Page:Some Reflections on the Importance of a Religious Life.djvu/30

 trust under some sense of their very serious import. As they have come before me with a degree of freshness, they have afforded a renewed testimony to their divine authority, by their energy and force, as descriptive of the things of God, and by their adaptation to the nature and to the constant wants of man in his present state of existence.

Be invited to seek after retirement; and to withdraw frequently, though it be but for a short time, from the busy scenes of life, and the cheerful society of men. “It is good that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord; it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth: he sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.” Be faithful to yourselves, frequently and honestly examine the motives for action. Strive to overcome your easily besetting sins. Many who are further advanced in years than you are, can acknowledge how good it would now be for them to have been more diligent and honest in earlier life in the work of self-examination. We shall all find, if we are willing to see it, that we have our individual temptations. Some are led away by ambition; some by a love of pleasure; others by the love of money: some in one way, some in another; arising from the pride of the human heart, or from