but lacking this, whatever else you have avails you nothing;—there is no substitute for this. Without personal piety, you are no Christian. In what, then, does this indispensable, this essential article consist? Certainly, to be evangelically and truly pious is not merely to assume the name and profession of religion. It consists not in the mere knowledge of religious truths; for these may be speculatively known, where there is no real piety;-nor in apparent rectitude of conduct, or the practice of many virtues; for a graceless Herod could hear John gladly, and do many things. But if we would obtain a correct understanding of this question, we must draw it directly from the oracles of God; and there we shall find it made to consist in nothing less than a transformation of nature, and a new life. According to this view of it, the apostle Paul gives us a beautiful, impressive, and comprehensive delineation of its living efficacy in the true Christian, when he thus speaks, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of

the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." From this very lively description of experimental religion you learn, that while it presupposes a nature to be destroyed, it proves that a new and living nature is obtained;—that this new life is derived from and maintained by Christ in the soul; and that the natural life of the believer is a life of faith and confidence in the Saviour who loved him and died for him. The man who is possessed of this internal and living principle is "a new creature." He has undergone a change equivalent to a transition from death unto life. The old man with his deeds-the natural state-passes through a process of crucifixion, a slow and painful death. The Spirit of God, in renewing the man, leads him, according to the language of scripture, "to die unto sin;" prompts him, by motives arising from the death of Christ, to mortify every depraved affection, every unbelieving feeling; all pride, worldly-mindedness, and self-dependence. The same holy agency constrains him, by the love of Christ, to live unto God, to "put on the new man, which after God,

is created in righteousness and true holiness." Before, he was alive to the world, and dead to God; but now, the world and he are crucified to each other. He is now alive to a better purpose. Those spiritual objects to which he was before insensible and dead, are now felt, fed upon, and enjoyed. He becomes the subject of a new life, for he has new joys and sorrows. He lives under a new state of moral views and impressions; and exercises new desires and appetites; for he has now tasted the powers of the world to come," and hungers and thirsts after righteousness." He is now conscious of a life that is strengthening within him, he both walks and works, and that "not after the flesh, but after the Spirit ;" and what is more, this spiritual life grows so vigorous and energetic, that he is enabled to

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war a good warfare; to fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life."

Brethren, this, and nothing less than this, is personal piety. This is essential to the well-being of one and all of us. And can the head of a family do without it, either for himself, or for the station he occupies?

You are possessed, it may be, of all the means and facilities for ensuring worldly influence and prosperity. You can secure your family an ample provision for the comforts, and even the indulgences, of the present life. You can set up and maintain what the world calls a respectable establishment. You can place around your children the most finished masters and instructors in all the branches of a polite education; and you can form them, by your domestic training, to genteel and elegant manners. And what then? Why, then you think all is attained that is desirable. They have a competent share of the learning of the age; they are qualified to act their part in the best society; and they bid fair to do well in the world. But if they are left strangers to the rudiments of sacred knowledge; if they know not which be the first principles of the oracles of God, all their attainments is only a knowledge that puffeth up. It is an inflation of the pride and vanity natural to the heart, and it ministers only to self-adulation. Their familiarity with the arts of polished life operates only as a snare for their

souls. With all the pains you have been taking in conducting such an education, you have been laboriously fashioning them into daggers for your own breast. If with all their getting, they get not the fear of the Lord, they will not fear you;-if with all their taste for the refinements of the world- with all their love for the arts and sciencesthey have not been taught the love of God, neither will they love you. Recklessness, dissipation, and all ungodliness on the part of your children, may be the sad fruits of all your labour. God has been left out of your account; his blessing has not been asked, or obtained; therefore are your fairest expectations blighted, and the canker-worm of bitter disappointment eats away your fairest hopes. "The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked." I would therefore beseech every parent, every master of a family-as he regards the health and life of his own soul; as he would have the blessing of the Lord in his habitation; as he values the best interests of those who are dear to him as his own flesh; as he would provide for the sweetest consola