ties, the terrors of opposition and persecution, insensible declines from God, and a worldly spirit, whilst we are endeavoring to serve our generation ?"

And here we must premise that the power of Almighty God, the intercession of Christ, and the operations of the Holy Spirit are the only effectual sources of preservation. The prayer of the text is addressed by our Lord to his heavenly Father. It beseeches him to keep the disciples. It is he, the only wise God that must "keep us from falling, and present us faultless in his presence with exceeding joy." We are "kept," saith the apostle Peter, "by the power of God through faith unto salvation;" and a childlike reliance on 66 that glorious power which strengthens us with all might by the Spirit in the inner man must ever be united with the use of

such means as may be suggested.

1. The first is earnest, fervent, persevering prayer. This is intimated by the whole bearing of the text. If our blessed Savior thus prayed for us, it is sufficiently obvious that we should unceasingly pray for ourselves. The whole spiritual life is sustained by prayer, as the natural by the air we breathe. The mists and fogs of the world will soon obscure our view, if they are not dissipated and our eyes kept awake and watchful by communion with that invisible and spiritual world which is the grand antagonist principle to the present sensible one.

2. Diligence in our lawful callings is another means of God's keeping us. This is so far from

being to be avoided, that it is to be improved as one chief method of safety. It is not in idleness or va, cancy of mind, but in the honest occupations of our lawful calling, that the real evil of the world is to be escaped. Of all the perils to which I have adverted, the far larger number spring, not from our duties in life, but from the pleasures and engagements to which we choose to expose ourselves out of those

duties, and often in opposition to them. The idle student, the indolent civil or military servant, the careless pleasure-hunting merchant or trader, the thriftless mother of a family, the unconcerned trifling wife, the disobedient, heedless son are the kind of persons who lay open to Satan's seductions. When our worldly business is attended to as it ought to be, and secret duties of devotion are punctually observed, there cannot remain a great deal of time for persons of any station, beyond what their families and households justly claim from them.

3. The sanctification of the Lord's day, with a careful use of all the other appointed means of grace and instruction, may next be mentioned. To keep us from the evil of the world, God gives us one day after every six, for spiritual meditation, public worship, reading Holy Scripture, visiting the sick, family religious instruction, and anticipations of the rest and employments of heaven. He that does not serve God on this day, is sure not to serve him on any of the remaining ones.

4. God keeps us also by means of afflictions. "In the world ye shall have tribulation," is a sentence not only prophetic of an event, but full of intimations of the remedial effects flowing from it. God knows when to smite; when to tear and rend away the creature to which we are too closely attaching ourselves; when to shiver to atoms the cup of pleasure which we are just putting to our mouths. Afflictions soon turn the objects of sense into wormwood; soon arouse us when falling asleep on the enchanted ground; soon wean us, as the infant from the breast, from worldly joys and consolation.

5. Watchfulness over the first symptoms of distaste for God and spiritual things, for the cross and prayer, for conflict with the world, and for afflictions is a means of safety. As loss of appetite, distaste for wholesome food, prostration of strength,

and restlessness alarm us with respect to our bodily health; so should similar indications as to our spiritual.

6. Much retirement, the habit of retreat, of meditation in secret, of preparation for public duties by previous solitude, of continually bringing the soul into close contact, as it were, with its relations to God, its state, its wants, its dangers, its spiritual interests, is another method by which God preserves us. Moses, Elijah, Daniel, John Baptist, our Lord himself present infallible examples of the necessity of preparing for fulfilling our duties in the world, by being often and much in holy retirement.

7. The instances of awful shipwreck of faith occasioned by love of the world, are, also, of great importance, when duly contemplated, for enabling us to shun the like rocks and quicksands. "Remember Lot's wife," is a warning which should ever be sounding in our ears: Demas hath forsaken us, having loved this present world," is another. The cases of king Solomon; the rich fool; Dives; the guest in the parable; and even Martha "troubled and careful about many things," are beacons also in their different degrees.

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8. The society and friendship of eminent Christians may be mentioned, again, as an important means of safety. We are social creatures; our intimate friends must diffuse to us good or evil: "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but the companion of fools shall be destroyed."

9. Meditation on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, especially when preparing to celebrate the mysteries of his love, is, lastly, an indispensable means of preservation from the world. "God forbid,” says the apostle, "that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life

which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God."

Two objections shall be briefly refuted in the conclusion of this most important subject; the one is raised chiefly by the young; the other, by the talented and busy placed in public life.

The young are not satisfied; they want to know whether this and that particular amusement, this and that object of curiosity is lawful; they quote the opinion or practice of pious and respectable professors of Christianity; they assign their reasons for indulgence; they plead their age, the authority of parents, the circumstances of their residence, neighborhood, duties.

We reply, "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world." We reply, "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." We reply, "Ye are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God." We reply, "Beware lest Satan should get an advantage over you; for we are not ignorant of his devices."

They object still that all this is too general. We say, then, Whatever is sinful in itself or its necessary consequences; whatever excites impure associations and trains of thought; whatever dissipates the solidity and seriousness of the soul; whatever occupies time or employs money unprofitably; whatever has the 66 appearance of evil;" whatever causes your neighbor to offend is to be renounced.

They still object, and wish to come down to doubtful or minute cases, involved in a variety of apparently conflicting questions and duties. We reply, Into these the minister of religion can scarcely ever safely enter; those things are sometimes indifferent, sometimes dangerous, and sometimes sinful. We can

not tell you therefore what is your individual duty -and if we could, it would be of no avail. The truth is too plain; you have little heart for spiritual religion.

We object, in our turn, to such objections. We object to the wrong state of mind which they betray. We complain of the decline of soul towards God which could propose them. We object, that they imply that you would fain crave permission to increase the difficulties of your salvation; that you would ask leave to enfeeble a sinking constitution by unwholesome aliment; that you wish to approach the enemy's territories in order to be taken captive; that you strive to serve God and Mammon.

But a different class of objections is advanced, in an age like the present, by public persons, men of talent, eager popular characters, men who are placed in the breath of fame. They object to the strict character of our precepts and counsels. They talk of civil and religious freedom, of political claims, of public stations, of legislation, of party principles, sentiments, and duties. To all these matters we have very little to say. If the objections be honest, they will soon answer themselves, on further examination of the Scriptures, and prayer, and communion with God. The public man will not throw off the Christian; all the dangers of our first head will be admitted and guarded against by him; all the means of preservation, in our second, will be sedulously employed. Such an inquirer will, like Moses, and Daniel, and St. Paul, know how to reconcile his civil duties and privileges with the interior and exalted claims of religion and eternity.

But let the objector be on his guard. Christian Doctrine and Christian Morals cannot be changed. Nothing more fatally ruins the soul than what is termed a Political spirit. The world cannot as