God always tends to happiness; while want of conformity to that government ensures moral discord, increasing to the despairing cry of the dying sinner and the wailing of the lost.

Look at this man who makes his home but a boarding-house, where he may eat and sleep. His wife is merely his housekeeper. His children are necessary evils, to be kept out of the way as much as possible. To-day he is at the bowling-alley; to-morrow he is at the billiard-room; and the next day he is till midnight at the whist party. He is a jovial companion, and greets his associates with an air of careless mirth, as though he never knew a sorrow. But, in truth, he is a poor pitiable victim of disquietude and depression. His jokes are forced his smile is unnatural. It is even by constraint that he retains the semblance of good nature. See him at home -how petulant and irascible! The least annoyance is, to his mind, like the spark to the powder. His children, while they flee from his frown, imbibe his spirit. See him, as he rises in the morning, gloomy and cross. The poor creature hardly knows the meaning of the word enjoyment. This is a man of pleasure! He will not obey God's law, because it will disturb his happiness! Wretched man! He is the victim of his own sins. He is serving Satan here,

and Satan rewards him, as he does all his disciples, with the painfully forced semblance of joy, but with an harassed spirit and prospective destruction. He

Lord Chesterfield was such a man. spent his whole life in the vain pursuit of pleasure, and yet happiness continually eluded his search. Listen to his candid confession:-"I have seen the silly round of business and pleasure, and have done with it all. I have enjoyed all the pleasures of the world, and consequently know their futility and do not regret their loss. I appraise them at their real value, which in truth is very low; whereas those who have not experienced always overrate them. They only see the gay outside, and are dazzled with the glare; but I have been behind the scenes. When I reflect upon what I have seen, what I have heard, and what I have done, I cannot persuade myself that all the frivolous hurry and bustle of the world had any reality. Shall I tell you that I bear this melancholy situation with the meritorious resignation and constancy which most men boast? No, Sir! I really cannot help it. I bear it because I must bear it, whether I will or no. I think of nothing but killing time the best way I can." What a comment is this confession upon what is generally called worldly pleasure.

The dying scene of such a man is a fear

ful commentary upon his misspent life. He lies upon his dying bed, annoying all around him by his irritability. The retrospect of the past affords him no pleasure, and the future is filled with fearful forebodings. And there he lies, brooding in sullen silence upon the present pains, with no consolations in respect to the future. He dies and is forgotten. But oh! this is not the end of his history. Judgment is before him, and eternal retribution succeeds. The imagina tion shrinks from following him into those regions.

CHAPTER IV.

THE CHURCH.

THERE are several packet ships plying between New-York and Liverpool. If I am about to cross the Atlantic, I select that ship which appears to me to be most commodious and safe. Other persons, with the same object in view, select a different ship. Perhaps they think it better adapted to encounter storms, or they wish to go in company with a friend who has already secured his passage. We all embark on the voyage

in our different ships. God prospers us all. He sends his wind to waft us across the ocean, and one after another we arrive at our destined port. One ship has furnished rather the best accommodations and the most pleasant society. Another has proved the better sailor. A third has rode through every storm without shipping a sea. But all are good ships. All arrive in safety; and the little inconveniences of the voyage are soon forgotten.

Thus do several individuals who have become the disciples of Jesus Christ set out on their voyage to heaven. Their tastes, their friendships, their means of information respecting the different organizations into which the Christian church is divided, are different. One has had his attention called to the subject of religion while listening to the appeals of an Episcopal clergyman, and consequently his earliest and his warmest religious associations cluster around the Episcopal church. Another is surrounded with Baptist friends, who have pleaded with him and prayed for him till, by the blessing of God, he has been led to the believer's hope; and in their Christian sympathies he finds support and encouragement such as he can find no where else. Another would have gone down to the grave, strong in his sins, were it not that the earnest accents of a Methodist preacher startled his

slumbering conscience. He was led to the class-meeting, and, while listening to fervent prayer, the Holy Spirit renewed his heart. Such a man will surely embark in the Methodist ship, to meet the storms and adverse winds of life. Another has been reared in the bosom of a Congregational family. He has, from early life, listened to the prayers of parents, whose stable and cheerful piety has ever been soothing his passions and appealing to his conscience. He has been led by them by the hand to the church, and has listened year after year to the calm instructions of their revered pastor; and when, by the grace of God, he becomes a child of Jesus, he thinks there is no ship in the world like the good old Congregationalist. Another, who has few early prepossessions to influence his choice, who has no youthful religious associations entwining around the fibres of his heart, embarks on board any ship that happens to be most convenient. After sailing a few days a storm arises, or fogs and adverse winds are encountered. He thinks it the fault of the ship and begins to murmur. As soon as he sees another sail looming in the distance, he will take no rest till he is put on board, bag and baggage. But before many days pass away, some new inconveniences induce him to try another ship that heaves in sight. And it has generally been observed that