dition, a more dangerous companion for a young man, than an accomplished rake. Incomparably worse than the man society hangs as a brutal ravisher, the wily seducer "selects as his favourite victims, the young, the artless, the confiding, the beautiful. He does not rush madly upon them, and forcibly rob them of their chastity. O, no! his appetite is more epicurean, and he has a pleasure in his art. He slowly insinuates himself into confidence. He is the deferential, gallant lover. He approaches with the dulcet notes of flattery. He weaves his infernal web to ensnare the heart. Gradually and patiently he encircles his unsuspecting prey, gloating all the while in anticipation of his final triumph. He assumes the air and the language of a man of honour, and offers honourable love, marriage, and a life of happiness in exchange for the love he asks. Through weeks, and months, and years of confiding happiness, he steadily pursues his object, increasing day by day in his power over the affections he has won. At last the courted opportunity occurs. Steeping his soul in perjury, the too-confiding victim yields-yields to exchange hope for despair, peace for a gnawing conscience, gayety and innocence for wretchedness and guilt," while her destroyer lifts up his head, and glories in his shame. Thanks to a little sound legislation, recently enacted in this Empire State, some of this description are likely to find a regular home, and steady employment, within the walls of Sing Sing, or Auburn.

Beware, my young friends, of these men; their touch is pollution, their breath infection, and they glory in making others as vile and rotten as themselves. These wretches are everywhere to be found, leering in the box of the theatre, winking and nodding in the saloon of the steamboat, casting their lecherous glances on every attractive female they meet in the streets, and seizing every opportunity to gather around them young men and half-grown boys, for the purpose of insidiously infusing the poison of licentiousness into the mind and heart. Fly from them as you would fly from the plague; listen not one moment to their conversation, or you are undone !

LECTURE IV.

DANGERS OF YOUNG MEN.

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.—Prov. xiii, 20.

SUPPOSE, my young friends, you were invited to visit a very fine garden, located in a fertile soil, beautifully laid out-borders and parterres, walks and shrubbery combine to form a scene of loveliness on which the eye delights to gaze. In the midst of your admiration, a person bent on mischief passes along, and casts upon the wings of the breeze, which is just now fanning this lovely spot, a handful of the seeds of the thistle, the nettle, and other weeds, tenacious of life, and exceedingly difficult to eradicate. You will readily perceive that it would cost no little anxiety and labour to undo the mischief of that single act, accomplished in a moment of time. Just so is it with the man who sows the seeds of infidelity in the hearts of the young. Like every portion of the soil of our earth, since it received a blight, because of man's sin, and now brings forth briers and thorns with a neverfailing growth, while precious plants must be cultivated with untiring effort; so our fallen natures readily receive the seeds of error and vice, and yield spontaneously the harvests of evil. "The natural bias of youth is almost always towards.

scepticism or infidelity. And such is the case, not merely because, as Bacon says, 'A little philosophy inclines us to atheism, and a great deal of philosophy carries us back to religion;' but youth has an intellectual bias against religion, because it would humble the arrogance of the understanding; and a moral bias against it, because it would check the indulgence of the passions." Nothing could be more true than this statement; and it gives a clear reason why there is frequently a severe conflict in the youthful breast, between truth and conscience on the one hand, and inclination on the other. It should impress upon parents, teachers and pastors, the importance of forewarning the young, that they may be forearmed; and it should inspire the young with caution, lest, in an unguarded moment, they imbibe sentiments which will do them no small amount of injury.

You will be told, my young friends: "That there is no danger from error, if truth be left free to combat it." This maxim assumes what is utterly false; it takes for granted that our nature is angelic, that man is not a sinful being, that he has no pride of self-sufficiency, and no depraved affections; that he invariably loves truth and hates error. Whereas the fact is, error is loved because it tolerates our vicious inclinations,-while truth is disliked, because it curbs and restrains them. "Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil," said the Saviour.

Dr. Paley has set this matter in a clear and forcible light.

"A great many persons," says he, "before they proceed upon an act of known transgression, do expressly state to themselves the question, whether religion be true or not; and, in order to get at the object of their desire, (for the real matter to be determined is, whether they shall have their desire gratified or not;) in order, I say, to get at the pleasure, in some cases; or, in other cases, the point of interest, upon which they have set their hearts, they choose to decide, and they do, in fact, decide with themselves, that these things are not so certain, as to be a reason for them to give up the pleasure which lies before them, or the advantage, which is now, and which may never be again in their power to compass. This conclusion does actually take place, and, at various times, must almost necessarily take place in the minds of men of bad morals. And now remark the effect which it has upon their thoughts afterwards. When they come at another future time to reflect upon religion, they reflect upon it as upon what they had before adjudged to be unfounded, and too uncertain to be acted upon, or to be depended upon: and reflections accompanied with this adverse and unfavourable impression, naturally lead to infidelity. Herein, therefore, is seen the fallacious operation of sin; first, in the circumstances under which men form their opinion and their conclusions concerning religion; and, secondly, in the effect which conclusions,