know much; it would require a long apprenticeship to put one up to all the moves; but I do know this, that dishonesty in every shape is an abomination; that lies, whether white or black, are bad; and since the white lies are often more cowardly and sneaking than the black ones, I think they are the worst lies of all. If money cannot be made on the highest principles of honor, then let it not be made at all. "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" And by dishonesty, persisted in, he certainly will lose his soul. Among the mercantile classes, fraud has discovered itself on a gigantic scale. It's time to "turn over a new leaf," I think, in our commercial morality.

let me

Once more, address those who have not been in the habit of spending the Sunday in a wise and profitable way. I am not one of those stern and rigid Sabbatarians, who frown upon a Sunday walk as a dreadful sin. So far as a Sunday walk in the country is beneficial to the health of the working man, who has been pent up in a shop all the week, and who lives in some dirty den, which the light and air of heaven can scarcely reach, I say, by all means enjoy your Sunday walk; I believe it will do you good, in body and in soul; it is a most rational and a most Christian manner of spending part of the Sunday; what part, it is not for me to prescribe. But the care of the body is a religious duty, and there are thousands in this great town, to whose health a walk in the country, or on the shore, practicable on no other day, is an invaluable blessing. Instead of asking God's pardon for taking it, rather thank him for his goodness in enabling you to take it. But your soul requires

religious instruction, and therefore let me entreat of you to frequent the house of God, where such instruction is administered, and where you may unite with others in the delightful work of prayer and praise. I make no attempt to proselytise you to my church, or to any other in particular; I leave this entirely to your conscientious convictions, and do not wish to bias you either one way or another. There is truth in all churches; perhaps there is error also in them all; but wherever they teach that Jesus Christ came into the world to die for us and to save us, there you will find the truth which is most important for you and me to know. In "turning over a new leaf," then, don't forget the Sundays; let them be well spent, not in listless idleness, not in pleasure-taking and dissipation, but in such engagements as will give health to your body, instruction to your mind, and comfort to your heart.

I now conclude the fourth year of these Sunday afternoon addresses; the favorable manner in which they have been received, the earnest attention which they have commanded, and the good results, temporal and spiritual, which if I chose to speak of them I could show have been produced, call for my deepest thankfulness to that kind Providence which has enabled me so far to persevere, and which has put into my hands these opportunities of attempting to interest and to teach my fellow townsmen. While health and strength are graciously vouchsafed to me, by him who is the Father of all our mercies, I shall continue in this work, for I feel an unabating interest in it; and your attention is an ample recompense for the labor, not always small, of preparing to meet so vast an

audience as congregates within these walls. I am sure you will allow me to convey to the gentlemen who have kindly placed this hall at our service, your cordial thanks, together with my own, for their continued liberality. And now, my friends, standing as we do on the verge of this departing year, and almost on the threshold of another, I pray that God Almighty may bless and keep you all— you and your families; that in his good providence brighter days may soon dawn upon those whom the present distress so heavily afflicts; and that those brighter days, spent rationally and virtuously, may all be consecrated to His service. Receive His gospel; trust in His love; manfully bear up under every adversity; nobly struggle against every temptation. I wish you many years of happiness and virtue; and when your day of life is done, and you sink into the sleep of death, may God "make you to be numbered with his saints, in glory everlasting!"

LECTURE VI.

TAKING CARE OF NUMBER ONE.

EVERY body knows what is meant by "Number One." "Number One" is self, and taking care of "number one" is therefore taking care of one's self. Now to take care of one's self, to be mindful of one's own interest, is so natural and so general a practice, and a practice which often assumes such offensive and contemptible modes of operation, that you may perhaps suppose that, if referred to at all by a man who wishes to instruct and benefit his fellow men, it should be referred to only to be condemned, and held up to execration. But there is a right way as well as a wrong way of taking care of "number one;" and to take care of "number one" in the right way is every man's highest duty. The plain fact is, that the main burden of the Scriptures is to tell us how to take care of "number one," to guard us against mistakes in taking care of "number one." If they tell us to do this, and not to do that to believe such a thing, and not to believe such another thing-it is chiefly that we may wisely and successfully take care of "number one. Many persons fall into great mistakes with regard to this matter; they are intensely selfish, and yet, instead of

securing their self-interest, they in their selfishness ruin themselves. Some take no care at all of "number one;" others are very careful, but their carefulness is misdirected; they take care of only a part of "number one," and generally that part which is of least importance; they do not seem to understand what "number one" really is; and if they do not understand this, they can scarcely be expected to take a wise care of "number one." Now "number one" is a compound creature; "number one" consists of body and soul; I do not wish. to understate, nor do I wish to overstate, the importance of either, but certainly there is no wise care taken of "number one" unless the interests of both are consulted; and further, the interests of the soul are more important than those of the body, for several reasons, but chiefly for this reason that it is indestructible, that it will survive the body, and live on for ever; at least such is my belief, and such I take it for granted is yours also. This doctrine of immortality is not founded upon a desire to live for ever; in fact, there are many who have no such desire, who very much dread immortality, and to whom it would be a relief to feel certain that death is annihilation, that the soul perishes with the body. But the expectation of immortality, whether accompanied by hope or by fear, is one of the deep and ineradicable instincts of human nature, wherever man is found; excepting perhaps in some cases in which he is most shockingly degraded by ignorance, he is found to possess this instinct. I do not know, indeed, that any clear case has been established of any people utterly destitute of it; and in proportion as men are intelligent and civilised, this instinct is strong