It

actions, without spurring you on to good ones. must be no unfruitful, but an active virtue. An unfruitful virtue is no virtue! It is no merit not to lie, not to steal, not to do injury, not to murder; but it is a merit, it is praiseworthy, to bless those who curse us, to do good to them that hate us. Thus Jesus points out the true virtue, which is acceptable before God! What then is that principle which in the most effectual manner excites and animates you to good, under the greatest variety of circumstances and at all times?-This choose! let this be your guide to perfection, to the imitation of Jesus, to the establishment of your durable peace of mind. It will appear, when you have proved yourself thoroughly, that something of this kind is existing in you. Entirely dead to good you cannot be. Do you feel a cordial, tender, thankful love towards your parents? oh! let this love be your guardian angel; resign yourself entirely to this love; do nothing without reference to those dear and honoured persons. Fancy them always present to your actions; make them in idea the judges of your feelings; imagine, even when they are absent, that they are present and the hearers of your words. If they be dead, let the recollection of them be just as solemn. And how know you that they are not the witnesses of your life? Who knows the secrets of the world of spirits, and the

power of the glorified? Let love and gratitude to these parents guide your steps, and if you truly love them, you will permit no unclean thought to abide within you, which you would be ashamed to speak before them; you will neglect no noble deed by which you may do honour to their memory: so will no denial, no sacrifice, no self-control seem too hard for you, if it but make you worthy of them. Even to the most difficult things you will endeavour to attain, in the most determined manner, because thereby you express your love and thankfulness towards your parents, even without their seeing or hearing of it. This love will be your inward Sun, which shall warm and animate you to every thing that is praiseworthy; from which all single virtues that you practise are only so many rays, enlightening and invigorating your soul. The more tender, true, and perfect your love, the more will it beam forth in all your thoughts, wishes, words, and deeds. Your virtues will unite you to Jesusyour faith in Jesus, to God. You behold in the Saviour of the world only your own glorious pattern, who loved His Father above all;-who through love to God bore even the greatest sufferings with patience, overcame in the hour of temptation, willingly undertook every duty, even the most difficult- and submitted to the death upon the cross-for the salvation of mankind.

For ever and ever do I turn to Thee, O Jesus Christ, Thou great Instructor! In Thee alone I find united, whatever may serve me as a model in my path, as a light in my moral darkness in Thy love and example alone do I find either courage or strength to strive to become a better man. Through Thee I find that virtue and sin cannot dwell together, that I must not satisfy myself with merely useful actions,--that he is not Thy follower, who seeks not after true perfection and sanctity of heart. There is only one God-there is only one Virtue: he who practises one perfectly is secure of all.

This serious self-examination shall not be pursued by me in vain! I will exercise it continually, and fix in my mind the deep, firm foundation, upon which I may build my temple of Christian virtue. O Spirit of Holiness, Spirit of God, sanctify me by Thy Grace! Amen.

X.

LUKEWARMNESS.

REVELATION iii. 15.

"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot."

It is one of those almost inexplicable contradictions which we observe in the nature of man, that he is frequently unwilling to divest himself of a quality which he most dislikes in others; and that he has not the courage to follow in his own mode of thinking and acting, what he loves and admires in his fellow-creature.

Even in the play of children, we endeavour to find a determinate tendency of character. We take pleasure in predicting, from their first developments of mind, their future disposition-from their earliest favourite employments, their future calling. Children who show themselves destitute of mental vivacity--to whom every thing seems indifferent or alike-who manifest no peculiar pre

dilection or distaste for any thing, excite but little interest.

Whatever a man may be, or however he may act, we cannot refrain from respecting him if he is, in his way, what he desires to be. Even the culprit, who evinces in his conduct a certain strength of mind, wins more on our sympathy, than he who has not courage enough to act uprightly, and yet is too cowardly to proceed in a wicked course. We pity the former, because he may have been led into evil by education or unfavourable circumstances. We are satisfied that he would have had vigour enough to become a valuable man; but we doubly despise the cowardly sinner, who possesses as little capacity for good, as evil.

What is it that especially pleases us in the character of great and famous men? It is the unshifting firmness with which they lay hold of every thing it is the power and steadiness of their will, by which, even in adversity and danger, they attain their end. This their noble constancy-their wonderful perseverance through the vicissitudes of fortune-the fidelity with which they adhere to their glorious designs-inspire us with admiration, even to rapture. Their peculiarities, their little weaknesses, do not displease us, when they are in unison with their general character, with the rest of their modes of thinking. We love and admire such men

K