is only faintly traced on the memory of their offspring; and how few of the millions that lie buried here have that memento! They lie forgotten in the dwellings of the dead, where the present bustling race of their sons must soon take up their abode. Appalling is it to think how soon the present race will be swept from the stage of time into eternity; and how many may be carried away to everlasting torment none can tell! Must this fair state of being moulder away, and be as if it had not been? That it must, the word of God declares; and still mankind will grovel in the dust, and be pleased with the blandishments of sense, the toys of the world. What, in all the circle of fashionable amusement, is there to gratify the desires of an immortal soul? What in the world to satiate the insatiable desires of the soul of man? Immortality is written on every wish, annihilation is an abhorrence, a perversion of the natural bias of the mind. Here I stand where thousands have stood before me, and no trace of their footsteps is left behind; and when I am gone, none can tell that here I stood musing on the evanescence of the affairs of men. Such is the lot of man; he no sooner is covered with the sod, than he is forgot, except it may be by some dear friend. Few are there amongst the millions of the human race whose names are rescued from oblivion! How discouraging to the obtrusive life, to think that all its deeds will soon be forgotten! But there is a book of remembrance kept for the friends of Jesus, when they speak of the things that concern the King, a record of all their labours of love, and the reward shall follow. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; from henceforth, yea, saith the spirit, they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." LETTER II. Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage And the proud faulchion in a ploughshare end.-POPE. THE Christian religion, when unadorned with earthly splendour or political power, shines in all its native simplicity as it did in Christ, and it ravishes the heart with that heavenly joy which the world can neither give nor take away. The less adorned by the ritual of ceremonies and the pomposity of earthly grandeur, the more majestic and powerful does it appear; it is a still small voice winning, silently but surely, souls to the King of kings and Lord of lords. As the lily of the valley, when in its native simplicity, wins the heart and enchants the eye with its unassuming beauty, so the power of Christianity, when personified in the humble and contrite soul, that bows with submission at the blast of Heaven, and raises the mild countenance to kiss the coming storm, wins its way insensibly to our souls, and fills the eye with expression of feeling, and the heart with love to the brother in Christ. When men are armed with political power, and possessing a zeal for the spread of the Gospel, they too frequently forget the spirituality of the Gospel of Christ; and that its glory rests not in the numbers who profess love to Jesus, but in the power it has of turning men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. The treasure hath been put into earthen vessels, that the power may be seen to be of God and not of man. When kings and queens have interfered with the church they hitherto have totally mistaken their characters, (as nursing fathers and mothers,) and assumed the prerogative of Christ in dictating to the church. Instead of encouraging the simple and faithful ministers of the Word to go into all nations preaching the Gospel of peace, they have given the clergy political power, that, by their means, they might bend the minds of men to their will, and made them tools of state instead of messengers of peace; they have made princes of the ministers of Him who said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me," to lord it over their brethren, to loll in wealth, while the true labourers of the vineyard are in poverty. Preposterous is it for men who profess themselves ministers of Him who had not on earth whereon to lay his head, to assume the character of princes, and live in all the splendour of this world, which tends to nurse all the evil passions of men, when their Master called others to imitate his lowliness. The natural bias of our minds is to acquire wealth, honour, and power, though, we are assured, the attainment of these hath been the death of thousands. Still the world is set in the hearts of men, and they are lulled to sleep with the praises of her sons, until the providence of God take from them their idols, and rouse them from their slumbers by the thunder of his power. When kings and queens become nursing fathers and mothers to the church, they will, like the father of a family, cherish all, not assuming the authoritative tone of governors, but as private Christians, making their time, talents, and example, conducive to the prosperity of Zion, protecting the civil and religious rights of her sons, persecuting none for conscience' sake, knowing the weapons of the Christian's warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, and that Christ came not into this world to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Christ allows no superiority amongst disciples; all are considered as brethren, without respect to their stations in this world. Stations in life that dazzle the worldly eye are, in his sight, as things of |