son, anxious to do spiritual good, should well understand three great principles in religion-the ruin of human nature by sin-its redemption by Christ-and its regeneration by the Spirit; and should consider that all efforts of zeal must be directed to the accomplishment of the two latter. To fit her for this work, she should study well the Word of God, read some of the many treatises on the subject of religion, with which the press teems, and make herself acquainted with some of the best tracts and books for putting into the hands of those who become anxious about religion.

An intense and longing desire to be useful must lie at the bottom of all her efforts. It is not a mere love of activity-a taste for social union and occupation-a desire for power and influence over others—an ambition for distinction, that is the impulse of religious activity, but a tender pity for the immortal souls of our fellow-creatures, an earnest solicitude for their salvation, coupled with an enlightened and fervent zeal for the glory of God. It is the piety that melted the heart of David when he said, "Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy law;" and which agitated the soul of Paul the apostle, when amid the splendors of Athenian architecture and sculpture, he was insensible to all the glory that surrounded him, in consequence of the sin with which it was associated, and felt his spirit moved within him at seeing the city "wholly given to idolatry :" and which, indeed, is taught in the first three petitions of our Lord's

Prayer: "Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." Understand, my young friends, then, what you have to do-not the work of a low and narrow sectarianism, in proselyting persons from one denomination to another; nothing resembling the operations of female Jesuitism; nothing of zeal to establish one denomination upon the ruins of another: no, but the nobler and holier work of saving the souls of your fellow-creatures, especially those of your own sex, from the dominion of sin here, and from the wrath to come hereafter. Begin life with an abhorrence of bigotry, and never let your zeal degenerate into the meanness and malignity of that earth-born spirit; let it be a fire kindled by a coal taken, by the seraphim, from the altar of God, and not a flame lighted by a scintillation from the bottomless pit. Be it your aim to spread that religion which consists not in forms of government and religious ceremonies, but of faith in Christ, and love to God, and love to man. Το accomplish this, let there be real engagement of the heart. Give up your soul to the passion for being useful. Cherish the most expansive benevolence. Feel as if you did not understand, or secure, or enjoy, the end of life, unless you live to be useful. Account usefulness the charm of existence; the sugar that sweetens the cup of life. Ever feel as if you heard a voice saying to you, “Do something; do it at once; do it heartily; do good-this good -good to the soul."

A habit of self-denial is essential to the exercise of religious zeal and Christian benevolence. Our Lord said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." This is true of the way of holiness, but it is especially so in that of benevolent activity. Christ could do us no good without his cross; nor can we do others much good without ours. We would not

deceive you, and endeavor to lure you into the career of holy activity by representing it as leading through a garden of Eden, where all is blooming and beautiful, ease and enjoyment. No such thing. The course of religious zeal is often in a wilderness, over sharp stones and bare rocks, and amid thorns and nettles. You must make sacrifices of time, ease, enjoyment, feeling, perhaps of friendships; you must bear hardship, and encounter many disagreeable things; you must be prepared to give up self-will, pertinacity, claims to pre-eminence. Can you be zealous of good works on such terms? If so, come on; if not, go back; for the career of mercy is not for such tender feet as yours to tread. But, my young friends, can you allow yourselves to sink into such effeminacy and feebleness of character? Can you be content to degenerate into littleness, and pass through life as a species of nonentity, because you can not endure a noble selfdenial! I do not appeal to your love of romance. I would not set your imagination on fire, in order that you might offer up yourselves a burnt-offering to benevolence in the flames of enthusiasm. I do

not stimulate you to become heroines of mercy, and to set all the comforts of life at defiance. There are some who love the adventures of a career of active mercy. There is romance in every thing, even in pity. I want not this, but I do want to see young women practicing a sober self-denial, a judicious disregard of ease and comfort, in order to do good. Unite a masculine hardihood of endurance with a feminine tenderness of feeling, and delicacy of manner. Passive fortitude belongs to you.

They

Patience is another qualification for doing good. They that would accomplish this must not be weary in well-doing. There are many things to make them so the neglect of others-opposition-disappointment-ingratitude-perhaps censure. who expect to benefit their fellow-creatures with as much ease and as speedily as others do them injury, had better not make the attempt, for they are sure to fail. Scarcely any people in the world have more need of patience than they who set themselves to instruct the ignorance, to relieve the wants, to alleviate the sorrows, and to reform the vices of their fellow-creatures. See how this was illustrated in the history of our Lord. Consider how his benev. olence was ever resisted by the malignity of those whom he sought to benefit. He lavished upon them his mercy, and they upon him their ingratitude. They refused his offers-rejected his invitations-misrepresented his actions-disbelieved his words-and misconstrued his motives. Never was so much goodness met with so much envenomed

opposition. Yet behold his patience. A thousandth part of the opposition which he met with would have exhausted the forbearance of an archangel; and yet he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself-gave them his tears when they had refused his miracles-shed for them his blood when they despised his tears-and bade his disciples to make to them the first proclamation of his grace, when they had even scoffed at his blood. Study the history of Christ, my young friends, for the purpose of seeing, next to your regard to it as the means of salvation, an example for you to imitate in the career of mercy. Follow him going about doing good, to teach you with what patience you should go and do likewise.

Many who are all ardor at starting, soon grow tired, because they do not find the course easy, reach not the goal at a bound, or are opposed in their way. It is a despicable, as well as pitiable sight, to behold a young person entering into the work of benevolence so confident and eager, as if she would surpass all others, and then almost at the first stage, when the novelty is over, and difficulties arise, and the expected flowers in the path do not appear-giving all up, and turning back to indolence, ease, and uselessness. On the contrary, it is a sight on which angels and God himself might look down with delight, to see another holding on her way, even in her humble career of benevolence, amid disappointment and opposition, persevering in her attempts to do good, and finding in the con