the morning that Jesus came into the temple and all the people came unto him:"* and it was "in the morning, a great while before day, that he went out to a solitary place to pray."+

I will not add any observations of my own in addition to these scriptural illustrations and examples: "Go thou, and do likewise."

Yours, &c.

* John, viii. 2.

+ Mark, i. 35.

LETTER XV.

To the same.

MY DEAR CHARLES,

WHATEVER may have been the opinion you once entertained respecting the effects which religion is calculated to produce upon the mind, and whatever false notions you may have formerly imbibed as to its tendency to lead to a state of mental dejection; you have long since abandoned these mistaken sentiments, and have been enabled to refute the aspersion, whenever it has been cast by others on the truths which you now hold so dear, by a reference to your own experience, and an appeal to your personal knowledge. Though I may not know all the varied feelings which have attended your Christian course, nor be acquainted with the alternate hopes and fears which have brightened or clouded your prospects; yet I have every reason to believe that you have not been altogether a

stranger to that peace which passeth all understanding;" and that you have habitually (though, perhaps, not uninterruptedly,) enjoyed that calm and rational complacency, which can only result from the soul's reposing itself on its God; and which is perpetuated by the vivid apprehension of that in him, which is really delectable and pleasing to us, leading the soul to such an estimation of the perfections of the object of its admiration, and to so ardent an affection for the Father of all its mercies, as have rendered the recollection of former enjoyments derived from temporal objects, and former pleasures resulting from inferior employments, a source of unfeigned repentance, and a cause for self-accusation and surprise. "Wisdom's ways are," indeed, "ways of pleasantness, and her paths are," indeed, " paths of peace." The joys of piety are such as those only know, who have drank at the fountain of life from whence they issue; the blessings which she bestows are not scattered around her with a heedless profusion: and whilst their reality is denied by some, and a participation

I

in them claimed by others, who have never experienced them; the humble disciple of the meek and lowly Jesus, appearing to the world to be bending beneath a cross which he can scarcely sustain, and the weight of which they are willing to increase by the obloquy they affix to his conduct, treads in the footsteps of his Master, follows him "through evil and through good report" on earth; and fixing the eye of faith upon him who has been "made perfect through sufferings," and who, "though crucified through weakness, yet liveth by the power of God," rejoices in the exaltation of his ascended Lord, and exults in the prospect of the fulfilment of the promise, that "where he is, there shall his servants be also." The world may witness the selfdenial that a firm belief in the doctrines of the Gospel produces, but they cannot read the hearts of those who practise it. They may see and despise the cross that is taken up, but they are ignorant of the crown that is to succeed. They may distinguish some of the thorns that strew the pilgrim's road,

but they know not the pilgrim's happiness, when his heart is overflowing with love and tenderness, on the recollection that the thorns which now may wound his feet, once pierced his Saviour's head. They have yet to learn, that we have "joys which a stranger intermeddleth not with;"* that we have delights which they do not envy, because they cannot feel; and that the religion which we profess, and the Gospel we embrace, impart a high-raised hope and an exulting anticipation, a present happiness, and an assurance of future glory, which, contrasted with their groveling pursuits and misnamed pleasures, make them shrink into worse than nothingness, into a hideousness and deformity, which the light of truth alone could reveal.

The mortification and self-denial of the Christian are a voluntary obedience paid to the commands of him, whom he considers it his highest honour to serve. His submission to his authority, and his compliance with his will, are not the constrained subjection of one who only wants the power to

* Prov. xiv. 10.