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regularly and faithfully inculcated upon the Lord's day. These means, if not immediately followed by a saving change of heart, at any particular period of their enjoyment, were not altogether unproductive of salutary effects. — "While I was yet a child," he says, "the solemn impressions of the being and presence of God, of my dependence upon him, and the awful realities of a future state, were very strong, and frequently interrupted me in my play and sports. I often left my little companions and sought some retired spot, where I might pray, without being observed. What I prayed for, and what my views and exercises in prayer were, I do not now reccollect; but there was something of the fear and reverence of God, of the evil of sin, and an universal obligation to fulfil every duty, which occupied my mind, aroused my conscience, and convinced me that I could never be happy, if I remained an enemy to God, or wilfully transgressed his holy commandments — But these first principles or convictions, whatever they were, did not prove effectual to produce conversion. They were changeable and transient. They frequently returned, and were as frequently forgotten, excepting that they created in me a lively and tender conscience, which, through all the giddy mazes, violent temptations, and wild eccentricities of youth, never wholly forsook me. They excited a rigid

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monitor within my breast, and often silently but powerfully preserved me from follies and sins which, otherwise, I should undoubtedly have perpetrated. I recollect instances wherein the Lord, with a strong hand and discernible interposition, prevented me from committing sins where temptations were numerous and urgent. These early impressions went no farther. — The amount of benefits resulting from early parental instruction, and from all the ordinances and sermons I had heard during my whole life, was nothing more than some confused ideas of truths, which I did not understand, or believe. This was my own fault, for I had not been in earnest or desirous to know the Lord or obey his word."

The fault most assuredly was his own; and he is not the only one who has had to acknowledge the neglect or abuse of precious means of grace. — Some, possibly, who read these pages can confess, that they have sadly disregarded the tears, and prayers, and faithful instructions of pious friends — still living, or peradventure, already mouldering in the grave, — and that various opportunities of religious improvement, which a kind providence has permitted them to enjoy, through their own remissness or obstinacy, have proved of very little benefit to their souls. Happy they, who see and own