dexterity; but they cannot learn any useful employment without labour and pains. They cannot learn to read, without diligent attention, for years. They cannot acquire the knowledge of a useful trade, without keeping their hands and minds engaged in it for a long time. Hence no pains or expense are spared. But how few are there, even among professing Christians, who take as much pains to instil into the minds of their children, the principles and doctrines of the Christian religion, as they do to teach them the arts and sciences! (not to say labour.) And yet, when their children grow up, and neglect to walk in wisdom's peaceful paths, become immoral in their conduct, and unprincipled in their sentiments, they are wont to cast all the blame on them, without once inquiring whether their neglect of properly instructing them in early life, hath not been the real cause of all their trouble.

My child, I drop these few hints, that if your children should live to go out into the world, you may not have as great reason to chide yourself for your neglect of them, while they were under your eye, as your old father has. When I take a retrospect of my past life, and my neglects in the instruction of my children, it appears to me, that if I were to act the scene over again, I should be more diligent and faithful in the performance of my duty to them. But alas! so little are our hearts to be trusted, perhaps I should be more deficient than ever. It is difficult for people to know what manner

of spirit they are of. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" and the Apostle adds, "who can know it?" It is matter of just lamentation, and ought to be for a lamentation, that Christians, or those who profess Christianity, are not so much engaged to promote the cause of Christ among men, as the wicked are to promote the devil's cause in the world. The zeal of the latter, if employed in the cause of religion, would effect wonders. We might soon expect to see an universal turning to the Lord, the wilderness budding and blossoming like the rose, and the glorious standard of the Cross erected upon Pagan ground. But alas! how few professors, and even of those whom charity would number among the true children of God, are as much engaged to promote religion in their own souls, in their families, and in the world, as they are to procure the perishable things of time and sense! And yet, how often are such heard to complain of coldness, and want of evidence of being in the favour of God! &c. And well they may; for they take but little pains to have it otherwise. This world's good things are never procured without industry; and hence they will rise early, sit up late, and eat the bread of carefulness, to obtain them, while but little effort is made for the favour and blessing of Heaven! And how absurd is it for them to complain of the want of spiritual comforts, when they are sought with such indifference, merely as things by the bye, that

are wanted only when the world has no enjoyments to bestow! Our Lord's direction is, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." But most, alas! seck first the things of this world, and give God only the poor dregs of time, such as the world can spare without inconvenience; and while they are thus robbing God of his due, they are often complaining of his absence and distance from them. How perfectly inconsistent! Christ saith, I am with you. while you are with me. If a person has a valuable plant in his garden, will he not be often loosening the earth about it, and plucking away the weeds, that the rays of the sun may not be obstructed, without which it may support vegetable life, but will bear no fruit? And shall not the cultivation of grace in the heart be attended to, when it will not grow and flourish while the cares of the world are suffered to fill the heart, and obstruct the rays of the Sun of Righteousness? Our Lord has told us, Ye cannot serve God and mammon. The world, or Christ, will be uppermost in the mind. The heart is like a pair of balances; when God rises in it, mammon sinks; and when mammon rises, the cause of religion and the love of God sinks. But Christ will never divide with the world. He must have the whole of the heart and affections, or nothing is of any account. Without this, he will not take up his residence in the soul. He saith,

"Son, give me thine heart." "If any man hear my voice, and open the door, (that is, the heart,) I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Precious promise! Why should we value it so lightly? Why should the baubles of time, the fleeting trifles of an hour, attract our desires, when such noble, such elevated enjoyment is proffered by the "King of kings and Lord of lords"? Alas! this degraded nature, how it strives and pushes the warfare against the spirit! How necessary to be clad with the whole Christian armour, that we may be able to withstand the wiles of the adversary, and the treacherous propensities of our own hearts!

I do not write upon these things to you, my dear child, thinking to communicate any new idea; but because I am so sensible that we need, on account of our stupidity, to be frequently reminded of those things, which we well know in theory, in order that we may put them in habitual practice.-Let us lay aside every weight, with which our flesh, and a tempting world, would retard our Christian progress, and run with patience the race set before us, that we may be sure to win the heavenly prize. And may we at last be able to say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day; and not to

me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

I have it in contemplation to visit you before winter, if I can get my domestic concerns out of the way in season. But it will be attended

with so much uncertainty, that you must not anticipate it too much.

Your Mother joins with me, in the tender. est regards to all the family. member me to all friends.

Yours, affectionately,

Please to re

S. COLEMAN.

TO HIS DAUGHTER F

DEAR CHILD,

AT CLAREMONT.

Amherst, April 13, 1807,

SENSIBLF of your fondness of hearing often from your old parent, and anxious also, to gratify my parental affection, I readily improve this opportunity of writing to you. Our family connexions this way, are, I believe, in usual health. I trust you will join with me, in rendering a tribute of praise to the Father of mercies, who hath once more restored a comfortable measure of health to such an unworthy, ungrateful creature, as I

am.

I have never before had a similar fit of sickness. I was once brought as low, but was raised much sooner. It is but a few weeks since I have got to be really comfortable. My illness commenced about the first of De