must strive for the crown, yet receive it as a gift, and then lay it at our Master's feet. While we are busily trading in the world with our Lord's talents, we must commune with our heart, and be still :" while we strive to practise the purest disinterestedness, we must be contented though we meet with selfishness in return; and while laying out our lives for the good of mankind, we must submit to reproach without murmuring, and to ingratitude without resentment. And to render us equal to all these services, Christianity bestows not only the precept, but the power; she does what the great poet of Ethics lamented that Reason could not do, she lends us arms as well as rules."

LETTER IX.

The Rev. T. Gisborne on Religion.

MY ESTEEMED Children,

I shall conclude these discourses on the important topic of religion, by some passages from the ser mons of the Rev. T. Gisborne, on the Duties of Women; and these will satisfactorily, I trust, complete this branch of the various subjects on which feel myself called upon to address you.

"The primary end of education is to train up the pupil in the knowledge, love, and application of those principles of conduct, which, under the su perintending influence of the divine mercy, will lead probably to a considerable share of happiness in the present life, but assuredly to a full measure of it, in that which is to come. The secondary end is, to superadd to the possession of right principles those improving and ornamental acquisitions, which, either from their own nature, or from the prevail, ing customs of a particular age and country, are

in some degree material to the comfort and to the usefulness of the individual.

In the instruction of persons whom we believe to be destined to survive the stroke of death, and to survive in happiness or in misery proportioned to the nature of their conduct in this short and preparatory state of existence, the main object to be pursued is, to inspire them with such views of things,' to train them to such dispositions and affections, to establish them in such principles and rules of action, as are calculated to render that future and most important state of being, a period of blessedness. Such would still have been the dictates of reason, had the result been likely to be unfavourable to happiness in the present life. How forcibly, then, do they press upon those instructors who are convinced, as is the case with all who believe in the Christian Revelation, that 'godliness has the promise of the life which now is, as well as of that which is to come:' that the very same views of things, the very same affections and dispositions, the very same principles and rules of action, which lead to never-ending felicity hereafter, promise in the common course of events a larger portion of external comfort than is attainable by any other means and are accompanied by a serenity of heart, and by a cheerful sense of the protecting care of infinite Power, Wisdom, and Goodness, which far more than outweigh the collected amount of all other terrestrial enjoyments. The chief solicitude, therefore, of every one, who is called to fulfil the duties of tuition, ought to be this; to engage the understanding and the affections of the pupil in favour of piety and virtue, and to detach the mind from that supreme love of worldly objects to which it is prone, by unfolding the truth, the importance, and the inherent excellence of the Christian religion : and by inculcating morality not as attainable by human ability without the Divine assistance, but as

the fruit of Christianity through the influence of the Holy Spirit: not as consisting in actions beneficial to society, without reference to the motives from which they proceed, but as flowing from an earnest desire to please the Supreme Being by the exercise of justice and benevolence to man; not as ultimately resting on independent principles and obligations of its own, but as founded on the precepts and sanctions of the Gospel, and forming one branch of human duty to God.

In the sacred volume we meet with precepts conformable to the representation which it gives of human nature as radically propense to evil, and as finding no preservative from sin and punishment but in religion. We hear in the Old Testament the invitation of David: 'Come, ye children, hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.' We hear Solomon thus addressing parents: Train up a child in the way in which he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.' We hear the voice of God himself speaking thus in signal commendation of Abraham: 'I know that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord.' We hear the Almighty repeatedly admonishing the Israelites to be diligent in teaching their children his laws, and the wonders which he had wrought for their fathers. The New Testament reiterates the same lesson. Our Saviour's reproof of those, who would not suffer little children to come unto him, might of itself incline us to forebode his displeasure against persons who, in future times, should not suffer them to come to the knowledge of his Gospel. But the point is not left to rest on presumptions. St. Paul, in expressly commanding children to obey their parents in the Lord,' and because their obedience is well pleasing unto the Lord,' gives his decisive judgment, a judgment formed under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, that children ought to be in

structed in the religion of Christ. In perfect conformity with this injunction the same apostle congratulates a favourite convert, because to use his own words, f from a child thou hast known the Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. And in another place he expressly commands pårents, in terms which alone would have been sufficient to decide the question, to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." - In whatever place, and in whatever manner, religious instruction be communicated, let it be ad dressed to the heart no less assiduously than to the understanding. The obedience which God requires is a cheerful obedience: not that which proceeds merely from the conviction of the judgment, but that which flows also from the decided bias of pu rified inclinations,. and is at once the performance of duty and the perception of delight. Let religion be painted in the attractive colours which belong to it. Let it not however be misrepresented or disguised, with the hope that in appearance it may thus be rendered more amiable. The scheme is as foolish as it is needless and unscriptural. Let the truth be fully disclosed. Let the awful sentence denounced against the unrepenting sinner, be impresséd no less strongly than the rewards prepared for the righteous. Let it not be dissembled that a life of holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord," is a life of watchfulness and exertion; and has difficulties insuperable without assistance from above. But let the undeserved and unparalleled love of God to man be continually and distinctly developed...Let it be exemplified as extended to the pupil herself, and to every individual, in the gift of life; in daily and hourly preservation and support; in the pleasures resulting from the grand and beautiful works of Creation; in the stupendous mercies. of redemption, the expiation of sin, the sanctifying

aid of divine grace, the recovery of life and happiness everlasting, purchased by the death of Jesus Christ. Let it be shewn, that if sorrow be the lot of humanity, the fatherly chastisement is designed for the ultimate good of the afflicted. Let it be shewn that, if numbers have to look forward to misery hereafter, it is because they will not repent and be saved; and that it is not the will of our Heavenly Father, that any one of his children should perish.'

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LETTER X.

The Old Testament.

MY ESTEEMED Children,

We ought never to be wearied of this everlasting subject, but I should be deficient in duty if I withheld the observations of Mrs. Chapone on the Books of the Old and New Testament, as an introduction to the study of the Holy Scriptures at large, or of the School Bible.

"May you be enabled to make the best use of this most precious gift of God-this sacred treasury of knowledge! May you read the Bible, not as a task, nor as the dull employment of that day only in which you are forbidden more lively entertainments -but with a sincere and ardent desire of instruction; with that love and delight in God's word which the holy Psalmist so pathetically felt and described, and which is the natural consequence of loving God and virtue !-Though I speak this of the Bible in general, I would not be understood to mean that every part of the volume is equally interesting. I have already said, that it consists of various matter, and various kinds of books, which must be read with different views and sentiments. The having