ETAT. 21] PERPETUITY OF SPIRITUAL FRIENDSHIPS. 77

pen. It may not be improper to tell you, what is much more important, that I have prayed for you. I trust I have been enabled to get near a throne of grace on your behalf, and have made requests which our Heavenly Father will not deny. I sometimes think that if our acquaintance answered no other purpose than to call forth our prayers for each other's welfare, we should have reason to review it with gratitude through eternity.

"I believe few Christians have any adequate idea of the wondrous power of prayer. I feel as if a mighty instrument of usefulness had long lain beside me unemployed. Sometimes I am awakened to a sense of my indifference and folly, and attempt to use it, but through the benumbing influence of those things which are seen and temporal,' I yield to my former listlessness. How strange that we do not believe the God of truth! He has said 'ask and ye shall receive.' How simple the statement! How plain the direction! How firm the promise! May you and I be among the number who believe it.

"I have of late been very much impressed with the importance of making our connection as much as possible a religious one. If we are united in common love to the Saviour, our attachment will be founded upon an immovable basis. All inferior ties will be broken by death, but this will remain for ever. I have the firmest belief that alliances of this character will be continued beyond the grave. The constitution of our rational nature warrants such a conclusion. Beyond a doubt memory will be a great source of happiness in a future state. The recollection of mutual intercourse upon spiritual subjects, and mutual prayers, must afford great happiness; and we cannot think with pleasure upon these without experiencing peculiar emotions towards those who shared them with us. This is a delightful idea. It often affords me great consolation."

On the 16th he writes in his Journal: "A low standard

of religion does immense injury. Some seem as if they wished to retain as many sins and imperfections as are barely consistent with the possession of religion. There is reason to fear that many are deceiving themselves by making the practice of the church, instead of the precepts of God's word, the standard of their piety."-The importance of a diligent study of the Scriptures-not a mere perusal-can scarcely be too urgently enforced. The tendency to formalism is not the only evil we have to shun. Our great spiritual adversary will tempt us to adopt as chief incentives to religious duties those which ought to be subordinate, and thus make truth do the work of error. Is not this extensively the case? Is not religion popularly regarded as a benefit to be received, rather than a service to be rendered? That it is profitable for both worlds the declarations of Scripture, and the facts of daily life, attest. But to make this the reason of our seeking its possession is highly mischevious. It fosters the selfishness Christianity is designed to destroy. "Seek first the kingdom of God"—that is, make the universal recognition of Divine rule and authority the supreme business of life-was the utterance of our blessed Lord in His first public discourse. That the Apostles thus represented Christ's claims, the whole tenor of their epistles declares. "He died for all" says the greatest of them, "that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again." His own practice, he tells us, was in harmony with this declaration, "For to me to live is Christ." Abandonment of self-seeking, and renunciation of self-will, are everywhere represented in Scripture as essential to Christian character. Religion should be regarded therefore as devotedness to God, and all its benefits as expressions of Divine beneficence. This is the only view that tends to expansion of heart, elevation of character, and the practical adoption of Christ's philanthropic purposes. When this

ÆTAT. 21] TRUTH MAY MINISTER TO ERROR.

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is the popular idea, we shall have, without any diminution of happiness, far more Christian activity and usefulness. Christianity will then have an exemplification worthy of it; and never till then.

"It is no small attainment in wisdom to estimate aright the relative importance of the varied objects claiming our attention. A single day's observation will furnish numerous instances where things insignificant are magnified into an undue importance, and things of vast moment treated with comparative neglect. These remarks are emphatically applicable to the controversies which have taken place in the church. It is extremely difficult to make a minor point a matter of dispute, and not to raise it from its proper place in the Christian economy. We can grasp only a portion of the truth and we are too apt to mistake that for the whole. It is quite possible to fall into practical error while contending for truth. A custom or a ceremony may be right, but in our eagerness to defend it we may exalt it to an importance which will be wrong. All the parts should have a harmonious relation to each other; as the painters say, they should be in proper keeping—and it is not easy to meddle with them without disturbing their harmony."-What section of the church may not ponder this with profit? Episcopalian and Presbyterian; Congregationalist and the admirer of the Connexional principle; Pædo-baptist and Anti-Pædo-baptist; Calvinist and Arminian, may all profit by candid reflection on this passage.

21. "It has often struck me that the excessive admiration of the classics which some men exhibit, results from the exercise of translation. Not that the classics are unworthy of great admiration. That man must be destitute of all taste who can see no beauty in Virgil or sublimity in Homer. But there is an undue attachment which prevents a right appreciation of other literature. We often meet

with men rendering a homage to ancient authors which they deny to moderns of equal excellence. This is accounted for when we consider that in translation the mind is brought into close contact with the beautiful images which many of the ancient productions present, and by this process it surveys them leisurely, and comes under the full power of their beauty."

22. "In some of our more sombre moments, feelings arise which language cannot define, and which are totally different from those ordinarily experienced. The mind looks round the earth in quest of something that may fill its capacities and gratify its desires. It sees and feels that imperfection is stamped upon all sublunary objects, and is disappointed. It retires within itself, but even there something is wanting. It feels its own weakness; it needs something to rest upon. There is but one source to which it can turn-that is the supreme excellence. In God it finds every thing it needs. The sentiments of admiration have full scope. The more ardently the affections cling to this glorious object the more happiness is realized. The more eagerly our souls desire created good, the greater is the sense of vacancy, the more keenly are the unsatisfied cravings of the spirit felt. But as it regards God it is quite the reverse. The more intense our desire the more complete the satisfaction. The spirit may take its fill the appetite can never be cloyed. If the mind were surrounded by an assemblage of excellence brought from every part of the creation-if the riches of the universe were employed to form a rare combination of beauty and splendour, and the soul were left to luxuriate and revel in, and as much as possible possess, all this, yet still there would be something wanting. There might be an addition to this collection of created good. The mind would perceive this, and could not but wish for something more. In proportion

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to the strength of the desire already gratified would be the wish that was ungratified. If I possessed twice as much as I do now my desires for still greater possession would be doubled by such increase. But how delightful is the idea that when we take God for our portion we take an infinite good! Let our wishes stretch as far as they will, let our desires be beyond any thing we can at present conceive, yet not one desire shall remain unsatisfied."

"Among all divines, not one, in my estimation, equals Baxter for practical utility. The more I read the better I like him. He was possessed of those rare qualities which fit a man for moving the spirits of his fellow-men. You never find Baxter asleep; his spirit possessed a restless energy which kept himself and every one else awake. There is much poetry in many of his productions, especially his 'Saints' Rest.' With all his quaintness it is possible to select many passages from his works not excelled by any in our language. But the art of persuasion was his forte. No man was ever more successful in arranging the moral арраratus of the preacher, and causing it to operate with power. He is particularly distinguished for keeping his end in view; he even makes his very aberrations the means of forwarding his grand object. Few men have appealed to the conscience with such power as he. He held it beneath his hand, and his hearers felt they could not elude his grasp. Its subtle, delicate workings appeared to be visible to him. Perhaps it was in this sphere that his judgment was best exercised. He often got wrong in other matters, but he was generally right here. To use a homely expression, 'he hit the right nail on the head.'

"There is a remarkable unity of design in the writings of Edwards. He appears to have no collateral object in view. He cannot even cast his eye aside to look at the effort he is making when his gigantic energies are being put