horror; you may combine the darkness of midnight with the fury of the storm, and let the flashing of the lightning, and the rolling of the thunder, be the terrible accompaniment, and still you will have nothing that will more than faintly shadow forth the might and the misery seated in that sinner's bosom. And who has thoughts far reaching enough to overtake eternity? And yet eternity, eternity is the field on which the ruling passion is to have its perpetual development! I know not all the ingredients in the cup of trembling, which is put into the hands of the wicked in the next world; but it is enough for me to know, that the ruling passion for evil, whose operations sometimes terrify me here on earth, will not only be an everlasting inmate of the bosom, but will wax more fierce, and strong, and terrible, for ever. Now, look at the man whose ruling passion is for good, and take the measure, if you can, of the happiness which he enjoys, of the good which he accomplishes, in its progressive and eternal development. As you see him here, bearing afflictions with undisturbed tranquillity, encountering difficulties with an overcoming faith, traversing the dark valley with an unfaltering step, you feel that the upward tendencies of his spirit are strong; and you are not afraid to see him die, because you are satisfied that his is the good man's death. But, even in all this, you have seen the ruling passion of only an imperfect Christian. Wait a little, till he has passed the heavenly portals, and you may contemplate that of a glorified saint. Lay every thing else, that may enter into the idea of future bliss, entirely out of view I am sure you will not doubt that here, in the saint's own bosom, and, at the first moment after he has entered Heaven, is enough to constitute the eternal weight of glory. But, here again, look ye down through the vista of future centuries, fasten upon the remotest point to which even your imagination can reach, and the ruling passion for doing good and glorifying God, shall be acting with an energy that is the result of the steady growth of all the millions of ages that have intervened. And that shall be the starting point for a new course of development that shall make all that has preceded appear feeble and infantile. Saint in heaven, I lose myself in the contemplation of thy destiny! Be thou where thou wilt in God's dominions, that ruling passion of thy soul, ever active and ever growing, will keep thee entranced with the glories of Heaven. Oh that I could write, as with the point of a diamond, on the memories and hearts of all our young men, the great practical lessons which this subject suggests to them; that I could show them how intimately it connects itself with all their responsibilities and prospects. Many of you, I doubt not, have already set your affections on the things that are above, and are running for the heavenly prize; but others of you, I have reason to fear, are making haste for the accomplishment of your own ruin. You are dreaming that the pres ent is the time for indulgence, and that the future will be the time for repentance; that it matters little what you do now, in the days of your youth, as there will be time enough to retrieve your errors in the graver period of your maturity. As to the probability of your ever seeing that period, I leave it to your own reflection, after you have walked through any burying ground you please, and noticed how large a proportion of the grave stones mark the departure of the young; but the point which I wish to urge upon you is, that you are, imperceptibly to yourselves, forming a habit of indifference to religion; that each successive act of indulgence, or even procrastination, lessens your power to resist temptation, and increases the probability that you will never repent; and that, when the anticipated period for giving your hearts to God shall come, you may find yourselves so entirely under the dominion of your own lusts, as to be discouraged even from any attempt to escape. I say, then, your own dignity, your own safety, your own immortality, protests against this habit of delay; and if you open your eyes you will see "Danger," Danger," written in letters of fire upon every unhallowed object to which your affections incline. But you are not merely to be happy or miserable yourselves you are to exert a mighty influence in rendering others so; and that influence will operate in the one direction or the other, according to the character of your own ruling passion. Particularly your country's interests are, to a great extent, bound up in you; and the wise and far-seeing, at this moment, have their eyes upon you, as they would discern what are the signs of the times. Nay, there is an imploring voice that comes up from the depths of the future-the voice of unborn generations, reminding you that you are the depositories of their interests, and that the period is rapidly passing away in which you can earn their grateful benedictions. What, then, is to be done? I answer, see to it, first, that your own ruling passion be right-that it be for truth and goodness, for conscience and for God. If the great work of making it right is yet to be performed, come penitently, and confidingly, and obediently, and bow down to the Holy Ghost, and you shall receive the clean heart at his hands. And then go abroad and try to change the ruling passion of the world. Labour, with all your might, in dependance on God's grace, to give to men's thoughts and affections an upward direction. Thus you will not only save yourselves, but be your country's benefactors through all successive generations; and when the ransomed shall all be gathered home, and shall be joining, under the influence of the ruling passion of Heaven, in a common song to Him who hath redeemed them, how ecstatic will be your joy to recognise among them, not one, but many, whose ruling passion, through your instrumentality, has been changed from sin to holiness, and whose eternal destiny has undergone a corresponding change from wo to bliss-from hell to Heaven! SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL LAW. BY J. W. YEOMANS, D. D. PASTOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, DANVILLE, pa. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail.-LUKE xvi. 17. WHEN the Saviour was derided by covetous Pharisees, for teaching that men could not serve God and mammon, he reminds them of an universal and unchangeable law, by which the actions and characters of all moral creatures were to be tried. He warns them that, easily as they might justify themselves before men, there was yet a tribunal where not actions only, but hearts would be judged; and the verdict of the degenerate sentiment around them could be no safe criterion to prove their manners blameless, and their prospects fair. Many things highly esteemed among men are abomination in the sight of God; and the judgment of God is the decision of a last appeal. It decides by a rule which is, by eminence, "THE LAW." And, however men may evade an honest and fair conformity, by glossing or wresting the letter, they cannot change or annul the law itself. scheme of the universe. That law underlies the |