"never carried any man to heaven. A religion of notions, which occupies the mind without filling the heart, may obstruct, but cannot advance the salvation of men. If these notions are false, they are most pernicious; if true, and not operative, they aggravate guilt. All the doctrines of the Gospel are practical principles. The Word of God was not written, the Son of God was not incarnate, the Spirit of God was not given only that Christians might obtain right views and possess correct notions. Religion is something more than correctness of intellect, justness of conception, and exactness of judgment. It is a life-giving principle. It must be infused into the habit, as well as govern in the understanding; it must regulate the will, as well as direct the creed. It must not only cast the opinions into a right frame, but the heart into a new mould."

Chris

Yes, the heart must be regenerated. tianity alone can effect this great change. Human reason, human policy, the necessity of conforming and submitting to certain laws instituted for the general good, may do something towards restraining the unruly passions, regulating the actions of mankind; but it is the divine Spirit, revealed to us in the Christian dispensation, that can alone sanctify our lives, and make virtue dear to us for its own sake, and because it is the commandment of God that we should practise it. This is the kingdom of heaven, for whose coming upon earth we pray daily in those comprehensive words in which

our Lord taught his disciples to offer up their petitions. The kingdom into which, except we be born again in the Spirit, we cannot enter.

Christianity is what no system of mere human ordinance ever yet was found to be; it is perfectly consistent. Its rules are plain and positive; the principles upon which they are based, immutable. If we obeyed them to the letter, we should hardly err; but it is one of the mistakes of the age to twist and interpret them, each according to his own circumstances, notions, or inclinations; thus defeating their great and beneficial intention, and robbing them of half their divinity.

Were we in practice the Christian nation we are by profession, then might we behold distinctions of rank unaccompanied by arrogance on the one side, or envy on the other. Difference of opinion without rancour and intolerance; wealth enjoyed and dispensed without ostentation; pleasure indulged in without excess, nay, rendered conducive to virtuous ends. And all this is possible, all this is enjoined by the sacred writings upon which our faith is founded.

If, in the ensuing pages, the Author should sometimes touch upon subjects which seem trivial, or having little affinity with the main design of her book, she begs to be heard without impatience even upon these, resting her defence upon the conviction she feels, that when fairly investigated, they will prove to be neither so trifling nor so irrelative as might appear; but, on the contrary,

like small links of a great chain, perform their part in a perfect whole; enhancing with their minuter graces, the beauty of a consistently virtuous and amiable character.

CHAPTER II.

Humility-Pride and Selfishness-Pride of the Pagan World— Pride of the Jews-Family Pride-Pride of wealth-Pride of Mothers in male offspring-Pride of sex-Pride of talentEmulation-Education of the affluent-Counterfeit humilityVanity Vanity in females-Self-respect contrasted with Pride -Prevailing desire for great acquaintance-Reprobated in Scripture-Its consequences.

FOREMOST in the rank of those good fruits of the heart which a religious education is able to produce, I would place HUMILITY. There is none more expressly or more frequently enjoined in the Scriptures, whence might be adduced texts, almost without number, in which the duty and necessity of cultivating a humble frame of mind is set forth, shewing that such is at once lovely in the sight of God and man.

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Thus spake Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount; and the whole of his earthly career, from his nativity in a manger, to his death upon the Cross, affords a beautiful and consistent example of humility.

It is one of the earliest lessons a mother should teach her child: almost in the cradle, for it is one capable of being made perfectly intelligible, even

to a child's comprehension. The humility of a child thus instructed will evince itself in obedience; submission to the parent's authority, and the lessons of the preceptor; in a readiness to acknowledge faults, and in patience when told of them; in gentleness and forbearance towards playmates and servants; and in a disposition to sympathise with the joys and sorrows of all around him. As the mental faculties become developed, a still more active humility will shine forth in his character. Habitual self-examination will produce that modesty and diffidence which is so becoming, so desirable in the young, and of which the natural results will be redoubled efforts to attain perfection; his chances of success bearing a due proportion to his humility, since there will be neither stubbornness nor conceit to obstruct his progress.

Humility leads to prayer. The proud pray not

-they are all-sufficient in themselves; but the humble heart feels and acknowledges its wants and imperfections, and rejoices in every opportunity to appeal to a higher power for direction and assist

ance.

PRIDE.

While treating of Humility, we are naturally led to consider its opposite-PRIDE-that evil principle from which it will not be difficult to prove that almost every sin, every error we commit, proceeds.

Pride and Selfishness, twin vices, necessarily and inseparably connected, are, in truth, the great