe which vice obliges us to deny, it, at the fane time, ftrengthens. The one diminishes the pain of felf denial, by moderating the demand of paffion; the other increases it, by rendering those demands imperious and violent. What diftreffes, that occur in the calm life of virtue, can be compared to those tortures, which remorfe of conscience inflicts on the wicked; to thofe fevere humiliations, arifing from guilt combined with misfortunes, which fink them to the duft; to thofe violent agitations of fhame and disappointment, which fometimes drive them to the most fatal extremities, and make them abhor their existence? How often, in the midft of thofe difaftrous fituations, into which their crimes have brought them, have they execrated the feductions of vice; and, with bitter regret, look back to the day on which they firft forfook the path of innocence !

SECTION XI.

On Contentment.

BLAIR.

CONTENTMENT produces, in fome meafure, all thofe effects which the alchymist usually afcribes to what he calls the philofopher's ftone; and if it does not bring riches, it does the fame thing by banishing the defire of them. If it cannot remove the difquietudes arifing from a man's mind, body, or fortune, it makes him eafy under them It has indeed a kindly influence on the foul of maa, in refpect of every being to whom he ftands related. It extinguishes all murmur, repining, and ingratitude, towards that Being who has allotted him his part to act in this world. It deftroys all inordinate ambition, and every tendency to corruption, with regard to the community wherein he is paced. It gives sweetness to his converfation, and a perpctual 'erenity to all his thoughts. Among the many methods whi might be made ufe of for acquiring this virtue, I fhall mention only the two fol