To return more immediately to the subject-the cowardice of it ought to make the man blush, even if he relinquish the principles of the christian. He shrinks from a warfare, which others endure with heroic fortitude: he throws down his arms and quits the field, while others make a bold and successful stand against the enemy. Is this true nobility of spirit? What! has the philosopher less energy, or more petulance, than others? That he has a quicker sensibility will not excuse him: for it is supposed to originate in the penetration and rationality of a stronger mind. After sophistry has made out the best case for the self-murderer, he that flies life is a coward: nor is this the whole; to that personal shrinking, which a noble mind would disdain, is added a shameful consequence : the base retreat of the individual is accompanied by wrongs inflicted upon others, who are left to bear the burden. The father who destroys himself, heaps the whole of that calamity, which his act confessed him unable to sustain, upon his wife and family. Are women and children, then, better qualified to support suffering than the man? "O shame, where is thy blush ?" He is a coward indeed, who flies from an evil which he entails upon his family, and his relations; those also of the softer sex, and more tender age; with the disgrace superadded of his ignominious retreat from life and its dutiesa disgrace which will cleave to them in society, as well as haunt and afflict them in solitude. I can

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not help thinking that the suicide shows as little feeling as courage--as little affection to his family as regard to his God: it is a character so dastardly and selfish, that the only surprise is, it could ever find an advocate, or furnish an apology.

The treason of it against the Divine sovereignty, already suggested, appears in various conclusive particulars. The prerogative of God, to fix the "bounds of our habitation," and appoint our time, is defied. The arrangements of infinite wisdom, and paternal goodness, are arraigned and condemned, by this unnatural act. The moral government of Deity is disregarded and insulted. Whatever can be binding is broken: whatever is decent, becomes outraged. It is treason against Nature, and her most powerful law, self-preservation. A law which determines at once the will of the Creator, and the duty of the creature-a law, the universality of which leaves its authority undoubted; and the sanctions of which cannot be slighted with impunity. The meanest insect possesses it in common with man: it is, therefore, no prejudice of human education, but the wise and absolute enactment of the Author of our being. The most insignificant among the animate creation, are fruitful in expedients to preserve that life, without immortality suspended upon it, which the suicide dares to destroy, at the stake of his eternal existence. It is treason against the social compact. Society has claims upon the individual, from which he cannot be fairly absolved, without their con

sent: except by the dispensations of Him, who having formed the bonds at the beginning, has alone a right to loose them at his pleasure. The suicide extinguishes with his life, not only the affections due to his family, but the duties which he owes to his country, and his obligations to mankind at large. It is treason against the revealed will of God. His express command is, "Thou shalt do no murder," and it bears no less upon the individual, than upon society: he is no less guilty, who lifts his hand against himself, than he who assassinates his neighbor. He is God's property, not his own--and God's law is absolute. In the spirit of this law, St. Paul arrested the arm of the Philippian jailer, when he had planted his sword at his heart, and said, “Do thyself no harm." Under its influence, Job declared, "All the days of my appointed time will I wait, until my change come." And, in conformity with it, are all the precepts of patience, resignation and submission-all the doctrines relative to the Divine sovereignty, providence, and paternity, with their respective rights-and all the examples of uncomplaining suffering and heroic fortitude, placed before us in the Scriptures.

We cannot, therefore, any longer doubt the guilt of the act, or the misery which it produces-a misery the more certain, inasmuch as the offence affords no space for repentance or prayer-therefore no hope of pardon. It is often instantaneous; and, in the moment of the commission of the crime,

the spirit appears before the judgment-seat, to answer for it. Far be it from me, to limit the Divine mercy or to say, after the act, if a few lingering hours, or even moments, are granted, what contrition may be wrought in the soul, or what compassion may be exercised by the Deity. But in the sudden departure, even this slender hope is cut off: for he has said that the state in which a man actually dies, is unalterable: "the unjust must be unjust still; and the filthy, filthy still;" and if the man die in the act of rebellion, is it possible that he should be treated-upon any other principle than that of a rebel?

SINS OF THE TONGUE.

The most degrading and offensive vice of the tongue is profanity. It is absolutely without apology, and it is inseparable from infamy. The highest rank cannot palliate, the lowest cannot excuse it. It prevails, alas! among all ranks, and to a degree among both sexes. I am not now speaking of that contempt and defiance which the tongue of the infidel sometimes pours forth against the Fountain of his being, and the prescriptions of his word; but of that most horrible habit of swearing, or taking the name of God in vain, which affords neither pleasure nor profit, while it violates whatever is sacred, and tramples under foot a positive command-"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold

him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” That the higher classes in society should indulge in this degrading vice is most astonishing. The great line of distinction between them and the lower classes, is propriety of language: this marks, more strongly than any other circumstance, superiority of education, culture of mind, and select associations. This distinction they voluntarily abandon, and descend to the vulgar dialect, and dreadful oaths of the uninstructed and the low, for no possible gratification. And even the softer sex, who would shrink from the broad and profane oath, are nevertheless habitually guilty, especially among the higher ranks, and but too universally, of using the name of their Maker with levity, upon every frivolous occasion. "Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord?" Are we to suppose that he has given a commandment without sanctions? or that he will pass over the breach of it? He has said, "for swearing shall the land mourn”—and will he not effect his declaration? "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but his word shall not pass away." How frequently has he cut off the profane in the midst of their sin! and what other dreadful instances of wrath do we wait for, before our boys and our females, our rulers, and our popula'tion, will learn to lay aside this shocking, this disgusting, this impious practice, and listen to the warning voice, "Swear not at all?"

Impurity of speech, emphatically called in the word of God "corrupt communication," and "fil