now, if I had the opportunity. And I find equal reason to reproach myself for my neglect of my own soul, in suffering the busy cares of the world to engross so much of my heart and time, as I have in years past. I have had more enjoyment the year past, than for several years before. I have been favoured with more leisure time to spend in my study, as it has been healthy, and my business small in comparison with what I have had in years past. I take great satisfaction in retirement in my study, reading and meditating. My eyes are now grown so much better than they have been for near fifty years, that I can read more in one day than I have been able to in four days, at any time, for forty years. I can read an hundred pages in a large octavo in a day with ease, and have done it in half a day. The alteration I attribute to the use of my dirty snuff box. My eyes have been gradually gaining ever since I began the use of macaboy snuff.

You doubtless remember what I told you of the consolation I received, under a certain judgment, last summer: this wrought so powerfully on my mind, that its good influence hath continued ever since; and, together with some special seasons of spiritual enjoyment, hath greatly enlarged my happiness the past year. If you have forgotten the passage of scripture I referred to in my last conversation, you will find it in the 6th of Matth. from the 24th verse to the end. It is fruitless for a Christian to expect to remove a cold Laodicean frame of

mind, by a few slight efforts, a few partial resolutions made without any proper sense of creature weakness, and dependence upon Christ's strength. Christ's direction is, to strive to enter in at the strait gate (in the original, it is agonize.) The reason offered for striving is, because many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able. If Christians would be as much engaged to keep their hearts alive in religion, as the miser is to fill his coffers with gold, or as the wicked are to promote the cause of wickedness, there would not be so many cold, indolent, worldly Christians as there are, to wound, instead of honouring the cause of religion. It is indeed matter of just lamentation, that many, who profess to love and serve God, are less zealous in his sacred cause, than the wicked are in the cause and kingdom of Satan, the destroyer of souls. No acquisitions of worldly good can be obtained without particular attention, labour and fatigue; and yet mankind are so inconsistent, as to expect to obtain heaven, the pearl of great price, by a few lifeless wishes, or formal prayers. How absurd to give the warmth of the heart to the world, and expect that a slight regard will obtain the salvation of the soul; when it cost the life of the Son of God, and is worth more than ten thousand worlds! Alas! how grovelling is the natural taste of mankind! How sensual, yea, how devilish are our natures! Surely, nothing short of the fountain of Jesus' blood can purify such polluted things. Oh, let us

have a constant sense of our daily need of applying to this fountain for heart cleansing.

IT is pleasing information you give me of the prospect you have of re-settling the gospel ministry among you. I rejoice with you. All the civil magistrates in a county, were they collected in a town, could not do so much to regulate a society, as a faithful minister will do by his precepts, and concurrent examples. It is almost impossible to preserve and regulate the morals of a family, without the regular attendance of public worship on the Lord's day. This is God's appointed way; and whenever people neglect the observance of it, they immediately descend into loose and irregular practice.

I rejoice much at the prospect you have of an out-pouring of the Spirit of God. The description you give of the situation of your town, looks like the ushering in of a work of God's Spirit. A revival of religion is a trying time for Christians. It is like a refiner's fire, to distinguish between real gold, and counterfeit. Those who have any oil in their lamps,

will have them lighted up, at such a time. If the coals upon your hearth are ever so dead, yet, if you put a live one in the midst, and blow with the bellows, you will soon see them burning; but without a live coal connected, you could never produce fire among the dead ones, by blowing ever so long, or hard. It is a time of as great stupidity and deadness here, as ever I knew. There is the shadow of a few meetings kept up, and that is all. Even old Christians are mostly fallen asleep. There are but few to be found, who converse freely on practical religion. There is a mighty shaking among the dry bones in Northampton. I am told there appears to be a general flocking to the standard of king Jesus, from among the younger class of people. There have been about fifty added to their Church, on their two last communion days. God is doing great things for his Church in the world. It seems as if the time was fast advancing, when the islands of the sea shall rejoice, and the barren wilderness become vocal with the high praises of God. But there may, and probably will be, an awful falling away, before the Gospel of Christ becomes general in the world. In those "perilous times," the enemies of the truth will come in like a flood, and scepticism and infidelity will no doubt so far triumph, as to promise a conquest, and cause the good Eli's of the age to tremble for the ark of God. But the struggles of Satan's kingdom will only serve to

make the power, and final triumph of sovereign grace, the more conspicuous. All will at last be obliged, like the worshippers of Baal, to acknowledge, "The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God." * *

*

S. COLEMAN.

TO MRS S

MY DEAR CHILD,

CLAREMONT, N. H.

Amherst, Sept. 20, 1806.

A CHRISTIAN parent can never take so great satisfaction in his children, as when he sees them walking in the truth. And in order that he may have that satisfaction, when they are gone out into the world, it is necessary that he should early teach them the necessity of imbibing virtuous sentiments, and preserving virtuous habits. He should often, and faithfully, instil into their tender minds, the necessity of early piety, and prayerfully endeavour to lead them to an experimental acceptance of Christ. Their good estate, før time and eternity, very much depends upon the precepts and example of their parents. You will find God's direction for constant instruction of children, in Deuteronomy xi. 19. Speaking of his commandments, he saith, "And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Children can learn to play, and manage a thousand toys with ingenuity and