1793] ^'^^'- ^VILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 399 



and abilities to serve their country in its highest offices are forbidden to 

 waste their prime of life and talents in scenes of dissipation and folly; 

 they are exhorted to spurn from their bosom and their company the 

 profane talker, the debauchee, the gamester, the sharper ! But what is 

 all this, except to lead persons, born for worthy actions, to the noblest 

 twofold saving — a saving of time from degrading and unworthy conver- 

 sation (which might be better employed in the improvement of their 

 own faculties, and in planning for the public weal) ; and a saving of 

 expense (which might redeem a virtuous family from distress, and make 

 the widow's heart sing for joy). 



To stimulate us, therefore, in such fair and noble pursuits, let us 

 always keep in view the great objects that lie before us — the career of 

 glory to which we are called as a people. Let us remember that it was 

 not by idle hands, nor by reclining in the lap of indolence, nor by the 

 pursuit of false pleasure, or vanities unsuited to their condition, that our 

 honorable ancestors subdued a wilderness, and left this goodly heritage 

 to their posterity ! nor is it by means like these that we can transmit 

 it safe and flourishing to our children and children's children. 



It is always too soon when a people, even arrived at the meridian of 

 their glory, forget those virtues by which they were raised into im- 

 portance; but for us, who have not yet half-way reached our noon; for 

 us, whose sun of glory has but just raised his head above the cloudy 

 mountains ; for us, I say, to relax one jot of our industry and virtue, or 

 to loiter in the morning of our day — what sluggards might we be 

 deemed ! Above all, let us do away the evil thing, and check that 

 growing indifference to religion which is spreading, by fatal example, 

 even from many of our high places to the lowest ranks of our people, 

 and brings us under the reproach of Solomon, when he cries out: 

 " Wherefore is there a price set in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, 

 seeing he hath no heart to it? "* " If Christ had not come and spoken 

 to us, we had not known sin; but now we have no cloak for sin."f 

 '•And better had it been for us never to have kn®wn the way of right- 

 eousness, than, after we have known it, to turn from the holy command- 

 ment delivered unto us."| Forbid it, gracious God, that we should 

 ever thus turn ourselves back from the truths made known to us in 

 Christ Jesus ! Our sins and ingratitude to thee, our great Creator, 

 having been in many respects like those of the Jews, let us follow their 

 best example, and not only resolve, but swear, as they did in the days 

 of good king Asa, that we Avill henceforth support the honor of our 

 Christian calling, nor suffer among us those who deny the being of their 

 Creator, who are enemies to the religion of their country, and trample 

 under foot its holy ordinances. Let us swear to amend our lives, to 

 walk for the future in true holiness before God ; to venerate and obey 



* Prov. xvii. 16. f John xv. 22. + 2 Peter ii. 21, 



