himself," even the wild desires and rebel feelings of the human heart; the blessing of him who says, "let your moderation be known unto all men; "who promises his glory to those only who "overcome," to the patient. runners in the Christian race, to the faithful combatants in that hidden strife accomplished between the flesh and the spirit; the blessing of him whose nature, name, life, being, death, were love, be with you, dearest girl, at once as a sanctifying and stimulating influence. Call me not, think me not unkind, because I reason with you thus calmly. Alas! it has been for my own benefit, even more than yours, that I have written thus fully. I always find it good to exhort others, for in so doing I exhort myself, and I feel that I need exhortation. O false human heart! yielding as water to the world, insensible as adamant to the voice of God! frail as a bubble, wandering as a silly bird! O seductive, treacherous world! where the loveliest flower enfolds a canker-worm, the sweetest feelings grow surrounded by thorns, and the best blessings either induce sin, or conceal a snare! glorious state, and coming time! wherein

all evil shall be done away, and all good perfected! where the intensity of human emotion shall no longer interfere with the bright serenity of holy love, but both be conjoined in one inexplicable bond! where myriads shall be loved, as now we love our friends; and friends be loved, as now we ought to love our God; and God be loved, and admired, worshipped, understood, and delighted in, with a reverence and a rapture, an affinity and a comprehension, with human sentiment purified, and divine capacity superadded, more than ever saints conceived, more than even angels knew!

Realize thoughts like these, dearest, as a counterpoise to vain imaginations; and when praying that an abundant entrance may be ministered to yourself, remember one who loves you well, yet desires to be your faithful friend.

LETTER XVI.

MY DEAR

FROM what I have observed and heard of you, and from what I recollect of myself at your age, I think I understand your present state of feeling, your tastes, desires, opinions, and sentiments. From having drawn them out into action, and from having enjoyed and suffered their consequences, I know too whence they come, and whither they tend. To this you will attribute my affectionate anxiety on your

account.

My love, you are ambitious ;-vague, restless, ever-changing desires occupy your mind, and your heart is full of those fair shadows with which romance disguises reality. What kind of distinction is best

worth having, you have not yet decided; but, as least unattainable in the present state of society, perhaps your thoughts fix most frequently on intellectual celebrity. I say celebrity, for I do not believe that intellectual acquirements would fulfil your vision. Your judgment is convinced of the necessity of spiritual religion; occasionally you are touched with a sense of its worth and sweetness, but you do not believe that it is in itself all-sufficient to make you happy, and your heart rebels frequently against its requirements. You are well aware that you cannot compromise with God; "that you are not your own; that, as "bought with a price," you are bound to surrender all you are, and all you possess, to his service; to account your talents a delegated trust, for the use of which you are responsible, and the glory of which appertains to him! Now this loving God, with "all the understanding," is a stumbling-block at which thousands have stumbled, and tens of thousands have fallen to rise no more. To toil, deserve, and acquire, without the stimulus supplied by personal ambition, or an exulting conscious

ness of superiority; to receive praise and render it to God untouched; to strive for victory and inscribe the trophy with the name of another-this you feel is " a hard saying." Yet, herein lies true happiness and true distinction. Personal aggrandizement is the stately phantom, of which desire to glorify God was once the warm and living substance. It expired in Paradise with Adam's innocence, but divine grace can revive it even here; and it starts into full life and beauty, in that region where each glorified spirit casts his crown at the foot of Him who gave it. * Was not David, making magnificent preparations for the temple which another was to build, and renouncing even the glory of those preparations, nobler and more distinguished than the same David numbering his people from vain-glorious pride? My love, you are dazzled with the dewdrops of earth, because you do not raise your eyes to the sun in heaven. The queen of Sheba thought no more of the glory of her own court, when she had seen the surpassing excellence of Solomon's; and Paul, after he

* 1 Chron. xix. 10-20.