the cloud of care instantly passed away from his brow, and his heart beat lightly in his bosom; and he felt how much substantial happiness a single individual, in a comparatively humble station, may be enabled to dispense. Yet, how many scenes of a very different character are every day exhibited in the world, where the evils of poverty are augmented ten-fold, by the miserable burthen of a peevish and repining spirit; and where the blessings of affluence seem only to supply their possessors with additional means of manifesting the extent of wretchedness, personal and social, which ill-regulated tempers are able to produce! Many a man, whose judgment is adequate. to direct the destinies of nations, whose eloquence enrap. tures senates, and whose playful wit and vivid fancy ren. der him the idol of the brilliant circles of fashion, is, nevertheless, totally unable to govern his own temper; and never enters his home-that spot which, of all others upon earth, should be peculiarly consecrated to gentleness and affection-in any other character than of a cold, gloomy, and capricious tyrant. Let it be remembered too, that the influence of temper is co-extensive with society itself; and it will not appear a matter of trifling moment, to devise the best means of regulating and restraining a principle, so intimately associated with the general happiness of our species. Montgomery.

Character of Ruth.

RUTH was a Moabitess by birth, bred among idolators, and, if not herself an idolator when she came to Bethlehem, her language," thy God shall be my God," at least implies the absence of those elevated views of the supremacy of the one God, and the universality of his dominion, which it was the object of Judaism to inculcate. Little of morality could she have learned from either the existing inhabitants, or the fabled gods, of her native land. How absurd is the bigotry which, merely on the evidence of erroneous opinions, pronounces the condemnation of individual character! The existence, or the absence, of moral worth, should always be ascertained as a matter of fact; and not assumed as matter of inference from any tenets whatever, however false, however extravagant. In proportion as their tendency is unfavourable, does it show the triumph of that law of God which is written on the

heart. What a stimulus should such examples give to those who have every advantage for forming them to goodness! What a powerful and affecting memento is it to the young, of the multiplied privileges of their condition! How many of the youth of the present day are in circumstances which afford a most felicitous contrast to those of some, whose dispositions and conduct have yet done honour to humanity, and would have done honour to an infinitely purer faith than that in which they were educated! That you have the Bible in your hands, and so much of it peculiarly adapted to interest and influence your minds and hearts; that friends, parents, and teachers, combine, by the gentle power of affection, to draw you on in wisdom's ways-ways of pleasantness, and paths of peace, as they infallibly are; that religion appears before you in the native loveliness of her spirit-that spirit embodied in the words of the sacred volume-embodied, as we hope, in the lives of those about you: these are privileges, which (could you, as others more advanced in life, see the full value of) would make you bless your God for his bounty, in the fulness of your hearts, and from the bottom of your hearts, every night and morning; would make you intensely anxious to act up to your advantages, by the discharge of every religious duty, and of every social obligation of respect and goodness; and, with a promptness, a justice, and a fervency, which would do yourselves good, would call forth your applause and honourable emulation of the good in character and conduct exhibited by others in less propitious circumstances.

The excellence of the character before us was severely tried. A whirlwind of calamity had passed over the fugi. tive Israelitish family, with which she had connected her. self, and that in a land where they were strangers, and she a denizen; she clung to the blighted trunk which remained, when all its branches were torn off and scattered; she adhered to Naomi, when Orpah shrunk back from the melancholy companionship; she came into a land whose religion was strange, whose temper was unsocial, whose inhabitants always were proud and jealous of their privileges, and eminently exclusive in their spirit; she devoted herself to poverty and labour, and to all the resignation of personal enjoyment, and the forbearance and patience required in ministering to one on whom a forlorn old age, with its infirmities of body and of temper, was coming;

and she nobly and triumphantly endured all that her lot imposed. Goodness is majestic and venerable, even in the poorest and youngest, when it can abide such tests. Sorrow is the refiner's fire of Providence, to try the purity, and exhibit in splendour the purity of early worth and virtue. The calamities of a parent, show the merits of a child. To our young friends we would say, Far from you may that trial be! but should it come, should the fluctuations of commerce, the inflictions of disease, or any other storm of distress burst over the heads of those to whom you owe so much; oh then, may your sympathies, and attention, and exertion, be a shield of defence for them, as they will be a crown of glory to yourselves!

This excellence was honourably rewarded. It was rewarded by her coming into a land where that God was known, whose government is the security and blessedness of those who do his will; by the station to which she was ultimately raised; by her being one in the list of the progenitors of the promised seed of Abraham, which was a coveted glory in Israel; by the memorial which has made her name, and character, and history, known and celebrated through long ages and over distant regions; and by that final recompense of heaven, which awaits the excellent of earth. And heaven and earth conspire to reward goodness. Though the Jewish economy, with its temporal sanctions, has passed away; there is many a promise of the life that now is to godliness, as well as of that which is to come. Riches are not promised; fame is not promised; health is not promised: but rarely will earth's best blessing of the esteem of the estimable be withheld; and never an internal quiet, peace, self-approbation, and hope, which do for present happiness much more, while they harmoniously blend with the future happiness towards which they point and conduct.

Fox.

The Union of Friendship with Religion recommended.

FRIENDSHIP, Considered as the medicine of life,-as the source of pure and rational enjoyment in this infancy of our being, possesses no mean value; but how infinitely is that value enhanced, when we regard it as the guide to immortality! Who might be satisfied to be a friend for time, when he might be one for eternity? Who would rest contented to minister to a mere temporary gratifica

tion, when he might impart a solid, substantial, neverfading bliss? Look around, my brethren, upon those who are dear to you. What is it you wish for them? Every blessing, your hearts reply, that a bounteous God can bestow,-bliss, pure, and strong, and permanent. Teach them, then, by your example and by your conversation, by the reverence with which you speak of God's awful perfections, by the gratitude with which you make mention of his overflowing mercies, by the firm confidence which you express in his glorious promises,-only teach them to love God, with pure hearts, fervently; and the most ardent wishes that you can frame for their happiness, will be realized. Truth is always beautiful and lovely; but religious truth has a dignity and interest peculiar to itself. Who shall estimate its possible effects, when displayed in its native power, and urged home to the heart by the voice of a friend, at those seasons when the heart is warmest, and most susceptible of every virtuous impression? Were it not for the pernicious influence of false shame, which has often led even the wise and good, from a fear of being thought hypocritical or righteous overmuch, to withhold the honest expression of their best and purest feelings; the voice of virtuous friendship might have early reclaimed and persuaded many a lost sinner,-invigorated and warmed, with the holy glow of piety and benevolence, many a cold and lifeless Christian. He who turns a sinner from the error of his way," says an Apostle, "shall save a soul from death, and cover its multitude of sins." This is an affect. ing consideration, and should actively influence our conduct, however remote and unconnected with us by ties of love or kindred the fellow-being who is the subject of it: but should this fellow-being be a friend, how unspeakably is the interest increased! Glorious office, to save the soul of a friend from death,-to open for a friend the gates of paradise! Blessed and happy privilege, to make the partners of our earthly journey our associates for evermore! This privilege every one may exercise and enjoy, in a greater or less degree, who is careful to cultivate in himself, and to carry with him into the familiar intercourses of social life, the purifying spirit of religion. Even where there is most virtue, such is the frailty of our nature, that many faults will still exist, both in ourselves and those who are dear to us, the removal, or even partial correction, of any one of which, cannot but prove an everlasting bene

fit. Every deficiency in moral excellence, in the degree in which it prevails, must render him who discovers it, not merely unworthy, but incapable, of partaking the pure and perfect happiness, designed for the purely and perfectly virtuous. All those defects of temper and disposition which the discipline of this world fails to remove, will remain, we must suppose, still to be done away,-to delay, therefore, or to lessen, so long as they continue, the happiness of heaven. He, then, who releases the mind of a friend from the bondage of a single sin, advances him one degree farther, a degree which he can never lose, in the infinite progress to perfection: by a milder and more delightful process, he renders needless the purifying but painful discipline of chastisement: he is the hastener and the heightener of his friend's everlasting joy. How little, then, does he understand of the true value of that influence which friendship gives, who makes it his highest aim to minister to the temporal wants, the short-lived gratifications, or the trifling amusements, of the beloved associate, whose immortal mind he might inform with wisdom and with virtue, and assist to qualify for a joyful admission into that world which flesh and blood cannot inherit!

Nor let us falsely imagine, that we are at liberty to act as we please, in this respect. The mutual influence that we have over each other, by means of those strong and delightful sympathies which God has implanted in our breasts, is a talent, and a most valuable and important one, for the use of which we are strictly accountable to Him. If we abuse this talent, or bury it in a napkin,--if we exert not this influence to the noblest purposes,-if we dare to squander these treasures of the heart, which, rightly employed, might purchase "everlasting habitations" for ourselves and for our friends, upon the trifles of earth and time; our guilt and our condemnation will indeed be great. Conscience, if we reflect for a moment on the subject, will pronounce our sentence. Suppose a friend upon the bed of death-suppose him even suddenly severed from you by the fortunes of life—is it no cause of sorrow and self-accusation, that you have suffered him to depart unblessed with any abiding memorial of your love?—that, when you shall appear together before the awful judgmentseat of God, all traces of your connection shall have yan. ished for ever with the fleeting shadows of time? The case, had you acted otherwise, might have been very dif