youthful vigour, and remembering that as ye are, so once was I, can I be otherwise than admonitory? My feelings acquire a yet deeper character from the circumstance, that only a few days since, the majority of your number publicly pledged yourselves to the fulfilment of your baptismal vows, and this, under a solemn sense of the duty and difficulty of so doing. To none was Confirmation a light thing, and the day on which it occurred was a day long to be remembered. Will it not be more? Will it not be the commencement of a new era in the life of each? Nay, will it not be the commencement of a new life itself? Shall the solemn sense of God's presence which pervaded your souls when assembled in his sanctuary, exhale like the dew? disperse like a cloud? Must the sweet serenity which now fills your hearts, while they are seeking him whose favour is life, be blighted, because that search becomes gradually intermitted, -that favour more lightly esteemed? Must the sacred union which now binds you together, because striving to walk in one way you desire to walk in one spirit, to watch over, admonish, pray

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for, and love one another-must this fervent fellowship be jarred and disturbed? Shall the wind of vanity and dissension blow upon and scatter it, leaving each to bear her own burden, to grieve, rejoice, succeed, or fall— alone? The very God of peace forbid! But

by whom shall Jacob arise, for he is small?" and with youthful fickleness, added to human infirmity, both destined to be tried and drawn forth in a vain, bewildering, tempting, troubled world, who amongst you shall stand? Who shall hold on her way growing stronger and stronger, her eye fixed on the bright, if distant, goal of eternity? Who shall walk in the path of Christian duty, diverging neither to the right hand nor to the left-treading down alike the briars that would hinder, and the flowers that would allure? Who, having an eye to the great recompence of reward, shall esteem "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt?" Who shall wage victorious warfare with a proud, ambitious spirit, cast down every high imagination, bring every thought into subjection to the

cross of Christ, and in that despised object behold the fountain of all true glory? What unyielding temper shall be conformed to the meekness and gentleness of Christ? What "dry root" shall "grow as the lily?" What unstable plant "cast forth its roots as Lebanon ?" Will the bruised reed become a stately pillar, or the smoking flax "a burning and a shining light?", Will the day whereof" the light is neither clear nor dark," become " a day known to the Lord ?" Who among you will " run and not be weary, will

walk and not faint?" I know that similar questions have agitated your own minds,I know that each in turn has said with despondency, "Alas! not I." Alas! not I." Have I then suggested these obstacles only to dismay and dishearten? Would I in any mind discourage hope and implant doubt? Would I be to you a "grieving thorn and a pricking briar," a needless Micaiah? Oh, no! The gospel states the difficulty of becoming a follower of Christ in plain terms, because it provides a sufficiency of strength to overcome them; and God is absolute in re

quiring our obedience, because royal in his promises of all that we need to enable us to obey. Our necessities may be many as the sands upon the sea-shore; our desires boundless as the ocean they encircle; our hopes and aspirations high as the heaven that looks down upon them both; but in Him is a sufficiency of supply-infinite-unfathomable-unexplored. Were there a sin beyond the reach of divine mercy to pardon, or divine grace to subdue; a temptation, out of which divine power could not deliver; a loss that divine love could not remedy; a wound it failed to heal; a tear it could not dry, the attributes of Deity were tarnished— nay, he would cease to be God! But what we so scantily and obscurely apprehend, he knows in all its wondrous magnitude; even "the great love wherewith he hath loved us,” and his willingness "to help in every time of need." He only demands our unlimited confidence, because he knows that we are dust, and feels that he is God. "He openeth his hand, and filleth all things living with plenteousness." That we go on our way.

halting and mourning, stumbling and overcome, is not from deficiency of resource, but inadequacy of attainment; not from being straitened in God, but from being straitened in ourselves. We have not, because we ask not, or because we ask amiss. We believe too little, we desire too little, we expect too little. Unbelief, disguised as humility, supplicates, as though God were a miser, rather than what he is, a great and generous king. We walk through the rich fields of promise, contented to gather a few ears in our hands, and pass on our way still hungry, when by putting in the sickle of faith we might reap an abundant and abiding harvest; "bread, enough and to spare." You see how these views bear on the questions contained in a former part of my letter: oh! dearest girls, may you, through him who is

mighty to save," realize them in your own hearts and lives; find him, what myriads have found him before, "a very present help in time of trouble." Continued perplexities, a thousand discouragements connected with yourselves or others, will from time to time