ginning to make provision for the religious improvement of the penitentiaries under their control. Thus a new day is dawning on the prison. The rays of a glorious sun begin to pierce the gloom of its cells. Will not Christians listen to the voice of God in his holy providence bidding them rise and exert themselves in behalf of their fellow-sinners, justly confined? Especially, may they not be expected so to do, in full view of the striking displays of his power and grace which Jesus Christ has made, in the conversion and thorough reformation of imprisoned criminals? There have been seasons when passing along in front of the cells which the prisoners had entered at the close of the day, they might have looked in upon one and another, bending in deep study over the sacred page, and again upon one and another prostrate before God in prayer. One prisoner they might have found stung with a painful sense of guilt; another weeping at the foot of the cross; and a third rejoicing in "hope of the glory of God." The effects which have thus been wrought upon the consciences and hearts of these awakened prisoners have not been transient. I have just taken my eye from a page which shines more resplendently than a diamond amid sunbeams. It gives the initial letters of some eighty prisoners' names, who had been discharged from one of our penitentiaries. Of these, a number had enjoyed their liberty eight or nine years. On the authority of "letters received from postmasters, sheriffs, district attorneys, and other public officers," their character since their discharge is given to the world. Beginning at the top of the column, the description of their character proceeds in the following style: "Honest, fair character; bad; bad; not improved; nothing improper; character good; character good; character good; in jail for larceny; much improved; sober, discreet man; industrious and honest; character and conduct good; very respectable; steady, and industrious; entirely reformed; respectable and pious." What good man can look over such a column without seeing the hand of God beckoning him to join the goodly band now laboring for the reformation of the prisoner? What motive, derived from the arrangements of Divine Providence, can be better fitted to act upon a Christian heart? What Christian can resist such a motive? It is the voice of the Holy Ghost, calling on the churches to arise, and be "workers together with him" in his designs of mercy towards the wretched convict. What Christian will not listen to such a voice?

The grounds, then, on which the friends of improvement in prison discipline may expect the countenance and aid of Christians, are broad and substantial. These grounds we have found in the character by which Christians are distinguished from their fellow-men; in the means of usefulness peculiar to themselves, which are placed within their reach; in the obligations, by which, as the disciples of Jesus Christ, they are bound; and in the indications of divine Providence, which clearly point them to the penitentiary, as a sphere of benevolent exertion. Prison Discipline, then, in order to be healthful and efficient must be conducted on Christian principles. These principles, imbodied in the character of the disciples of the Savior, furnish the very agents which that discipline demands. Their disinterested benevolence will open a way to their hearts for the claims of the prisoner on their kind regard; their deep sense of personal guilt will constrain them to look upon him, as they would look upon a brother; the experience they have had of the efficacy of divine grace, will inspire them with hopes of success in their efforts to reclaim and save him. Are not these the very men who are fitted to labor for the highest-the immortal interests of the prisoner? Will they not of all men be likely to gain a ready and near access to his heart. While they speak to him in the softened tones of warm affection, and in the animated language of good hope, will he not be forward to listen to their words; to weigh their counsels; to make the instructions they may offer the subject of deep and healthful reflection? Of all men, will they not employ such means of usefulness,

as are adapted to work in his character a thorough and permanent amendment? Who else will kneel in his cell, and lift up to Heaven on his behalf the eye of supplication? Who else will employ with a skilful and energetic hand the only motives which can arouse his conscience and purify his heart-motives drawn fresh from the fountain of eternal truth? And who besides Christians seek and enjoy in their labors of love the assistance of the Holy Spirit? And will not they regard the obligations by which the Son of God has bound them to impart the bread of life to every creature? Will not they of all men freely expend' their strength in toiling for the eternal welfare of the "evil and unthankful;" of the friendless and ill-deserving? And are they not the men who from the arrangements of Divine Providence are wont to derive lessons of instruction and motives to exertion? And have not Christian principles, imbodied in the disciples of the Savior and acting upon the understanding, conscience, and heart of the prisoner, been the means of accomplishing the most important good which in any place has resulted from prison discipline? Where have convicts been found to weep for their sins, and “turn from the evil of their ways," under any other agency than the truth of God? And where efforts to reclaim the prisoner have resulted in a deplorable and disheartening failure, have not these efforts been made in the neglect or contempt of God and the gospel?

Might I speak to the friends of improvement in prison discipline throughout this republic and throughout the world, with what deep earnestness and strong emphasis would I say; Beware, as you would avoid utter and hopeless defeat in your designs, beware of excluding Jesus Christ from the sphere of your beneficent exertions. Without Him you can do nothing to promote the permanent benefit of the objects of your kind regard. Slight the Savior, and you enter the penitentiary only to mock the prisoner and bring disgrace upon yourselves. Do ye not know—have ye not heard-have ye not felt, that "Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God to salvation;" to the loathsome criminal as well as to the man of unblemished reputation? In this warfare, away with "carnal weapons," wield the sword of the Spirit; and, through Jesus Christ our Lord, you are more than conquerors!

And O, if I might address the redeemed of the Lord; with what fervent importunity would I urge them to give their most efficient aid to the holy design of the Prison Discipline Society. You could not, beloved brethren, mark the object and efforts of this society without the deepest interest. You could not contemplate the field of their exertion without longing to enter as their fellowlaborers. You would pant for a fellowship in the sacred enterprise.

This field I invite you, my brethren, to contemplate. An acquaintance with it you may form through the Reports of the Society. Have you read them? Have you weighed the facts which they present; the plans which they describe, and the appeals which they urge? say, brethren, have ye taken them home to yourselves? Know ye not that ye are under peculiar obligations to promote an enterprise so honorable to God, so useful to men?

Give this enterprise, my brethren, your prayers, your influence, a portion of your gold and silver. To you it appropriately belongs to sustain it. God and men expect that you will rise and promote it. Will you deny that the most weighty reasons demand exertion at your hands? Stand up, then, and gird yourselves for action. Your labor in the Lord shall not be in vain. He will smile as he has smiled upon your labors in this department of Christian effort. The work shall prosper in your hands. It shall augment your final reward. In the last day the repentant convict shall outstrip angels in hastening to welcome you to "the joy of your Lord."

DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE WITHOUT RELIGION.

JEREMIAH vi. 4.--Wo unto us! for the day goeth away; for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

THE subject which, from this text, I intend to commend to your attention, is an old age without religion. It is truly a painful subject, but one to which it is a matter of duty to call the attention of procrastinating man. In the remarks I shall make, so far as they are addressed to those who have not yet attained this period of life, the subject calls for the most serious admonition and warning But in regard to those of my hearers who are already aged, or who are upon the verge of the declining years of manhood, it becomes me to employ the utmost tenderness of manner, united with the most ardent language of persuasion.

The command of St. Paul to Timothy was, "Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father, and the elder women as mothers." The spirit of compassion ate respect which this precept requires, the law also enjoined, in our deportment towards the aged. "The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother thou shalt not uncover." "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God, I am the Lord." I desire that the spirit of these precepts may govern all my remarks. I wish only, in the meekness which the gospel requires, to show the inevitable misery which they entail upon themselves, even in the present life, who come to the winter days of man unpardoned, unclothed, and without hope, and the comfort which arises to the hoary head from being found in the way of righteousness.

It may be that some of my hearers feel constrained to adopt the mournful exclamation of this passage. Their time of labor is just at its close; and in the deepening shadows of the evening, not a glimmering light is seen to guide them through approaching darkness. If I address any who have lived for many long years in the midst of Divine mercies, and the abundant privileges of grace, and are conscious that they are yet unreconciled to God, I would not utter language of reproach; I would entreat them, as fathers and mothers, to "give glory to the Lord their God, before he cause darkness, and their feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while they look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness." While they see and feel the wretchedness of an old age without the presence of God, and find themselves sinking into the eternal world without comfort, I would beseech them to devote with great earnestness their few remaining years or days to the important concerns of an endless being. None of you, my beloved friends, can think the present subject inap

propriate, when you notice how many of our aged men and women make no profession of attachment to Christ,-how many habitually turn away from the table of the Lord, as if they had no need of the provisions of Divine grace. None can think me out of place, in beseeching their attention to the calls of the Savior, when told that among all the additions to the communion of this church, under my ministry, from the society of the worldly, hardly one individual had passed the middle age of man. All our new members have been young-and the aged who were out of the fold in years past, if they are still alive, are most of them out of it now. To such would I address, with seriousness and affection, the considerations arising from our text. The points to which I wish particularly to direct attention are the difficulties and the sorrows of old age without religion, without a vital union with Christ, and the comforts of his love. "Wo unto us! for the day goeth away, and the shadows of the evening are stretched out."

I. That period of life, during which the Savior grants to men the privileges of the gospel, is known under the appellation of a day of grace; a day in which he waits for the sinner's repentance, and is peculiarly ready to aid his efforts. The great object to be attained during the continuance of this day is reconciliation to God, and the consequent enjoyment of his love. They who seek him early have the promise that they shall find him; and if man be wise in the morning of this day of privilege, the way of return to God is filled with encouragement.

In old age, this reconciliation to God is rendered embarrassing and painful by this first difficulty, that " The day goeth away." The period of grace has almost come to its close. The aged sinner must necessarily reflect upon a long duration of mercy, which has passed by unimproved. Every privilege of the gospel has brought with it an individual responsibility. Not one of its advantages can have been enjoyed without the corresponding obligation to render an account thereof to the holy and heart-searching God. O, how awful is the record which must stand against that man's soul who has for twenty, it may be for thirty years, received from God the ample provisions of the gospel, and derived from them no benefit whatever! The heathen, who in his old age, for the first time, listens to the invitations and promises of the gospel, has then the commencement of a day of grace, and is to be regarded under the same aspect as a child in a Christian land, with the same opportunities of religious knowledge. But alas, the aged man, in a land of Christian light, has had from the beginning of his life the privileges which are first offered to the idolater in his latter days! O, what is the condition of many such before me? Two thousand solemn public calls of the gospel are to be accounted for, by some of my hearers, besides the vast multitude of private opportunities of knowledge, which have produced no beneficial influence upon their character and prospects. How terrible is the prospect of being thus thrust down to hell, under this load of privileges and blessings from Heaven! and how serious is the difficulty which this wasted period of mercy interposes to a spiritual return to God!

"The day goeth away." It has been enjoyed, in the fulness of its privileges. It has been long allowed to endure for some of those who listen to me now. But since it has been utterly unimproved, it has tended only to increase the guilt and danger of the soul. For fifty years the Redeemer has called upon an individual present to turn to him and live. For fifty years angels of mercy have watched for his conversion. For fifty years Divine Providence has crowned his ways with loving-kindness and tender mercy. For fifty years there has been consternation in hell, lest he should be persuaded to accept the invitations of the gospel, and escape from the captivity of Satan. Jesus was answered, amid

the convictions impressed in the youthful period, by a promise for the years of maturity. He was put off in maturity to old age, by the cares and labors of life, which had then so much increased that no time could be given to the soul. And now that old age has come, what is the result? Satan is tempting him now to sit down, in sullen despair, under the feeling that so much time has gone that now there can be no room for hope; that he is too old to change a course of habits which have been contracted and indulged for so many years; and that it is better for him to submit with fortitude to that which has been formed into a kind of necessity for his soul. Bring to him now the kind and precious invitations of the gospel, and he can answer, "I would gladly accept them, but alas, I have wasted so much time I have lived so long in a careless state of mind,-I have had so many mercies, and have never improved them, that I have now no hope, if I should desire to return. The day goeth away,' and I must yield to a night of darkness without comfort or hope." O how painful is this view of the condition of an aged sinner! How hard and difficult to arouse him to a sense of the privileges which he has yet remaining, and of the duty which is yet resting upon him! He thinks he would return, but he fears, lest there should be no hope for his soul.

II. The second difficulty which the text suggests, to prevent the spiritual return of the aged sinner unto Christ, is the short period of grace which is now left to him. "The shadows of the evening are stretched out." Many years have passed by unimproved. But very few, at the best, are now left for his soul's salvation. As life passes away, the work to be done increases, in the same proportion as the time in which it is to be done is diminished. The reconciliation to God, which in youth was comparatively easy, in the advanced period of life becomes so difficult as to be well-nigh impossible. And the sinner who has postponed the care of his soul to the last hours of life, finds when these hours come that he has so much work to do in other relations in which he is placed, that salvation is now a hopeless matter. Standing upon the verge of eternity, and looking into the awful blackness of the abyss, the aged man feels that the danger which before was little heeded, is now near and dreadful. Beholding the abiding holiness of God contrasted with his own unceasing alienation from his perfect ways, he sees that the distance between himself and his Maker has been immensely increased by this voluntary estrangement. And while in his youth he had gone astray from the Divine Creator, he finds himself now to have gone so much farther, that the period of youth seems to have been, in a comparative view, a period of innocence. And now, how shall he travel back over this whole distance by which he is separated from God? It has taken him perhaps fifty or sixty years to accomplish this outward-bound journey: can he hope for fifty or sixty years more as a period of return? He set out early in the morning to go astray from God. Through the whole day he has been pressing forward, with unabating rapidity, in this course of ruin; and now, when the day has gone, and the shadows of the evening are stretched out, and exhausted nature is asking for repose, alas, is this an hour to commence the journey of a day? to begin a work which, as soon as it is commenced, midnight darkness will interfere to arrest? Death now stands at the door. The line which separates earth from hell has dwindled to a hair, and the aged sinner is tempted to yield to utter despair of escaping the ruin which is to close upon him. The difficulty which his own heart presents, as arising from this shortened period of probation, Satan uses as a temptation to him to be quiet and unconcerned under his load of sins. He agrees that he ought to have made up his mind before this time as to a course of duty for his life. And he answers the faithful admonitions which are given him by his minister or pious friends, that if he has been all this time in the