LETTER XXVII.

From Mrs. Worthington to Miss Barnwell.

MY DEAR CHILD,

I HAVE written a letter to Miss Eusebia Neville, which I shall enclose in a cover to you, and which you will endeayour to convey to her before she sets out for St. Omer's.

I do not expect, my dear Miranda, that you will have much comfort at home. Light cannot have fellowship with darkness, nor Christ with Belial. I shall expect you therefore to share with me at Islington what God has mercifully left me of my fortune. You had great, and apparently just expectations of an ample fortune yourself, being the only child of a parent more than sixty years of age: but you will more and more perceive that nothing in this world is to be accounted of. Remember, that God as a sovereign has a right to dispose both of us and ours; it becomes us then to be still, and to know that he is God. The remainder of unbelief and of a corrupt nature never appears more conspicuously than in discontent and impatience under the cross. Our God knows what is best for us; he proportions our sufferings to our strength; and I doubt not we shall have reason to acknowledge, that he has led us through the wilderness by a right way, and that all things have worked together for our good.

I have read your conversation with Mrs. Law, and have not the least doubt that national churches will come to an end. The fall of them will be the fall of the kingdom of antichrist. I do not deny that many servants of God are to be found in the different streets of Babylon: but his command is, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

If there were no Christians in those antichristian communities, they would not be commanded to come out from them. I cannot say that I wish the corporation and test acts to be repealed; for though I consider them as unjust towards dissenters, and as highly offensive to God by profaning a divine institution, yet if dissenters were more mingled with the world, it might be injurious to them in a religious view, Those acts too are the mark of the man

of sin and why should dissenters try to wash that Ethiopian white?

I shall now endeavour, agreeably to your desire, briefly to state the rules by which a Christian ought daily to conduct himself.

It is unnecessary for me to remark that the word of God is the only rule of faith and practice. You are fully established in this truth, and need not be reminded that it will be your duty to measure, the following weak attempt by that unerring standard.

We

The best general rule that know of is to intend the divine glory, in our business, our eating, our drinking, our recreation, and indeed in every action of our lives. ought to lay it down as a preliminary, that being bought with so great a price as the blood of Jesus, we henceforth are not our own; but that our time, and all that we are, and all that we have, belong to God; and that he has bestowed them upon us, only that we may use them to his glory, with which our happiness is invariably connected." This is so obvious a truth, that I should think no man, I am certain no Christian will dispute it.

Our time, after that part of it has been deducted which is sufficient for the refreshment of the body by sleep, naturally divides itself into the portions assigned to the following particulars:-Prayer, reading the Scriptures, meditation, business, food, and recreation of which in their order.

The servants of God have a freedom of access into his presence at all times through the Mediator. When professors of religion do not frequently make use of this privilege, it is a certain sign of one of these two things: either that they are entire strangers to the divine life, or that their souls are in an unprosperous and languishing state. Beside praying always, or habitually, by pouring out your soul to God in ejaculatory breathings, I would recommend it to you to have stated times for private prayer. The prophet Daniel, though a great statesman, and immersed in public business, found time to engage in this divine exercise three times a day; and I have no doubt he only did that which was commonly practised by God's people. Peter went up to the top of the house to pray about the sixth hour, which answers to our noon; and it is reasonable to suppose that he began and ended the day in the

like manner. With regard to morning and evening prayer, it will be sufficient to say, that I would wish you to defer neither of them too long. If any thing, however should accidentally hinder you from being exact to your time, by no means omit it; for one omission makes way for another. Begin with prayer, which I would wish you to perform in a kneeling posture; for though that may seem to some indifferent, yet we need to be impressed with an awful sense of the disproportion which there is between such worms as we are, and that august Being whom we approach. As to the manner, either use mental prayer, or let your words be so low that no person can distinguish them at your closet door. To do otherwise savours too much of Pharisaical hypocrisy at least it will cause your good to be evil spoken of, and not without reason. In general, I would caution you againist continuing it too long: doing so has a tendency to beget formality. Endeavour to impress your mind with a deep sense of the solemnity of the duty, and that you are actually as much in the divine presence as if you beheld the adorable Jehovah. Begin with adoration, or hallowing of the name of God. To this will naturally succeed thanksgiving, in which you cannot be at a loss for matter; since we are made partakers of eternal life through, and live every moment upon, the divine favour. It will then be proper to call to mind your particular transgres sions, whether in thought, word, or deed; and humbly to confess them before the majesty of heaven and earth. Close all with petition. Let it be your request that he will pardon your sins for the sake of his dear Son, and that he will give you every needful mercy, especially his Spirit to guide and guard you, and to increase your knowledge and approbation of those things which are most excellent. Remember that God only can deliver you from evil, and from that evil one who desires to have us that he may sift us as wheat. Lastly, intercede for those whom you are in duty bound to pray for; your relatives and friends: those whom you know to be in distress of body or mind; and in general the whole cause and kingdom of Christ, as also the government and community of which you are a member. I would rather wish you, my child, to be deeply impressed with a sense of your wants, and of God's ability to supply them, than to dwell long upon each particular. Remember also the promises which God has made to his peo

ple, and plead them with him. It may not be amiss to add, that one advantage resulting from prayer is, that it impresses our minds with an habitual sense of our wants, and of our dependence on the divine Being. For the most part, when our God intends to bestow a mercy he gives a spirit of supplication, that we may have an opportunity of observing the answers of our petitions. This strengthens our faith, inflames our love, and makes us travel the heavenly road with cheerfulness and vigour.

Either before or after prayer I advise to read a you chapter out of the Old or New Testiment in order. You will thereby have a better opportunity of observing the connexion, and understanding the mind of the Holy Spirit. In reading these divine writings, we should remember that they are not the words of men, but the words of the living God; even those words by which we shall be judged at the last day. It can never be unnecessary to remind you, my dear niece, that every part of religious worship, whether public or private, is a mean to regulate our judgment our temper, and our practice; and that unless these ends are answered, we receive no real advantage. Nay, we ought to beware lest our very strictness in the path of duty should lead us to be proud and vain-glorious. I acknowledge this cannot happen, unless a departure from the truth first take place. We should therefore never lose sight of this grand axiom, this first principle of the gospel, that our God accepteth our persons and our services, merely and entirely, from first to last, only on account of what his well-beloved Son has done and suffered for us. This truth is the key of divine revelation: a departure from it would reduce our religion to a level with paganism. As the obedience of Christ, which in fact includes his sufferings, proceeded from God's eternal love to his people, so is it the only ground of their acceptance with him; and it is by causing them to believe this truth that he reconciles them to himself. This it is which is first and principally taught us in the Lord's supper, where we learn, that the broken body and the shed blood of the Son of God are the life of our souls, in the same manner as bread and wine are the life of our bodies. You will not wonder that I press the consideration of this so forcibly; for where this truth is disregarded, hypocrisy begins.

Meditation, as a Christian duty, is a thinking on divine

things. The mind being always employed, our happiness will much consist in finding it proper employment when it is not engaged about the necessary affairs of life. The subjects of meditation are numberless; but those about which a Christian should be engaged, are chiefly God and himself. God; the wisdom, power, and goodness, which he has manifested in the works of creation; and the justice, mercy, and hatred of sin, which he has displayed in redemption. These may be greatly divided and sub-divided; but I only mention them in the briefest manner. Ourselves; the importance of our being brought into existence; what we are capable of enjoying or suffering; and the eternity that is before us, during which we must be either happy in the presence of God, or excluded from the realms of bliss. These subjects furnish, likewise, an inexhaustible fund for conversation. It is to be lamented that many waste their social hours in the retailing of slander, more perhaps for want of better topics than through malevolence.

To labour in some useful employment, either for the benefit of ourselves or others, is that in which all the servants of God should study to glorify him. It is not only his command that we should be diligent in business; but our health and well-being depend under him upon an active and industrious life. If idleness be not clothed with rags, as it often is, and to which it always tends, yet our health will be exceedingly impaired by indolence and inactivity: not to mention the guilt that is contracted by living in the breach of the divine commands, and the temptations to which we thereby expose ourselves; for we shall find by experience, that when we have nothing to do, Satan will be busy with his temptations. It should likewise be our study to employ ourselves in such a manner that our hearts may not reproach us in our closets with being unprofitable servants, when we take a view of our actions.

The next portion of time which I shall consider, is that occupied in refreshing the body with food. This, as well as every other action of our lives, ought to be done to the glory of God; and in this as well as in every other thing, our duty and happiness are connected. By no means take the intemperate for your pattern: they have their reward, and a dreadful one it is, in this life. An in