How precious a thing is youthful energy, if only it could be preserved entirely englobed, as it were, within the bosom of the young adventurer, till he can come and offer it forth a sacred emanation on yonder temple of truth and virtue. But, alas! all along as he goes towards it he advances through an avenue formed by a long line of tempters and demons on each side, all prompt to touch him with their conductors and draw the divine electric element, with which he is charged, away.

JOHN FOSTER.

The way of every man is declarative of the end of every man.

CECIL.

Youthful excesses are drafts on manhood and old age, most generally finding them bankrupt and beggars or not finding them at all.

VOICES OF NATURE.

Habits of youthful piety are drafts on God, payable at sight, for the support and comfort of manhood, old age, death, and immortality.

IBID

Sinful habits are grave-clothes of souls, by which they are bound by Satan for an everlasting burial.

IBID.

Centre-pieces of wood are put by builders under an arch of stone, while it is in the process of construction, till the keystone is put in, Just such is the use Satan makes of pleasures to construct evil habits upon the pleasure lasts perhaps until the habits are fully formed, but, that done, the structure may stand eternal; the pleasures are sent for firewood, and the hell begins in this life. COLERIDGE.

THOUGH THY WAY BE DARK AND LONG,
THINK OF THEM THAT NOW ON HIGH
HAVE ATTAIN'D THE VICTORY.

IN A MOMENT 'TWILL BE PAST,

AND THE ENDLESS DIE BE CAST

IN THAT PLACE WHERE TIME IS NOT,
THOUGHTS THAT ARE ON EARTH FORGOT
TAKE THEIR PLACE AND EVER DWELL,

SET IN CALM UNSPEAKABLE,
AND ENSHRINED IN SILENCE STAY
TO ABIDE THE DREADFUL DAY.

PREFATORY REMARKS.

THE substance of the following volume was prepared at the instance of the Young Men's Christian Association of Charleston, S. C., and was delivered as one of a course of lectures during the past year. As some things in its application refer to that city, it is deemed best to retain their original form, both for usefulness there and as an illustration of the analogous and proportionate adaptation of such associations to other cities and communities.

The substance of the discourse, however, was devoted to an exhibition of the nature and claims of such associations in general, and may, it is hoped, and as the author has been encouraged to believe, be useful for distribution, as an introduction to a true knowledge of their character and importance, —as an encouragement to young men who are not, as well as those who are, professors of religion, to become associated with them,—and also as a portraiture of what these associations ought to be, what by the blessing of God they may be, and what in order to fulfil their perfect work and ministry of love they must be.

And may that divine Saviour from whose glorious gospel these associations derive their life make this and every other means employed for their advancement powerful, through His Holy Spirit, to the salvation and sanctification of many souls! Then shall these thoughts

However poor portray'd, set forth to view

With feeble eloquence, be such as may

Arrest some glance, some thought, which, entering in
The door of the life-kindling, shaping soul,

May haply there take root in tender soil,

In youth's soft heart plant the immortal shoot

Of heaven-born virtue, which shall bear him fruit,
And bind his locks with amaranthine wreath;

May to the fount of action entrance find,

That streams which issue thence may bear the tinge

Of hope and dread expectance of the Judge
With echoing blast of the archangel's trump.
Reader and writer on that morn must meet:
Thrice happy, could this theme arouse but one,
That, when all hearts are open'd, then this mark-
(On which men's fate is made to hang alone)-
Whether he has loved God or has loved self,
Has lived to Christ, or while he lived was dead,-

May on his soul be found by God impress'd

This is the mirror wherein souls are seen;

This is the Book. On this the scale depends.

This is announced to the eternal years,

And such alone pass to the rest of God.

Young Men's

Christian Associations.

IN addressing you, my young friends, I will, without preface, endeavour to present the nature and claims of Young Men's Christian Associations.

In doing so, the very first point to which attention shall be directed is the principle of association on which these Societies are based.

The principle of association holds a conspicuous place among the most potent forces that are now acting upon the world,—silent, invisible, and unpretending in its working, and yet powerful in its results beyond all other moral agencies. This has become proverbial. "Union is strength," and "United we conquer, while divided we fall," are now familiar applications to every interest of humanity of our Saviour's aphorism that a house divided against itself cannot stand, and of those other scriptural proverbs that "in the multitude of

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counsellors there is safety," and that in them also 66 purposes are established."

The foundations on which this principle of association is based are deep-laid in the most essential powers and sympathies of our nature. It takes hold of them all, and combines them all in one concentrated, steady, and progressive force.

Association becomes WISDOM, by the united counsels of the multitude it brings together.

Association is also POWER; for this wisdom is power,-power to ascertain the true character and dimensions of the evil to be overcome or the good to be secured and the best time and manner in which that evil is to be assailed, and thus bring together all the resources of such combined energy that can be brought to bear upon the designed end. Ants are very insignificant creatures; but when associated together they can build cities, fill them with well-stored granaries, and wage resistless warfare against their enemies. A bee is very tiny, and, individually, very powerless; but bees when associated in swarms are more than a match for the fiercest animal, and for man himself. A single wolf may well be dreaded; but a full pack of hungry wolves must blanch with fear the stoutest heart, even though clad in mail and armed cap-a-pie. And thus also it is that, while one sinner can destroy much good, and one spiritual enemy is to be feared, it is when combined in a godless confederacy, or