up their quarters in it. Always, therefore, have something to do, and you will always have something to think of. God has placed every person in some station; and every station has a set of duties belonging to it. Did we not forget or neglect these, evil thoughts would sue for admission in vain. Indeed, they would not come near our dwelling, any more than idle, vain, profligate people would think of visiting and teasing a man who laboured constantly for his daily bread. If there be any one who is of opinion, that his station does not find him employment, or that it privileges him to be idle, let him only suppose, for a moment, that when his soul shall quit his body, and appear before God, he be asked the two following questions-Whether he could not have done more good in the world? and, Why he did not?

But, besides the duties we owe to others, there is a person very dear to every one of us, who claims no small share of attention and regard, I mean self. Each man's mind is a little estate, at his own door, which is to be brought into order, and kept in order. It is naturally a wilderness; it is to be converted into a garden. Weeds and thistles must be rooted up; flowers and fruits must be planted and cultivated. Evil tempers and dispositions must be dispossessed, and good ones introduced in their place. Husbandmen and gardeners, if they mind their business, have enough to think of. Who can say his mind. is yet completely in that state in which he wishes it to be? And even if it were, should his diligence be ever so little remitted, it would soon be out of that state again. He, therefore, who will receive and en

tertain all thoughts that tend to the improvement of his mind, needeth never complain of being without company.

For this purpose wisdom spreads her ample page before him; the book of universal knowledge lies open to his inspection; and he may enrich his understanding with the experience of ages and generations. The life of one man is like the life of another; and he cannot find himself in circumstances in which his predecessors have not been before him, and his successors shall not be after him. Hence the proper use of history; and above all history, that which relates the lives of persons in stations similar to our own. But there is no knowledge which may not be turned to use, by him who reads with a faithful and honest intention of being the better for it, by applying all for his own correction and amendment. In the moral world, though not in the natural, there is a philosopher's stone, which transmutes all metals into gold. Of the present age it may certainly be said with truth, that it is an age of science. The communication has been opened by commerce with all parts of the world. The prophet Daniel's prediction is fulfilled: "Many "run to and fro, and knowledge is increased." "Wisdom crieth without," but folly has the louder voice, and prevents her from being heard as she should be. Move a little out of the noise of one, and the sound of the other will steal gently upon the ear. Through that she will take possession of the heart, and introduce visitants, of whom you need never to be ashamed.

The heart, however, is capacious; still there is

room-And, lo, a procession appears advancing towards us, which will fill up every part-led on by one in whose air reigns native dignity, and in whose countenance majesty and meekness sit enthroned together; all the virtues unite their various lustres in her crown, around which spring the ever-blooming flowers of Paradise. We acknowledge at once the queen of heaven, fair RELIGION, with her lovely train; Faith, ever musing on the holy book; Hope, resting on her sure anchor, and bidding defiance to the tempests of life; Charity, blessed with a numerous family around her, thinking no ill of any one, and doing good to every one; Repentance, with gleams of comfort brightening a face of sorrow, like the sun shining through a watery cloud; Devotion, with eyes fixed on heaven; Patience, smiling at affliction; Peace, carrying on a golden sceptre the dove and the olive-branch; and Joy, with an anthem-book, singing an hallelujah! Listen to the leader of this celestial band, and she will tell you all you can desire to know. She will carry you to the blissful bowers of Eden; she will inform you how they were lost, and how they are to be regained. She will point out the world's Redeemer, exhibited from the beginning in figure and prophecy, while the patriarchs saw his day at a distance, and the people of God were trained, by their schoolmaster the law, to the expectation of him. She will show you how all events from the creation tended to this great end, and all the distinguished persons, who have appeared upon the stage, performed their parts in the universal drama, the empires of the world rising and falling in obedience to the appointment of

At

Providence, for the execution of his counsels. length, in the fulness of time, she will make known to you the appearance of the long-desired Saviour; explaining the reasons of his humble birth and holy life, of all he said and all he did, of his unspeakable sufferings, his death and burial, his triumphant resurrection and glorious ascension. She will take you within the veil, and give you a sight of Jesus, for the suffering of death, crowned with honour and immortality, and receiving homage from the hosts of heaven and the spirits of just men made perfect. She will pass over the duration of time and the world, and place before your eyes the throne of judgement, and the unalterable sentence; the glories of the righteous, and the miseries of the wicked.-The thoughts suggested by this variety of interesting subjects, are thoughts which well deserve admittance; and if you will please to admit them, we may venture to say, "the house will be furnished with

Such guests you would wish to retain; such thoughts to cherish and improve.

For this purpose, when you have started a good thought, pursue it: do not presently lose sight of it, or suffer any trifling fancy that may intervene to divert you from it. Dismiss it not till you have sifted it, and exhausted it, and well considered the different consequences and inferences that result from it. However, retain not the subject any longer than you find your thoughts run freely upon it; for to confine them to it when it is quite worn out, is to give them an unnatural bent without sufficient employment,

which will make them flag, or be more apt to fly off to something else.

And to keep the mind intent on the subject you think of, you must be at some pains to recall and refix your desultory and rambling thoughts. Lay open the subject in as many lights and views as it is capable of being represented in. Clothe your best ideas in pertinent and well-chosen words, deliberately pronounced, or commit them to writing. Accustom yourself to speak naturally and reasonably on all subjects, and you will soon learn to think so on the best; especially, if you often converse with those persons who speak, and those authors who write, in that

manner.

The sincerity of a true religious principle cannot be better known, than by the readiness with which the thoughts turn themselves to God, and the pleasure with which they are employed in devout exercises. And though a person may not always be so well pleased with hearing religious things talked of by others, whose different taste, sentiments, or manner of expression may have something disagreeable; yet if he have no inclination to think about them bimself, or to converse with himself about them, he has great reason to suspect that his heart is not right with God. But if he frequently and delightfully exercise his mind in divine contemplations, it will not only be a good mark of his sincerity, but will habitually dispose it for the reception of the best and most useful thoughts, and fit it for the noblest entertainments. For if bad thoughts are as infectious as bad