you  yourself  are  ashamed  to  read,  and  which
no  one  else  will  either  read  or  remember?

Yet  I  have  spoken  of  no  crime.  The  rec-
ord which  we  have  now  been  reading  is  not
so  much  of  a  wicked  life,  as  of  one  passed  in
the  common  routine  of  events,  with  nothing
either  very  good  or  very  bad  to  mark  it.  To
him  who  is  passing  such  a  life,  it  seems  well
enough.  The  finger  of  scorn  is  not  pointed  at
him ;  he  holds  a  position  comparatively  re-
spectable ;  he  earns  his  own  living,  occasion-
ally helps  a  friend  or  neighbor,  and  never  does
any  thing  to  bring  absolute  disgrace  upon  his
name.  There  are  so  many  whose  lives  are
worse,  that  he  is  tolerably  well  satisfied  with
himself.  But  how  meagre  and  unsatisfactory
must  the  whole  appear,  when  it  passes  under
that  stern  review  at  the  last !  When  the  close
of  life  comes,  can  any  one  of  us  be  satisfied
with  its  result,  unless  we  feel  that  in  some  re-
spect it  has  been  a  good  thing  for  the  cause
of  humanity  and  for  the  glory  of  God,  that
we  have  lived  ?

What,  then,  must  be  the  feelings  of  him,


AN    APPEAL.  27

who  reads  the  records  of  a  life,  not  only  worth-
less, but  wicked  ?  if  that  too  faithful  mem-
ory recalls  days  of  folly  and  nights  of  crime  ?
if  dissipation,  and  revelry,  and  licentiousness,
and  blasphemy,  and  violation  of  trust,  and
broken  promises,  are  the  headings  of  the  chap-
ters, as  he  reads  from  page  to  page?  Think
of  one  who,  in  the  silent  loneliness  of  old  age,
broods  over  recollections  such  as  these !  He
feels  that  he  does  not  comprehend  the  depth
to  which  he  has  fallen ;  the  light  of  eternity  is
needed  to  reveal  that  to  him  ;  but  he  knows
enough  to  be  covered  with  shame,  and  the  de-
spondency of  his  heart  is  but  little  better  than
despair.  Young  man  !  kneel  down  and  pray
to  your  God,  that  he  may  save  you  from  such '
a  close  of  life  as  this !  Pray  for  early  death,
for  poverty,  for  suffering,  for  ignominy,  rather
than  to  be  left  in  the  darkness  of  that  sorrow.
