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ignoranee of the truth and consolations of the gospel of Christ, are sure to bring upon you. Perhaps you are a father, and may be called to stand at the death-bed of a beloved child. That child may call upon you as a parent to administer consolation to its departing spirit. He clings to life, or ardently desires to live forever in the mansions of rest beyond the grave. But what consolation can you impart, if you are yourself ignorant of the doctrines of the gospel of Christ? The heartrending prospect of endless wo, or the gloomy horrors of annihilation, could afford no consolation to that mind, which has the principles of glory deeply rooted in its nature, and which nothing but the continuance of existence can rationally satisfy. As you value uubroken peace in the hour of dissolution, and as you value the happiness of these dear pledges heaven has lent you, study for the evidence of christian truth, search the scriptures, and labor to enter into that rest that remains here to the believing people of God, who are born again and specially saved through faith in the truth.

This labor is not only important in view of the solemn hour of death, but important in view of the life you here live in the flesh. Happiness is the ultimate pursuit of all mortal beings. They vainly imagine that it can be found in riches, honors and titles-yes, even imagine that it can be found in the hard ways of the transgressor. Though sensible that worlds before them have failed, and gone down to the grave with the pangs of disappointed hope, yet man is so strangely inconsistent as still to believe, that these earthly pursuits contain some hidden charm which he flatters himself he shall find even though all before him have failed. Here is

the delusion, kind reader, of which you are cautioned to beware. There is no happiness but in the path where the hand of mercy has sown it-no happiness but in the objects where God has placed it. It is no where to he found but in the enjoyment of the religion of Christ. This will sweeten every earthly pursuit, make every burden light, afford solid enjoyment in life and divine consolation in the hour of death. Flatter not yourself that there is any happiness beneath the sun aside from this. "There is no peace saith my God to the wicked," and, he who says there is, contradicts Jehovah, and is yet "in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." A speculative faith is of but little consequence, so long as it does not influence our life and conversation for the better. We must believe to the saving of the soul from the evil of the world. "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward."

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"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold. Prov. xxii: 1.

A good name involves all that can render man exalted and amiable, or life desirable. The good opinion of mankind has, in all ages, been considered as a blessing of the first magnitude, and has, in various ways, been sought for by all. There is no man so dishonest, but what labors to impress upon others the conviction of his honesty; no man so deceptive, but what wishes to be considered sincere; nor cowardly, but desires to be reputed brave; and no man is so abandonedly vicious, but what desires to be considered virtuous by his fellow creatures. All choose a good name in preference to a bad one. This being a fact, the appearance of virtue is kept up where the reality is wanting, and the shadow is often mistaken for the substance.

There are many, that are, at heart, insincere and false, who pass in society generally for persons of sincerity, candor and virtue, while their real principles are known only in their own families and among their confidential friends. They desire a good name and outwardly maintain it, while they in reality but little deserve it. In order to know what a man really is, we must be acquainted, not only with his public, but his private character. In his own family, every man appears what he really is. There the heart, word and aetion are in unison. They embrace each other. In public, they too often separate; and the word, or action, speaks what its divorced companion, the heart does not feel.

Such not only literally choose, but often bear a good name. But this is not the choice suggested by the text. All men, even the most vicious, in some sense or other, choose a good name. But the passage under consideration has a higher, a nobler aim, than a mere choice unconnected with virtuous principle and action. It has a higher aim, than to encourage men to be rotten at heart, and by an outward, hypocritical manœuvre, maintain a good name among their fellow creatures. By the text, we are to understand, that a man should early cultivate, in his heart, a virtuous principle, as the pure source from which all those outward actions spring that justly merit the esteem of mankind, force approbation even from the vicious, and thus entitle him to that good name which is far above all price. This will not only afford its possessor unbroken peace arising from the inward consolations and joys of virtuous sincerity, but it will also open to him another rich fountain of felicity, arising from the consideration, that he enjoys the confidence and esteem of the great and the good, with whom he is conversant in life, of his intimate friends, of his companion and children, and above all the smiles of kind heaven and the approbation of his God. His life is calm; his sleep is sweet and associated with golden dreams. No fearful spectres haunt his brain, but the kind angel of mercy is ever at his side. He looks forward to death undismayed, yes, with satisfaction and composure looks beyond that dark scene, to brighter worlds and more substantial joys. He feels the assurance, that even when he shall be here no more, his name shall live in the hearts of those he left behind, be embalmed in the memory of the just, and that it is beyond the power of rol

This is what we un

ling ages to sully it. derstand by choosing a good name as stated in our text.

Of the truth of this, there can arise no misapprehension when we compare it with the subsequent phrase with which it is contrasted—“a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor than silver and gold." By the choosing of riches, we are to understand, not only a desire to obtain them, but that this desire shall be sufficiently strong to prompt us to use all the honorable and efficient means in our power to accumulate them. The wise man did not mean that every man had the offer of a fortune, and could possess himself of it by simply making choice of it independent of means.-No-his choice must be manifested by industry and economy. The means must be used to secure the end. Just so in acquiring a good name. The person désirous of obtaining it, must pursue that upright and virtuous course of conduct, which alone could insure it. And just as well might a man expect riches by being indolent and extravagant, as to expect a good name by indulging in every species of vice. We are therefore to understand our text thus-A good name, through pursuing a virtuous course of conduct, is rather to be chosen than great riches, through the plans and means by which they are obtained.

Man is a being of many wants, and to supply them he is too much inclined to forsake the path of virtue and resort to dishonorable means to obtain wealth.

In view of this master-passion for earthly splendor and greatness, Solomon uttered the words of our text to recall the giddy mind from its chase of shadows, and turn it to the only source of unmingled felicity in the pur

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