tinual increase. There is neither safety nor enjoyment but in every day endeavouring to exceed the attainments of the day before. "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." The greater your proficiency in holiness, the more useful will you be to others. Usefulness depends much more upon piety than upon any thing else. The greatest talents on earth are useless and mischievous, unless sanc tified by genuine piety. A man may have influence without piety, but his influence will prove a curse. No thing can prevent the learning, the wealth, and the power of men from injuring both the church and the world, but either solid piety, or the interference of Divine Providence. But piety is useful every where. It makes but little show, perhaps, but it exerts a mighty influence. It works unseen, but not unfelt: it catches hold of all who come within its sphere, and by its silent and powerful appeals, it subdues the heart, and brings men to glorify our Father which is in heaven. Take any situation in life or any office in the church, and it will still be found that the most pious will still prove the most useful man. The father in his family, the minister in the pulpit and among his flock, the leader in his class, the teacher in the school, the workman or the tradesman among his connexions and associates, will all contribute towards the spread of truth and holiness, in proportion as they are filled with truth and holiness them selves. The most eloquent and finished orator that art can fashion, is but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal; while the full and anxious soul, that swells with godly and affectionate longings for the glory of God and the salva tion of souls, will spread a holy influence wherever it may move. The best congregations are still gathered by the most holy ministers; the best classes are still raised by the holiest leaders; the best families are reared by the holiest men; and every where the most efficient and useful institutions are managed by the holiest men. And the great object of those who desire to increase the usefulness of ministers and churches should be, not to furnish them with earthly and carnal attractions, but to impart richer measures of the spirit of holiness. It is not by large and well tuned organs, or by a learned and polished ministry, that we must expect to promote the salvation of our neighbours; but by well tuned hearts, and holy lives, and a readiness to do and suffer all the will of God. Organs, and surplices, and gowns, and college titles, and college learning, and all the attractions which art and human policy can throw around a place of worship, and around the actors in it, can never accomplish the slightest particle of good. They may collect a multitude of people together for a period, but it will be only for a period. The organ, and the gown, and all their poor accompaniments, will soon grow old, and then the attraction is gone. Besides, the synagogues of Satan can imitate all such things as these, and far out-do the professors of religion. Neither the chapels of dissenters, nor the churches, so called, of the establishment, will ever be able to keep pace, in outward attractions, with dancing saloons and houses of infamy. The good which these things seem to do is not real, and it endures but for a very short season. But the good effected by the exercise and exhibition of genuine piety, is solid and lasting. The influence of piety increases with time. The minister and the church that are truly alive to God, and that are daily making further advances in knowledge and true holiness, will not only excite attention, and gather many people round them, but also bring them to glorify their Father which is in heaven. If you wish, therefore, to be truly useful, go forward in the way of righteousness. Do not be content with having a little piety; but seek to be filled with all the fulness of God. Labour each day to excel your former selves. Pass by the standards which men have formed, and aim at the perfect stature of the fulness of Christ. The more you grow in grace, the more perfect will your example be, and nothing tends more surely and powerfully to bring men to God, than the good examples of professing Christians. The more you grow in grace, the more anxious you will be to spread the religion of Christ, and to convert the souls of your neighbours; and a soul anxious to do good will always find means to accomplish its wishes. The more you grow in grace, the less anxiety will you have for sinful and selfish gratifications, and the more money, and time, and thought will you have to consecrate to works of usefulness. The more you grow in grace, the more earnestly will you pray, and the more will God regard your prayers. The more you grow in grace, the less will you be moved by oppositions and discouragements, and the less likely will you be to grow uneasy in well doing. In all these ways will an increase of piety in us have the advantage over all other measures of usefulness. A growth in grace will secure an increase of happiness. Nothing but true religion can give happiness to man, and nothing but an increase of true religion can bring us an increase of happiness. A great part of the misery of many people arises from their evil tempers; but a growth in grace would sweep these evil tempers away. Many professors of religion suffer much and frequently from reproaches of conscience; a growth in grace would render them more careful in their behaviour, and enable them to keep their consciences void of offence. A growth in grace is a growth in love to God and love to man; and the indulgence and exercise of those two affections form one of the principal elements of human happiness. Hatred and uncharitableness are the very elements of infernal torments, and they who harbour them, carry with them a hell in their own bosoms. But love is heaven; it is the principal fountain of joy to the whole intelligent and holy universe. The more religion you possess, the fuller will your assurance of God's favour be. Some are troubled with doubts of their acceptance every day they live, and their minds are never completely at rest. A growth in grace would cure this evil, and enable them to rejoice in the assurance of the divine favour with joy unspeakable. A growth in grace will strengthen your confidence in the divine promises, it will brighten your prospects into the eternal world, and enliven your hopes of glory. It will lessen your anxieties for earthly things; it will make you more satisfied with the dispensations of providence; it will sweeten life, and it will take away the fear of death. Some speak as if the happiness of religion was greatest at first, and as if the sweetness of its pleasures lessened as the novelty passed away. They are in a great error. If Christians are faithful to their God, their happiness will continually abound. If people will stand still, and attempt to make no progress in religion, their happiness will lessen; but if they grow in grace, as God has commanded, their pleasures will be always new, and every year they will be more pure and more abundant. There is no comparison be tween the first enjoyments of religion, and the enjoyments of the Christian when he has spent ten or twenty years in the faithful service of God. The young convert can form no idea of the happiness he shall enjoy in his farther progress, if he be faithful in the improvement of his talents. "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." THE SABBATH. "THE Sabbath was made for man," and it ought to be employed by Christians in such a way as is best calculated to promote the spread of religion, and the welfare of mankind. The fitness of any employment for the sabbath day, is to be reckoned according to its tendency to promote the best interests of mankind. Christ has taught us that it is not only lawful to do good on the sabbath day, but that doing good is the proper business of the sabbath. The Jews might keep their sabbath by simply resting from servile labour; but Christians cannot keep their sabbath day aright, unless they spend it in labours of charity. The man who spends the sabbath in absolute rest, no more spends it well, than the man who spends it in following his daily business. Idleness is a greater profanation of the sabbath, than any kind of honest labour. Nor does he who spends it in performing acts of worship merely, spend it well. The sabbath was as laborious a day to Christ as any of the seven, and so it ought to be to us. We ought to look on our sabbaths as given us on purpose to afford us an opportunity of doing something towards the improvement and salvation of mankind; and to such labours as we have reason to believe are best adapted to promote this glorious end, we ought to consecrate its hours. It is not only right, therefore, to teach children to read and to write on the sabbath day, but to teach them every thing else that is calculated to promote the best interests of children, or to qualify them for usefulness to mankind in after life. If I thought myself called to preach the Gospel in Germany, it would be right for me to study German on the sabbath. If I thought that by teaching my children, or the children of a sabbath school, German, I might probably be instrumental in giving a missionary to that country, I should think it right to teach my children German on the sabbath. And so with any other language, and so with any other branch of knowledge. I should not only think that I did no evil in thus employing the sabbath, but I should think I was doing something truly good. And indeed I think it is much to be lamented that Christians do not make more use of the sabbath in thus fitting the young for usefulness. When I think of the dark and miserable state of the world, and of the thousands of teachers and missionaries that are wanted in order to evangelize the earth, I feel quite sorry that sabbath schools should not have arrangements for teaching all the languages of the earth. would have sabbath schools, just as I would have all other institutions, carried on with a view to this one object, the conversion and salvation of the world. And I would give to all that attended, an opportunity of obtaining the means of happiness and usefulness to the farthest possible extent. What a blessing it would be if every youth that is trained in sabbath schools, or in religious families, were prepared, when he came of age, to go as a teacher or a missionary to Germany, to France, or to any other nation of the earth! I And all this might be done without much trouble. It would be very easy to obtain the necessary books for the purpose, and in a year or two teachers might be provided in abundance. And as for the children, they would |