my purpose, as having a force
and an authority which no other words can possess)--you must endeavour
to _set the Lord always before you_. Never for a moment forget that you
are continually in the presence of that awful Being, who can, and who
will, call you to a strict account for all that you do amiss. Nothing
can excuse your forgetting Him.

If you at all believe in a Supreme Being, the Creator and Governor of
the world; if you believe that God is, and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him, and at the same time an avenger to execute
wrath upon every soul that doeth evil, the least particle of common
sense or common feeling will tell you, that nothing should be put in
competition with his will. When his will is clear, it _must_ be obeyed
without hesitation. I am sure that you will assent to this. If religion
is any thing, it is _every thing_. It is, indeed, the one thing needful,
in comparison with which every thing else sinks into insignificance,
into nothingness.

Endeavour, then, to keep up in your mind and heart this habitual sense
of religion by every means in your power. It will require from you
considerable care and attention. The lively spirits natural to your time
of life, and the thoughtless levity of some of the young men into whose
society you will be thrown, will have a tendency to make you think less
of religion, if not to induce you entirely to forget it. Be ever on your
guard against thus swerving from your allegiance to your Creator.

Nothing will contribute more to preserve you from this danger than
regularity and earnestness in your private devotions. When you rise in
the morning, seek from God spiritual strength to enable you to resist
and overcome the temptations to which you may be exposed during the day.
Every night implore his forgiveness for your many failings and
transgressions, and his protection against the dangers which surround
you. Suffer nothing to induce you to neglect private prayer.

You will of course be required every day to attend chapel. Consider
such attendance not as an irksome duty, not as a mere matter of routine
and college discipline, but try to regard it as a privilege, and to take
a real interest and pleasure in it. Acquire the habit of joining
fervently in the prayers, and of constantly deriving from the lessons
and other portions of Scripture, the doctrinal and practical instruction
which they were intended to convey. Many college chapels are furnish