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means; and the directions in the preceding pages are designed simply to point out some of the means. Some persons do not need

such directions. For them they are not designed. But there are others to whom they must be welcome and wholesome. Let such use them, but without forgetting that they are means only. Let them guard, from the first and always, against the idea, that the practice of these will secure the great object, without any further exertion or sacrifice; that to be devout men, they have only to observe stated seasons, and perform stated acts. There cannot be a more pernicious error. It is at variance with the whole nature and spirit of Christianity. God is to be served by the entire life; by its actions as well as its thoughts, its duties as well as its desires, its deeds as well as its feelings.

The religious man must have the frame of his mind and the tenor of his conduct at all times religious; in the market and the family no less than in the closet and the church.

In

deed, considering how much more of life is spent abroad in action and trial than is passed in the worship and contemplation of retirement, it is plainly of greater consequence to watch and labor in the world than in private. Besides that it is easier to be religiously disposed for an hour a day, when reading the Bible or kneeling at the altar, than it is to be so during the many other hours which are full of the world's temptations, and when all the irregular passions are liable to be excited. Remember, then, to try your prayers by your life; you may know how sincere they are, by their agreement or disagreement with your habitual sentiments and conduct. Regulate your life by your prayers; in vain do you think yourself religious, if you go with holy words and humble confessions to the Divine presence, but at other times live in thoughtlessness and sin. True religion is a single thing. Devout exercises form a part of its exhibition; holy living forms another part. Unless they exist together, it is to no purpose that they exist at all. To separate them is to destroy the religion. To this consideration, then, let your perpetual and vigilant attention be given; and be satisfied with your hours of devotion only when they exercise a sacred and constant influence over the condition of

your mind and life, and have made them holy to the Lord.

IV. PREACHING.

From the more private means of religious improvement, we pass to the consideration of those which are in their nature public.

Preaching is a divine institution; and its authority and wisdom have been illustriously justified in the success which has attended it in every age of the church. It is to a publication from the lips of living teachers, that the gospel owes its spread through so large a portion of the globe. At its first introduction, at its reformation, and in its present diffusion, it has been the 'company of the preachers' that has arrested attention to its divine truths, and subdued the hearts of men to its holy power. And it always must be the case, however great may be the efficacy of those more personal instruments of which we have spoken, that the pulpit shall be the main engine for the incitement and instruction of the individual mind, and the maintenance of the power of religion in the Christian world.

Multitudes, however, habitually attend the preaching of the gospel, with little profit, and with no adequate apprehension of its purpose or value. Habit, thoughtlessness, inattention, worldliness, cause its sublime instructions to be unheeded, and render its powerful appeals unimpressive. It may have been so with you, in times past. But if you are now truly awake to the necessity of studying the improvement of your character, and making God's will the rule of your life, you will listen eagerly to the preaching of his truth, and drink it in as a thirsty man water. I say nothing, therefore, to urge the duty of attendance in the house of prayer. You will esteem it one of your privileges, and will feel that, however imperfectly the word may be dispensed, it is yet full of a divine savor, and profitable to any one who seeks his soul's good rather than his mind's entertainment.

In order to the greatest advantage from this duty, it is well, in the first place, to give heed to the manner in which the other hours of the Sabbath are spent. There can be no doubt that one considerable cause of the inefficacy of preaching is to be found in the circumstance, that the remainder of the Sabbath is

passed in a manner little likely to prepare the mind for its religious services, and suited to obliterate the impressions received from them. The sentiments excited in holy time, instead of being cherished, are checked and smothered by the uncongenial engagements of the rest of the day; and Sunday becomes at length even a day for hardening the heart, through this habitual resistance of the most solemn truths. For, when exposed to their frequent repetition, if it do not yield to them, it must inevitably become callous to them. This evil you are to guard against, by making the whole occupation of the day harmonize with that portion of it which is spent in public worship. And to do this implies no fanatical recluseness or morose sullenness. It implies nothing but the endeavor of a reasonable man, who finds that the cares of the six days tend to distract his feelings from religion, to counteract them on the day set apart for that purpose. It is only saying, with regard to all worldly occupations, what Burke said of politics in the pulpit;-Six days are full of them, and six days are enough; let us give one day to something better.

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