duct? He divested wisdom of all its pomp and parade, in order to suit it to the capacities of the meanest of its auditors. He spake to them in the lowly language of parable and similitude; and when he prayed, did he instruct his hearers to attend to him with a loud chorus of Amens? Did he (participating as he did in the Godhead), did he assume the tone of sufficiency, and the language of assurance? Far from it! he prayed, and he instructed his disciples to pray, in lowliness and meekness of spirit; he instructed them to approach the throne of Grace with fear and trembling, silently, and with the deepest awe and veneration; and he evinced by his condemnation of the prayer of the self-sufficient Pharisee, opposed to that of the diffident publican, the light in which those were considered in the eyes of the Lord, who, setting the terrors of his Godhead at defiance, and boldly building on their own worthiness, approached him with confidence and pride.

KIRKE WHITE.

ON PRIDE.

WEALTH, rank, and genius are rich gifts, often ungratefully perverted into stimulants to pride. What, however, can be less secure? Riches make themselves wings, and flee away-the crowns of princes are torn from their brows-reason often totters on her throne-and the majesty of intel lect lies prostrate in the dust. But supposing them to be less fluctuating and evanescent, and that they serve to throw a certain degree of splendour round a child of dust; his dependance

and feebleness must still be felt and betrayed. Is he not a being of yesterday? whose "breath is in his nostrils"-whose days on earth are but a shadow-the sport of accident, the victim of disease, the prey of death. And is not pride in such a being, with faculties thus limited, with powers thus feeble, most absurd and preposterous?

Contemplating man then, simply as a rational, not as an immortal creature, we must conclude this vice to be highly offensive to Almighty God, who formed him from the dust, and to whom he Owes "life, and breath, and all things;" for every proud man robs God of the homage due to Him alone" erects new altars to strange deities

and by the wildest of all idolatry, burns incense to himself."

In our intercourse with the world, pride is productive of a thousand miseries and inconveniences. It places us in an attitude of hostility with our fellow creatures, and yet renders us vulnerable at every pore. It gives us an exquisite sense of our own claims, and deadens our perception of the claims of others. It is in close alliance with anger, hatred, envy, and revenge, with all those vices which may be termed antisocial. It is no less mischievous with respect to ourselves; it bribes the judgment-silences the checks of conscience-vitiates the motives to action-throws a false and delusive light over our virtues and vices, diminishing the one and magnifying the other; thus opposing a formidable barrier to improvement, by effectually concealing the necessity of repentance.

ANONYMOUS.

UTILITY TO MAN OF THE POWER

OF HABIT.

WHATEVER action, either good or bad, has been once done, is done a second time with more ease, and with a better liking; and a frequent repetition heightens the ease and pleasure of the performance without limit. By virtue of this property of the mind, the having done any thing once becomes a motive to the doing of it again; the having done it twice is a double motive; and so many times the act is repeated, so many times the motive to the doing of it once more is multiplied. To this principle habit owes its wonderful force, of which it is usual to hear men complain, as of something external that enslaves the will. But the complaint in this, as in every instance in which man presumes to arraign the ways of Providence, is rash and unreasonable. The fault is in man himself, if a principle implanted in him for his good, becomes, by negligence and mismanagement, the instrument of his ruin. It is owing to this principle that every faculty of the understanding, and every sentiment of the heart, is capable of being improved by exercise. It is the leading principle in the whole system of the human constitution, modifying both the physical qualities of the body, and the moral and intellectual endowments of the mind. We experience the use of it in every calling and condition of life. By this the sinews of the labourer are hardened for toil; by this the hand of the mechanic acquires its dexterity; to this we owe the

amazing progress of the human mind in the politer arts and the abstruser sciences; and an engine which it is in our power to apply to nobler and more beneficial purposes. By the same principle, when the attention is turned to moral and religious subjects, the understanding may gradually advance beyond any limit that may be assigned, in quickness of perception and truth of judgment: and the will to conform to the dictates of conscience and the decrees of reason will be gradually heightened, to correspond in some due proportion with the growth of intellect. "Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him; or the son of man, that thou so regardest him? Thou hast made him lower than the angels to crown him with glory and honour." Destitute as he is of any original perfection, which is thy sole prerogative, who art alone in all thy qualities original, yet in the faculties of which thou hast given him the free command and use, and in the powers of habit which thou hast planted in the principles of his system, thou hast given him the capacity of infinite attainments. Weak and poor in his beginnings, what is the height of any creature's virtue, to which he has not the power, by a slow and gradual ascent, to reach? The improvements which he shall make by the vigorous exercise of the powers he has received from thee, thou permittest him to call his own, imputing to him the merit of the acquisitions which thou hast given him the ability to make. What, then, is the consummation of man's goodness but to cooperate with the benevolent purposes of his Maker, by forming the habit of his mind to a

constant ambition of improvement, which, enlarging its appetite in proportion to the acquisitions already made, may correspond with the increase of his capacities in every period of an endless existence? And to what purpose but to excite this noble thirst of virtuous proficiency-to what purpose but to provide that the object of the appetite may never be exhausted by gradual attainment-hast thou imparted to thy creature's mind the idea of thine own attribute of perfect uncreated goodness?

But man, alas! hath abused thy gifts; and the things that should have been for his peace are become to him an occasion of falling. Unmindful of the height of glory to which he might attain, he has set his affections upon earthly things.

BISHOP HORSLEY.

CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY. CHRISTIAN charity is resigned under afflictions, and patient under injuries; is not hasty in retaliating, or rigorous and exact in demanding reparation for injuries received; is not ashamed to pardon or forget a wrong or dishonour done it; but esteems it its glory to pass over a transgression. It is always ready to embrace when offered, and usually the first to make overtures of friendship and reconciliation. It watches every advantage, not of persecuting or oppressing an enemy, but of winning him over to a better mind. It tries all the arts of kindness and good will to soften his resentment; endeavouring to overcome