than as it tends to improve the morals of men, and to make them wise and good.1

A generous mind will choose to win youth to its duty by mildness and good usage, rather than by severity.

The Almighty, by rewards and punishments, makes it our interest, as well as our duty, to obey Him; and can we propose to ourselves, for the government of our children, a better example ?

FRIENDSHIP. The more durable ties of friendship are those which result from a union of minds formed upon religious principles.

An open and generous heart will not permit a cloud to hang long upon the brow of a friend, without inquiring into the reason of it, in hopes to be able to dispel it.

Freely to give reproof, and thankfully to receive it, is an indispensable condition of true friendship.

One day, profligate men will be convinced that what they call friendship is chaff and stubble, and that nothing is worthy of that sacred name that has not virtue for its base.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. The man or woman who will obstinately vindicate a faulty step in another, seems to indicate that, in like circumstances, he or she would have been guilty of the same fault.

All our pursuits, from childhood to manhood, are only trifles of different sorts and sizes, proportioned to our years and views.

We must not expect that our roses will grow without thorns; but then they are useful and instructive thorns, which, by pricking the fingers of the too hasty plucker, teach future caution.

THE GOOD MAN. A good man lives to his own heart. He thinks it not good manners to slight the world's opinion; though he will regard it only in the second place.

A good man will look upon every accession of power to do good as a new trial to the integrity of his heart.

A good man, though he will value his own countrymen, yet will think as highly of the worthy men of every nation under the

sun.

A good man is a prince of the Almighty's creation.

A good man will not engage even in a national cause, without examining the justice of it.

How much more glorious a character is that of the friend of mankind, than that of the conqueror of nations?

1 "And surely happiness, duty, faith, truth, and final blessedness, are matters of deeper and dearer interest for all men, than circles to the geometrician, or the characters of plants to the botanist, or the affinities and combining principle of the elements of bodies to the chemist, or even than the mechanism (fearful and wonderful though it be) of the perishable Tabernacle of the Soul can be to the anatomist."- Coleridge

The heart of a worthy man is ever on his lips; he will be pained when he cannot speak all that is in it.

An impartial spirit will admire goodness or greatness wherever he meets it, and whether it makes for or against him.

THE GOOD WOMAN. A good woman is one of the greatest glories of the creation.

How do the duties of a good wife, a good mother, and a worthy matron, well performed, dignify a woman!

A good woman reflects honor on all those who had any hand in her education, and on the company she has kept.

A woman of virtue and of good understanding, skilled in, and delighting to perform the duties of domestic life, needs not fortune to recommend her to the choice of the greatest and richest man, who wishes his own happiness.

YOUTH. It is a great virtue in good-natured youth to be able to say NO.

Those who respect age deserve to live to be old, and to be respected themselves.

Young people set out with false notions of happiness; with gay, fairy-land imaginations.

It is a most improving exercise, as well with regard to style as to morals, to accustom ourselves early to write down every thing of moment that befalls us.

There is a docile season, a learning-time in youth, which, suffered to elapse, and no foundation laid, seldom returns.

Young folks are sometimes very cunning in finding out contrivances to cheat themselves.

THIS learned prelate of the Church of England was born in London, 1678. He was educated at Catherine Hall, Cambridge, of which he became master, and in 1714 was vice-chancellor of the University. In the controversies which arose at that period respecting the proofs of the divine origin of Christianity, Sherlock distinguished himself, particularly in his "Use and Intent of Prophecy," and his "Trial of the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus." In 1728 he was made Bishop of Bangor, in 1734 was translated to Salisbury, and in 1748 to London. In 1755 and 1756 he revised and corrected a large body of his sermons, which were published in four volumes. He died in 1761, at the advanced age of eighty-three.

Sherlock's sermons are among the best specimens of English pulpit elo. quence extant. His style, though possessing but little ornament, is clear and vigorous, and a few passages may be selected from his writings, such as the comparison between Christ and Mahomet, that are truly sublime.

DIFFERENT ENDS OF RELIGION AND INFIDELITY.

Should the punishments of another life be what we have but too much reason to fear they will be, what words can then express the folly of sin? Short are our days in this world, and soon they shall expire and should religion at last prove a mere deceit, we know the worst of it; it is an error for which we cannot suffer after death: nor will the infidels there have the pleasure to reproach us with our mistake; they and we, in equal rest, shall sleep the sleep of death. But should our hopes, and their fears, prove true; should they be so unhappy as not to die for ever-which miserable hope is the only comfort that infidelity affords—what pains and torments must they then undergo? Could I represent to you the different states of good and bad men; could I give you the prospect which the blessed martyr Stephen had, and show you the blessed Jesus at the right hand of God surrounded with angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect; could I open your ears to hear the never-ceasing hymns of praise which the blessed above sing to him that was, and is, and is to come; to the Lamb that was slain, but liveth for ever; could I lead you through the unbounded regions of eternal day, and show you the mutual and ever-blooming joys of saints who are at rest from their labor, and live for ever in the presence of God; or, could I change the scene, and unbar the iron gates of hell, and carry you, through solid darkness, to the fire that never goes out, and to the worm that never dies; could I show you the apostate angels fast bound in eternal chains, or the souls of wicked men overwhelmed with torment and despair; could I open your ears to hear the deep itself groan with the continual cries of misery-cries which can never reach the throne of mercy, but return in sad echoes, and add even to the very horrors of hell; could I thus set before you the different ends of religion and infidelity, you would want no other proof to convince you that nothing can recompense the hazard men run of being for ever miserable through unbelief. But, though neither the tongues of men nor of angels can express the joys of heaven, or describe the pains of hell; yet, if there be any truth in religion, these things are certain and near at hand.

THE INFORMATION THE GOSPEL GIVES, MOST DESIRABLE.

The Christian revelation has such pretences, at least, as may make it worthy of a particular consideration. It pretends to come from heaven; to have been delivered by the Son of God; to have been confirmed by undeniable miracles and prophecies; to have been ratified by the blood of Christ and his apostles, who died in asserting its truth: it can show, likewise, an innumerable com

pany of martyrs and confessors; its doctrines are pure and holy, its precepts just and righteous; its worship is a reasonable service, refined from the errors of idolatry and superstition, and spiritual, like the God who is the object of it: it offers the aid and the assistance of heaven to the weakness of nature, which makes the religion of the Gospel to be as practicable as it is reasonable: it promises infinite rewards to obedience, and threatens eternal punishment to obstinate offenders, which makes it of the utmost consequence to us soberly to consider it, since every one who rejects it stakes his own soul against the truth of it. Look into the Gospel; there you will find every reasonable hope of nature, nay, every reasonable suspicion of nature cleared up and confirmed, every difficulty answered and removed. Do the present circumstances of the world lead you to suspect that God could never be the author of such corrupt and wretched creatures as men now are? Your suspicions are just and well founded. "God made man upright;" but through the temptation of the devil, sin entered, and death and destruction followed after.

Do you suspect, from the success of virtue and vice in this world, that the providence of God does not interpose to protect the righteous from violence, or to punish the wicked? The suspicion is not without ground. God leaves his best servants here to be tried oftentimes with affliction and sorrow, and permits the wicked to flourish and abound. The call of the Gospel is not to honor and riches here, but to take up our cross and follow Christ.

Do you judge from comparing the present state of the world with the natural notion you have of God, and of his justice and goodness, that there must needs be another state in which justice shall take place? You reason right, and the Gospel confirms the judgment. God has appointed a day to judge the world in righteousness: then those who mourn shall rejoice, those who weep shall laugh, and the persecuted and afflicted servants of God shall be heirs of his kingdom.

Have you sometimes misgivings of mind? Are you tempted to mistrust this judgment when you see the difficulties which surround it on every side; some which affect the soul in its separate state, some which affect the body in its state of corruption and dissolution? Look to the Gospel: there these difficulties are accounted for; and you need no longer puzzle yourself with dark questions concerning the state, condition, and nature of separate spirits, or concerning the body, however to appearance lost or destroyed; for the body and soul shall once more meet to part no more, but to be happy for ever. In this case the learned cannot

doubt, and the ignorant may be sure that 'tis the man, the very man himself, who shall rise again; for a union of the same sou and body is as certainly the restoration of the man, as the divid

ing them was the destruction. Would you know who it is that gives this assurance? It is one who is able to make good his word: one who loved you so well as to die for you; yet one too great to be held a prisoner in the grave. No; He rose with triumph and glory, the first-born from the dead, and will, in like manner, call from the dust of the earth all those who put their trust and confidence in Him.

CHRIST AND MOHAMMED CONTRASTED.

Go to your Natural Religion : lay before her Mohammed and his disciples arrayed in armor and in blood, riding in triumph over the spoils of thousands and tens of thousands who fell by his victorious sword: show her the cities which he set in flames, the countries which he ravaged and destroyed, and the miserable distress of all the inhabitants of the earth. When she has viewed him in this scene, carry her into his retirements: show her the prophet's chamber, his concubines and wives; let her see his adultery, and hear him allege revelation and his divine commission to justify his lust and his oppression. When she is tired of this prospect, then show her the blessed Jesus, humble and meek, doing good to all the sons of men, patiently instructing both the ignorant and the perverse: let her see him in his most retired privacies: let her follow him to the mount, and hear his devotions and supplications to God: carry her to his table to view his poor fare, and hear his heavenly discourse: let her see him injured, but not provoked: let her attend him to the tribunal, and consider the patience with which he endured the scoffs and reproaches of his enemies: lead her to the cross, and let her view him in the agony of death, and hear his last prayer for his persecutors: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" When Natural Religion has viewed both, ask, Which is the prophet of God? But her answer we have already had, when she saw part of this scene through the eyes of the centurion who attended at the cross by him she said, "Truly, this was the Son of God.”

LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU. 1690-1762.

Tuis lady, the daughter of Evelyn, Earl of Kingston, was born at her father's seat at Thoresby, in Nottinghamshire, about the year 1690. Displaying great attractions of person as well as sprightliness of mind from her earliest years, she was the pride of her father, who took every pains with her education, and had her instructed by the same masters as her brother in the Greek, Latin, and French languages. In 1712 she was married to Edward Wortley Montagu, Esq., and soon after this, resided principally in London,