388 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l793 



offer stich considerations as, under divine grace, may disentangle our 

 tlioughts, and wean our souls from too great an attachment to the 

 things of this world and send them forward to another world in earnest 

 longings after immortality; anticipating the joys above, and seating 

 ourselves by faith in the company of angels and archangels ; having our 

 conversation in heaven, looking for the coming of our Lord, and pant- 

 ing to be with him forever ! 



The next discourse seems to have been attended, in a more par- 

 ticular way, by the younger class of people. It is from the same 

 texts as the former one, and on the same general subject — " How, 

 through divine assistance, we may subdue the fear of death." 

 Passing over — as we must do for want of space — the earlier parts 

 of the discourse, we come to a special address to the young. Its 

 style recalls the full dress and form, with the gentility, unhappily, 

 with both too much departed, of days just remembered by our- 

 selves. 



Oh, ye youth of these rising, and yet happy, American States ! for 

 whose admonition, instruction, and illumination the past and best part 

 of my life has been devoted, through a long term of years; receive, or 

 rather bear, the repetition of a lesson, perhaps the last, of old age ! 



Boast not, therefore, of your youth or strength or beauty, but in the 

 hopes you entertain, and the resolution you have formed of preparing 

 yourselves, to live a life of future usefulness, and to animate you in this 

 resolution, look forward to the glorious scenes in which you will be 

 called to act your part; and look back also "to the rock from whence 

 you were hewed, and the hole of the pit from whence you were 

 digged."* Think of the steps by which your virtuous and frugal 

 ancestors rose into consideration, and say whether you can find one of 

 their number that attained to any eminence but by virtue and industry. 

 in some settled calling or profession. Spurn from you, betimes, the 

 syren's sloth and idleness, and seek to come forth on the theatre 

 assigned to you, all energy and action, in the sight of mortal and im- 

 mortal powers, striving to fill your post with diligence and dignity — 

 abiding therein, luit abiding with God! Spurn from you also the love 

 of false pleasure, and seek to make a just estimate of that pleasure, 

 which God in his goodness has ordained as the true alloy of our cares, 

 and the reward of a virtuous course of action ! 



If you seek pleasure, let it be the pleasure of your whole nature and 

 existence, considered with respect both to time and eternity! And in 

 this view, the pleasure of a rational being, made in the image of his 



* Isaiah li. 1. 



