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 themselves to the highway, and, being fortunate, as they call it, in escaping so long, at last finish their career on a gibbet!

I again resumed—It gives me great pleasure my young friends, to observe my words have had such an effect; for your tears show you feel conviction, and your promises of amendment give me reason to hope that I have done something towards reclaiming you from the paths of vice; and let me tell you, for your comfort, that the merely being sensible of your error, and the forming of good resolutions, already prove that you have advanced two steps on the ladder of repentance.

"Follow these up by an earnest prayer to God, that he will perfect what he has begun, and there is no fear of you; for your Saviour not only says, 'Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden; but he also declares, that 'Whosoever cometh unto him, he will in no wise cast out.' Engage in prayer, then, with the most heartfelt conviction and unbounded confidence that you will be heard; and watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; avoid carefully the least appearance of evil; for, as I said before, the approaches to vice are almost imperceptible.

"Idleness, my young man," addressing myself to, "is justly defined 'the parent of want and misery,' and ill habits are more easily conquered to day than to-morrow; endeavour, therefore, to persist in the good resolutions you have formed. Fly idleness, and the haunts of idleness, as places of the greatest danger; and should you