AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF A NEW YEAR.

We wish the Panoplist to sustain such a character, as that its readers, whenever it meets their eyes, should receive it as a friend; -a friend to the human race, to the cause of truth, to our common country, to every good institution, and to themselves individually. Whether such has been its character hitherto, each reader will decide for himself; and, while he reserves the privilege of thus de-. ciding, will permit us to speak in the character, which we wish to sustain. We will venture, then, to offer such reflections and such advice to our readers, as we think ought to be well received from the mouth of an acknowledged friend, who should be cordially desirous of promoting the eternal interests of those whom he was addressing.

The commencement of a new year is sometimes celebrated with festivity and mirth; but it better comports with the nature of man, as an immortal and accountable being, that this season should be regarded as the opportunity for serious thought, and faithful selfexamination. A year is an important portion of human life, especially of active life. Deduct from our scanty number of years the period of childhood and early youth, the months of sickness, and the season which is often burdened with the infirmities of age; and the remainder, which can be applied to the active service of God in the church and in the world, will be small. Let those, who are now enjoying this precious season of activity, consider that the year past has borne testimony for them, or against them. The tenor of their conduct and their feelings cannot have been of an indifferent character. Here let each reader pause. The scrutiny now proposed is worthy of his most solemn attention.

Of those, whom we are addressing, a considerable number can derive pleasure, we are confident, from a self-examination conductupon Christian principles. Though they find many sins to lament, many unhappy examples to deplore, many instances of neg ligence and indolence to condemn, yet they can truly say, that the prevailing influence of their words, their conduct, and their feelings, has been friendly to the cause of truth, and to the present and future happiness of those with whom they have been conversant. They can reflect with joy and gratitude, that they have been made acquainted with the Gospel; that they have, as they VOL. XII.

1

hope, embraced it; that they wish others, their families, their friends, their countrymen, and all mankind to embrace it; that they endeavor by precept and example to promote its influence among men; that they honor its holy institutions by observing them and inducing others to observe them; that they take an active part in the various plans for diffusing a knowledge of the Bible and salvation among the destitute in every country; that they rejoice in the success of the Gospel more than in any private good; and that its final triumph is the object of their desires, their hopes, their fondest anticipations.

To such persons we would gladly offer a word of encouragement. Various and weighty are the motives, which urge them to persevere, and to strive that the commencement of every future year of their lives may find them continually and rapidly advancing in the way toward heaven. They will do well to stimulate their activity by reflecting seriously and often, on the amazing conscquences of their actions, not only as it respects themselves, but many others with whom they have intercourse. Man has great things to do in this world. He must exert either a salutary or a baleful influence. His existence must be either a blessing or a curse to himself and others. How urgent, then, is the duty of employing life in a course of active beneficence; and how powerfully should this duty commend itself to the hearts and consciences of those, who profess and feel a personal interest in the great realitics of the world to come. One would think it scarcely necessary to exhort persons of this class to the performance of their high duties, or to remind them of their privileges and their heavenly calling. Yet such is the lukewarmness, the heedlessness, the stupidity, even of good men, that they continually need to have those duties urged, the performance of which is reasonably expected from them, and which relate to the public prosperity of religion in the world. As the influence of each man is attended with everlasting consequences, it especially behoves professors of religion to scrutimize the tendency of their actions; to mark the progress of their characters; to take the alarm if indolent, or slumbering at their posts; and to press forward, if they find reason to judge favorably of their spiritual state.

But we turn to another class of readers. It is not uncharitable to suppose, that many persons will cast their eyes upon these lines, who have never engaged in the service of Christ, nor committed their souls to Him. Probably they admit the Bible to be the word of God, and hope at some future time to share in the blessings which it offers. They cannot deny, however, that for the present they are destitute of a personal interest in the salvation of the Gospel; that they have done little, if any thing, to promote the cause of Christianity; that their hearts are little affected with invisible things; and that they are lamentably deficient in every distinguish ing trait of the Christian. How many will not hesitate to make all these confessions to themselves, if not to some intimate friend; and still how little do they feel the import of what they acknow

ledge to be true. They will do well to consider, that every argument, which can at any time influence them in reference to religion, ought to have an effect now; that they can gain nothing by procrastination, and may very probably lose all; that the motives which now induce them to defer the concerns of their souls to “a more convenient season," will but too probably operate to-morrow, the next month, and the next year, till no time shall remain; till the last hour, like all its predecessors, shall have been squandered away, and the last offers of mercy shall have been neglected and abused. How melancholy the thought, that this should actually be the case with many, who are in the enjoyment of Christian privileges, and who, from their earliest years, have heard the proclamation, "Repent; change your moral characters; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

It is with peculiar solicitude that we turn our attention to the young, Among this interesting class of persons we have many readers; some, we hope, who, in the morning of their days, have sincerely dedicated themselves to the service of their Maker, and others who feel anxiously desirous of obtaining the favor of God, and of participating in the employments and the blessedness of his people. Happy will it be for the rising generation, if they make a wise choice, at an early period of their lives, and devote their whole strength and activity to Him, who has given them every faculty which they possess, and who requires that every faculty should be employed to his glory. Happy will it be, if the youth of our country should engage in the great and glorious work of reforming publie morals, of purifying our land, and of sending the Gospel to the destitute in every region. That this will be the case, to a very considerable extent, we fully believe. It must be the case, before the united energies of a Christian community can be brought to bear with the proper effect upon a great common object. It is customary to speak highly of the season of youth, and to urge upon the young their encouragements and their duties; yet we are not sure that this period of life has had its full importance assigned to it. The aged have more wisdom and more judgment, but the young have more activity and more courage; and it is by courage and by action that the world is swayed, rather than by prudent reasonings and sage counsels. When the young enlist in a good cause, they will be docile, and willing to profit by the knowledge and experience of the aged; and thus by a happy union the greatest and the best results will be produced. On this subject, there has been, in every age, a miserable deception, of which merely nominal Christians have been the dupes. It is this; that the young may well be excused from many serious and religious duties, for the purpose of engaging in what are called the appropriate enjoyments of youth; that is, in various worldly pursuits and amusements, which are deemed quite incompatible with a strict religious profession. This mistake has a most pernicious tendency. It needs to be exposed and shunned. Never can it be more desirable, that "every thought should be brought into captivity to the obedience of

Christ," than at the period of youth. The character is then forming. Very frequently all future years take their impression from that period. Those, who are benevolent, chaste, and pious in youth, are almost invariably useful and happy in old age; while those, who spend their youth in the neglect of serious duties, too commonly grow more careless as their years advance, spend a useless if not a mischievous old age, and remain without hope till the lamp of life is extinguished.

It is a pleasing fact, that in our own country, as well as in Great Britain, many youths, of both sexes, and possessing distinguished advantages, are coming forward with a determination to make it the business of their lives to do good-to mitigate human suffering, to remove ignorance, to suppress and discountenance vice, and to disseminate the knowledge of salvation in a perishing world. How cheering must it be to the heart of the aged saint, who has labored faithfully in the service of his Divine Master, and is just about closing his sacred employments on earth, to look around him and see a multitude of the rising generation zealously engaged in the same cause, and bringing to its aid talents, wealth, eloquence, and ceaseless activity. How encouraging must it be to the young themselves, to see so goodly a number pledged to stand by each other; to maintain the arduous struggle against sin in all its forms; and to live as examples of the purifying and sacred efficacy of the Gospel.

Never has there been a time, within the reach of modern history, when the young could look up to such a constellation of all the splendid virtues, as now shine upon the world. On what page, in the annals of beneficent exertions, if we except the inspired teachers of the true religion, can a Wilberforce be found? If you do not search in vain, throughout preceding centuries, for a man, who occupied a distinguished place in the legislature of a great nation; whose life was one continued triumph of illustrious talents and exalted virtue over ignorance, prejudice, and malevolence; and whose private character exhibited a bright assemblage of all the amiable domestic and social qualities, while his public services called forth the benedictions of the friends of Christianity in every part of the world; you will yet find it difficult, if not impossible, to fix your eyes on any individual so preeminent in worth, and so successful in the most glorious enterprises, so beloved in the social circle, and so powerful in the senate, as the man who is hailed, by common acclamation, THE LIBERATOR OF AFRICA.

In what preceding age has a woman been found, who can be compared to Hannah More, in the extent of the benefits conferred upon the world by her long continued exertions? While she has taught monarchs to reign with righteousness and dignity, her principal and successful aim has been to instruct the cottager in his duty, and to direct and accompany the humble Christian in his way toward heaven.

Who is ignorant of the labors, the self-denying and disinterested services of Dr. Buchanan, not now among the living, alas! but just

gone to share in the blessedness of those, who have turned many to righteousness.' Nor ought we to omit the names of Fuller and Thornton, whom the Christian world has lately been called to mourn, and who, though they occupied far different stations, are For yet to be numbered among the great benefactors of mankind. a multitude of examples, less distinguished indeed than those which have been mentioned, but highly worthy of imitation, look at the faithful missionaries, and the faithful preachers of the Gospel in our own country and abroad; look at the most zealous patrons and promoters of all charitable designs, and of all attempts to preserve and restore purity of morals; look at the enlightened legislator and the learned civilian, who, in the fear of God, and for the promotion of his glory, exert their talents and influence to prevent and suppress vice, and uphold the cause of virtue. Wherever such characters are to be found, they should excite the emulation of those who may succeed them in the same employments, and attract the love and veneration of all. The judicious observer will not hesitate to acknowledge, that the present times abound in examples of elevated virtue, and furnish powerful incentives to engage in the most laudable undertakings.

The present day is, to Christians preeminently, a day of action. Whatever mere profession may have done in other times, it will not in our days give even the appearance of religion. The man, who calls himself a Christian, and yet feels no interest in the prosperity of the church, and makes no sacrifices to promote the salvation of his fellow men, may well conclude that he is destitute of that heavenly principle, charity, without which all other attainments are nothing. Certain it is, that no sincere Christian can hesitate to take a part in the great works of benevolence, which are going forward, unless he is in deplorable ignorance on these subjects. Probably a considerable number of Christians are in this state of ignorance. If so, their case is to be lamented; for they are deprived of some of the most precious enjoyments, of which the human soul is capable.

Men are now taking sides, and acting in support of the side to which they adhere. Never was there a time more favorable to a developement of real character. Never was it easier for a man to ascertain his true condition; and never was there a time so favorable to every attempt to do good to others. Shall we, shall any of our readers, suffer this seed-time of the world to pass away, without making that use of it, for which it was evidently designed? If Divine wisdom has declared, that he that sleepeth in harvest, is a son that causeth shame," what a load of reproach and shame is brought upon the Christian profession, by those, who have taken upon them the name of Christ, and yet sleep in seed time and in harvest, and can never be roused from their slumbers?

Let us not be understood, however, to assert or imply, that apparent activity in the service of Christ is conclusive evidence of a saving interest in Him. The great Apostle of the Gentiles has decided the point, that no sacrifices of time, of property, or of life