poor excuse to alledge that it is only a family affair. The family circle needs to be enlarged, only by the addition of a few guests, to impart to the parlor much of the appearance of a ball-room. Safety, consistency and usefulness, demand that every follower of Christ should renounce it altogether.

To see the true nature and character of this amusement we must view it in the light of Eternity. Let us contrast the merriment and folly of one of these gay and trifling assemblages, with the pure, earnest and solemn worship of the glorious intelligences gathered around the throne of the infinite God. How evanescent are their joys in contrast with the eternal blessedness of that bright circle of seraphic intelligences! How different is their estimate of sin, from that which is formed by the Holy Sovereign of the universe! They jest and laugh whilst trampling under foot his righteous laws; but He frowns on each transgression with a look of awful displeasure, and is "angry with the wicked every day."

Again, what an extreme of condition under God's moral government, does the gaiety and levity of that giddy company present to the weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, of the damned in Hell!—many of whom, in their life time indulged in the same guilty pleasures; and with whom, the principal actors of this scene might in one instant be associated forever, by a single word of an offended and neglected God.

Or who would not be shocked in turning from the contemplation of the sad spectacle of the crucifixion; the body of Jesus mangled, rent, covered with a gore of blood, his dying groans sounding in the ear!—to the levity and laughter of the ball-room, crowded by those whose sins have nailed him to the accursed tree and opened all his wounds anew.

But look forward a few years, or months only it may be; and how diverse will be circumstances of thoughtless trifles! They cannot live forever. Together with us, they are treading the path to the tomb, and there is one coming to meet them whose presence is a terror to all transgressors. Yet into its darkness they must descend, and before that Infinite Being they must shortly stand.

From the noise, splendor, and mirth of the ball-room, they must pass to the silence, gloom and grief, of the chamber of death. The giddy, vain, perhaps, scoffing circle of revellers, must be exchanged for the anxious, sorrowful, weeping company of relatives and friends. The showy finery of the ball dress, must be replaced by the winding sheet and the grave cloths. That form which under the tutoring hand of art, moved with such grace, through all the evolutions of the dance, must lie icy cold in the embrace of death.

Then they will have done with earthly things. No music with its dulcet notes will wake the echoes of the dreary caverns of the dead; no jovial companions will relieve the dullness of the grave; no dance will fill the void of slow revolving ages. The worm will feed on them sweetly there, and their souls will receive according to the deeds done in the body.

When this event arrives the votaries of pleasure will turn pale with terror. They will beg for life. The absorbing inquiry will be "What must I do to be saved?"

But then, oh! how horrible the thought—it may be too late. Unconverted sinner flee these scenes of guilty pleasures as the Gates of Perdition. Prepare without delay to meet thy God. Let the golden moments of life's short day, be consecrated to Prayer, to Repentance, and to Faith in Jesus. Then, too, mayest thou ascend at death, to that bright and better world, where the Saints forever reign, and where from before the light of God's countenance, sin, darkness and sorrow, flee away, and where the soul is filled with a joy unspeakable and full of glory.