High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore go boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace, to help in time of need." (Heb. iv. 14—17.) "Be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto God." (Phil. iv. 6.) "The Lord is faithful who shall establish you and keep you from evil." (2 Thess. iii. 3.) And now, my dear surely, after perusing these passages, which are but a few of the very many I might select, none can say, "There is no hope;" such a declaration would imply, that in the Scriptures there is no truth. There is no hope for the dead, who hear no more the voice of inviting mercy, and whose state, if they heard it not when living, is for ever determined. There is no

hope for the gay scoffer, for the self-complacent, the indifferent, and the forgetful-no hope, at least, so long as they remain such

h;

but for the bowed and broken spirit, that trembles under a combined sense of the evil of sin, the need of holiness, and the impossibility of attaining it by merely human means, there is nothing but hope. The Gospel says to such an one, "Be not fearful, but believing; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning; for who hath made you sorry, but the same who will make you glad?" He has wounded you with the wound, as it seems, of an enemy-dried up the sources of earthly delight, and made you feed upon wormwood, but only that he may restore your soul to more perfect health, to purer and more lasting peace. It is because God loves you that he thus chastens you. Resign yourself into his hands; suffer him to discipline you as he sees fit; let him guide you, though it be through a desolate wilderness; for the day shall come, wherein you shall say, "O Lord, I will praise thee, though thou wast angry with me; for thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me." Peace is the gift of God, and whilst we seek the possession of it, we must beware how we seek it. No round of observances,

no self-inflicted penance, no devotional duties, will suffice for the purchase; we must solicit it in the name, and for the sake of him who is "exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour.” Upon that great and gracious friend none need fear to rest his hopes, and cast his burdens. He can bind up the broken in heart, for he is love. He can enlighten the bewildered mind, for he is wisdom. He can rescue the oppressed from oppression, for he power.

is

"He is a path, if any be misled; He is a robe, if any naked be;

If any chance to hunger, he is bread;

If any be a bondman, he is free;

If any be but weak, how strong is he!

To dead men life he is, to sick men health; To blind men sight, and to the needy wealth, A pleasure without loss, a treasure without stealth."*

Long as my letter is, I have not said half that the subject demands. Accept it, however, as a proof of sincere regard on the part of

Yours faithfully.

* Giles Fletcher's "Christ's Triumph over Death."

LETTER XI.

YOUNG, gifted, and beloved-yet unhappy! Blessed with health, leisure, and competence -yet habitually sad! Wholly your own mistress, and a Christian by more than profession-yet subject to ennui! Indeed, my dearest, this is a sad state of things, though, independent of your own confession, I know it to be one fully possible, and, with characters like your own, very common. Minds of a reflective, and somewhat timid cast, are most liable to the influence of morbid sensibility; they soon begin to look through, rather than upon society, and consequently become disgusted with the construction of it. They serve their pleasures as children do their toys-pull them to pieces in order to ascertain their internal me

chanism; and their emotions, as the same children serve rose-buds-open them to accelerate their time of bloom. Without intentional want of benevolence, they feel little towards their fellow-creatures beyond general good-will, or perfect indifference, whilst their affections are few, ardent, arbitrary, and exclusive.

To bring the subject back to a personal point, by quoting an expression of your own,

they live in a little world of their own creation;" which little world, by the way, seldom contains many inhabitants. There is generally much that is interesting in a mind thus constituted, and when religious principle gets firm and influential hold of its energies, the excellence which results is perhaps of a higher kind, than can be engrafted on a weaker, gayer character. This admission is not meant, however, to reconcile you to a state of feeling at once unnatural and indefensible the world might as well be one universal churchyard, as a world of fastidious, exclusive, sensitive beings, who hold their spirits as the streamer does its direction, at the will of every fluttering breeze.

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