move it, it will be because he has good and merciful reasons for its continuance. Wherefore, lift up the

hands which hang down, and the feeble knees." You shall one day see that all this is mercy. Trust in the Lord, and you shall not be desolate.

November 10.

There is scarcely a more mortifying subject of contemplation than the littleness of the sum total of human greatness, compared with the capacity of man. The vast majority of our race waste their powers in the pursuit of objects which have little or no reference to the improvement of their intellectual and moral nature. While the man of mere business is pursuing, with a zeal worthy of the Christian's imitation, schemes of personal emolument, his mind, constantly employed within the contracted sphere of pecuniary and interested calculations, becomes almost incapable of taking a free and extensive range of observation. Like the limb enfeebled by want of exercise, it shrinks from every unusual effort; and the disposition to mental exertion declines, as it is found to be laborious.

Though all cannot be supposed to possess equal advantages for the cultivation of the mental faculties, yet most possess advantages which, duly improved, might have advanced them higher in the scale of human greatness than they are. The daily occurrences of life furnish an infinite variety of occasions upon which the wise may seize as means of improvement. The difficulty is not so much in not having such means, as in the want of the ability or the disposition to profit by them. To teach us how to do this, how to seize upon and turn to the best account every means of improvement with which we are furnished by Providence, is, or -ought to be, the great end of education. Whatever we have learned, if we have not learned to think, so as to be able to advance ourselves in knowledge, by the ju

dicious deductions of reason in reference to our daily circumstances, the most important of all knowledge is wanting, that of knowing how to educate ourselves. And if the mind is not accustomed to think early, there is danger that it will never be brought to think at all. How important, then, that mothers should make the communication of ideas their principal object in instructing their children; and that they should encourage in them a becoming curiosity to know the reasons and uses of things, and induce them to exercise their judgments upon what they have learned. To accomplish these designs, in reference to our children, is indeed no easy task. But are not the benefits to be derived from their accomplishment of importance enough? and is there not sufficient ground to hope for success to constitute a claim to more attention, and effort, and prayer, in reference to them, on the part of mothers, than they commonly receive?

18. Pride has been my constant foe, ever since I have hoped I had begun the Christian race; and I fear it ever will be. Once, when I was the mere child of fiction and romance, my ambition was to distinguish myself by poetizing, and shining as an authoress. After I was married, and was taught some sharp lessons, my great desire was to be a good, plain, common sense woman; a good wife, good mother, good mistress, good Christian. But pride besets me still.

Yet I do hope that I have lately learned some humbling lessons, been made to feel my dependance on God for the exercise of reason, and to receive it daily as a fresh gift at his hand. I do hope pride has appeared more odious to me, more detestable, ungrateful, and abominable of late than ever before. Oh that my reason may be used for God! and, if it is used thus successfully, that the consciousness of my infinite obliga

tions to Him, who continues the faculties he gave, may keep me perfectly humble. I want to be clothed with humility. Vain man! What arrogance to talk of haying a mind that will not yield to despair! Let thy God drop for a moment the hand which sustains thy reason, and where art thou?

TO A SISTER-IN-LAW, AT N. L.

Boston, December 20, 1818.

You will be pleased to learn, that our Christian community is becoming more deeply interested in behalf of the Jews than it has been heretofore. Two missionaries are expected to sail in the spring, on an exploring expedition to Jerusalem. Their object is to ascertain what encouragements exist to the establishment of a missionary station there. It is believed that they will be found sufficient to justify such a measure. All the information we receive respecting the Jews, both in Asia and in Europe, seems to indicate most clearly, that the present is a time in which they are expecting something remarkable, in a political and religious view, to be done for their nation. Nothing seems to give such a spring to missionary exertion as an increased attention to the Jews; for we know that their ingathering will be as life from the dead to the Gentiles. Park Street church and ours have agreed to unite in the observance of the Monthly Concert of Prayer, and at each concert to take up a collection for the support of one of these missionaries to Jerusalem. Both churches have also determined, severally, to educate at least one young man for the ministry, agreeably to the plan proposed in the pamphlet entitled "The claims of 600,000,000 of Heathen." Cannot you educate one in your church ? Try.

TO A FRIEND IN A.

Boston, January 22, 1818.

No, my dear friend, I shall not "be tired of your complaints," though I may be pained by your compli ments. To be told that we are clever, &c., may be gra tifying to our pride, at the same time that it occasions uneasiness, because we know that it is not true.

As to our respective management of our children, you see all your own short-comings, and I see mine, at least some of them. I suppose each of us thinks that, were our faithfulness weighed in the balance, the scale would preponderate in favour of the other. But it is a great comfort that there is ONE who knows all our hindrances and all our efforts; who knows all our weaknesses and discouragements, and who has said, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally, and upbraideth not." Our discouragements often result from the belief that our difficulties are peculiar to ourselves. If we could only see the conflicts of others, we should often find that their struggles were as painful as our own. Perhaps they may not be called to contend with precisely the same things that we are; but, if their difficulties be of a totally different kind from ours, they are not on that account the less formidable.

For myself, I often feel as if there could not be an individual of our weak and sinful race more feeble, more helpless, more unable to stand the smallest trial, than I am. These are sad hours; but they may be profitable ones. It is a sweet reflection that He with whom we have to do will not break the bruised reed; and that our physical infirmities constitute us such, as well as our moral ones. Yes, he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. The great cause of

our getting on so heavily seems to me to be, that we are weak in faith. Would we quietly receive the allotments of God's providence, would we patiently wait for the intimations of his will, would we unreservedly surrender all our interests into his hands, how much happier should we be! There would still be sin to grieve us, to be sure; but a strong faith, though it would not diminish our contrition for our sins, and our concern on account of the sins of others, would take away much of their bitterness. The tears of godly sorrow would not so often be mingled with the sighs of despondency; and the restlessness and anxiety of our hearts, now such obstacles to a state of satisfaction with the government of God, would yield to an humble persuasion that he will do all things well. Oh, my friend, in saying this, I am met with the painful conviction that I am the person who has more need, perhaps, to pray, Lord, increase my faith! than any one else.

As to the subject of your strong and reasonable solicitude, remember that the hearts of all men are in the hands of the Lord, and he can turn them as the rivers of water are turned. God can work without any human instrument; he can make the languor of debility, and the agonies of disease, effectual teachers and schoolmasters, to bring men to Christ. And he often does. Your desire and anxious concern for the conversion of this dear friend are rational and proper, so far as they stimulate you to fervency and wrestling in prayer on his account. But if this desire and concern pass over these bounds, if they lead to an anxious state of mind, which enfeebles your health, interrupts your confidence in God, and thus unfits you to pray and labour, either for him, or yourself, or your children, as you otherwise would do, does it not become a hindrance and a snare? It is a difficult case, I know. But your gracious God, on whose kind arms you have hitherto been so merci