heart with rapture, love, and astonishment, as the perpetual instances of his humility and meekness, with which the Gospel abounds. Stupendous miracles, exercises of infinite power, prompted by infinite mercy, are actions which we should naturally enough conceive as growing out of omnipotence and divine perfection: but silence under cruel mockings, patience under reproach, gentleness of demeanour under unparalleled injuries; these are perfections of which unassisted nature not only has no conception in a Divine Being, but at which it would revolt, had not the reality been exemplified by our perfect pattern. Healing the sick, feeding the multitude, restoring the blind, raising the dead, are deeds of which we could form some adequate idea, as necessarily flowing from Almighty Power; but to wash his disciples' feet, to preach the Gospel to the poor, to renounce not only ease, for that heroes have done on human motives; but to renounce praise, to forgive his persecutors, to love his enemies, to pray for his murderers with his last breath; these are things, which, while they compel us to cry out with the centurion, "Truly this was the Son of God," should remind us, also, that they are not only adorable but imitable parts of his character. These are not speculative and barren doctrines which he came to preach to Christians, but living duties which he meant to entail on them; symbols of their profession; tests of their discipleship. These are perfections which we are not barely to contemplate with holy awe and distant admiration,

as if they were restricted to the divine nature of our Redeemer; but we must consider them as suited to the human nature also, which he condescended to participate. In contemplating, we must imitate; in admiring, we must practise; and in our measure and degree go and do likewise. Elevate your thoughts for one moment to this standard (and you should never allow yourself to be contented with a lower), and then go, if you can, and teach your children to be mild, and soft, and gentle, on worldly grounds, on human motives, as an external attraction, as a decoration to their sex, as an appendage to their rank, as an expression of their good breeding.

There is a custom among teachers, which is not the more right for being common; they are apt to bestow an undue proportion of pains on children of the best capacity, as if only geniuses were worthy of attention. They should reflect that in moderate talents, carefully cultivated, we are perhaps to look for the chief happiness and virtue of society. If superlative genius had been generally necessary, its existence would not have been so rare; for Omnipotence could easily have made those talents common which we now consider as extraordinary, had they been necessary to the perfection of his plan. Besides, while we are conscientiously instructing children of moderate capacity, it is a comfort to reflect, that if no labour will raise them to a high degree in the scale of intellectual distinction, yet they may be led on to perfection in that road in which "a way-faring man, though simple,

shall not err." And when a mother feels disposed to repine that her family is not likely to exhibit a group of future wits and growing beauties, let her console herself by looking abroad into the world, where she will quickly perceive that the monopoly of happiness is not engrossed by beauty, nor that of virtue by genius.

Perhaps mediocrity of parts was decreed to be the ordinary lot, by way of furnishing a stimulus to industry, and strengthening the motives to virtuous application. For is it not obvious that moderate abilities, carefully carried to that measure of perfection of which they are capable, often enables their possessors to outstrip, in the race of knowledge and of usefulness, their more brilliant but less persevering competitors? It is with mental endowments, as with other rich gifts of Providence; the inhabitant of the luxuriant southern climes, where nature has done every thing in the way of vegetation, indolently lays hold on this very plea of fertility which should animate his exertions, as a reason for doing nothing himself; so that the soil, which teems with such encouraging abundance, leaves the favoured possessor idle, and comparatively poor; while the native of the less genial region, supplying by his labours the deficiencies of his lot, overtakes his more favoured competitor: by substituting industry for opulence, he improves the riches of his native land beyond that which is blessed with warmer suns, and thus vindicates Providence from the charge of partial distribution.

A girl who has docility will seldom be found to

want understanding sufficient for all the purposes of a useful, a happy, and a pious life. And it is as wrong for parents to set out with too sanguine a dependence on the figure their children are to make in life, as it is unreasonable to be discouraged at every disappointment. Want of success is so far from furnishing a motive for relaxing their energy, that it is a reason for redoubling it. Let them suspect their own plans, and reform them; let them distrust their own principles, and correct them. The generality of parents do too little; some do much, and miss their reward, because they look not to any strength beyond their own: after much is done, much will remain undone; for the entire regulation of the heart and affections is not the work of education alone, but is effected by the operation of divine grace. Will it be accounted enthusiasm to suggest, "that the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous parent availeth much?" and to observe, that perhaps the reason why so many anxious mothers fail of success is, because they repose with confidence in their own skill and labour, neglecting to look to HIM without whose blessing they do but labour in vain.

On the other hand, is it not to be feared that some pious parents have fallen into an error of an opposite kind? From a full conviction that human endeavours are vain, and that it is God alone who can change the heart, they are earnest in their prayers, but not so earnest in their endeavours. Such parents should be reminded, that if they do not add their exertions to their

prayers, their children are not likely to be more benefited than the children of those who do not add their prayers to their exertions. What God has joined, let not man presume to separate. It is the work of God, we readily acknowledge, to implant religion in the heart, and to maintain it there as a ruling principle of conduct. And is it not the same God which causes the corn to grow? are not our natural lives constantly preserved by his power? who will deny that in Him we live, and move, and have our being? But how are these works of God carried on? By means which he has appointed. By the labour of the husbandman the corn is made to grow; by food the body is sustained; and by religious instruction God is pleased to work upon the human heart. But unless we diligently plough, and sow, and weed, and manure, have we any right to depend on the refreshing showers and ripening suns of heaven for the blessing of an abundant harvest? As far as we see of the ways of God, all his works are carried on by means. It becomes, therefore, our duty to use the means, and trust in God; to remember that God will not work without the means; and that the means can effect nothing without his blessing. "Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but it is God must give the increase." But to what does he give the increase? To the exertions of Paul and Apollos. It is never said, because God only can give the increase, that Paul and Apollos may spare their labour.

It is one grand object to give the young proba