WHAT objects interest me most? Is my mind in such a state, that a certain change of circumstances would leave me desolate, leave my mind craving and empty, leave me nothing to live for, cast a gloom on all my prospects? What is it round which my affections cleave?

Our

Will not thoughts take a direction from the end, temper, and disposition? do they not originate in active principles? All my thoughts, however unobserved, have relations expressive of my character. Let me perpetually examine whether subjects of thought are not so related to myself, as to flatter or excite some selfish passion. Let me not be an egotist in thought. objects of thought should be chosen with a view to sanctity of heart, to conformation of our nature to God and Heaven. There should be some rule or law by which to judge our thoughts. One general rule is, Are my thoughts pleasing to God? Another is, Are they useful? -Channing.

EXCELLENCES [in ourselves] are not inspired by being contemplated. He who delights to survey them, contributes nothing by that exercise to their prosperity or growth; on the contrary, he will be tempted to rest in the self-complacency they inspire, and to relax his efforts for improvement. Their purity and lustre are best preserved in a state of seclusion, from the gaze even of the possessor. But with respect to the faults and imperfections with which we are encompassed, it is just the

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reverse ;—the more they are reflected on, the more fully they are detected and exposed; the greater is the probability that their growth will be impeded, and a virtuous resolution evinced to extirpate and subdue them. To think much upon our sins and imperfections, is to turn ourselves to that quarter in which our business lies. Meditating much on our virtues and good deeds is a useless occupation, since they will thrive best when abandoned to a partial oblivion.-Robert Hall.

THOU hast nothing to do! Hast thou then studied religion? Dost thou know why thou adherest more to one sect than to another? why even thou art a Christian rather than a Jew or a Mahometan? Thou hast nothing to do! Hast thou examined into all the motives which prompt the actions of every day of thy life? Hast thou considered how thou oughtest to conduct thyself towards thy own family and the poor; and studied many other doubtful cases which will cause thee to wander at each step if they are not cleared up? Thou hast nothing to do! Hast thou entered into the examination of thy conscience? Hast thou opened all the folds in which thou dost envelope certain incredulous opinions, certain principles of disobedience, which thou hidest with care from the knowledge of others, and sometimes even from thyself, and which are yet the great springs of thy actions, the great source of those contradictions which are found in thee? Thou hast nothing to do! Behold! death ap

proaches; the throne of judgment is preparing; the great book is opening; the sentence of thy eternal destiny is about to be pronounced! Look earnestly on these formidable objects; bear the sight of them, if thou canst, and then tell me if thou still thinkest thou hast nothing to do! Saurin.

UNDER these influences [the influences of unwatched weaknesses] sins may be committed, the guilt of which we may not fully discern until many days and years have gone-sins of unkindness, sins of envy, sins of personal desire, sins of which we may repent, but never can forget; sins which we might weep for till the fountains of our tears were dry, but which would still be burning as ever in their memories of remorse; sins that will often haunt us in faces of sorrow, that afflict us the more bitterly because they look on us with no anger. If these did us no other harm, they interfere with the direction of our thoughts, they break down the strength of our faculties, and they disturb the unity of our purpose. These, or any other violations of charity or justice, of affection or of conscience, must be met by instant and complete resistance, if we would have true or independent lives. No one that heeds experience will make little of slight neglects. They have the seeds in them of increase; they will grow and multiply and become as moral cankers in the soul. The finest sensibility may decay, and, if not joined to effort and upheld by genuine activity, it will die.-Giles.

HE that would be free from the slavery of sin, and the necessity of sinning, must always watch. Aye, that is the point, but who can watch always? Why, every good man can watch always; and, that we may not be deceived in this, let us know, that the running away from a temptation is a part of our watchfulness, and every good employment is another great part of it, and a laying in provisions of reason and religion beforehand, is yet a third part of the watchfulness; and the conversation of a Christian is a perpetual watchfulness; not a continual thinking of that one, or those many things which may endanger him; but it is a continual doing something directly or indirectly against sin.-Jeremy Taylor.

LET me beseech you therefore, strictly to examine your own souls. Inquire what it is they chiefly wish, hope, and desire: whether they give chase, as it were, to every painted fly; whether, forsaking the Fountain of living waters, they are digging for themselves cisterns of clay, and those leaky too, with great and unprofitable labour.-Leighton.

THE NATURE OF SIN.

Perceiving then the tyranny of sin,

That with his weight hath humbled and depress'd
My pride; by grudging of the worm within,
That never dieth, I live withouten rest.-WYATT.

Each crime that once estranges from the virtues,
Doth make the memory of their features daily
More dim and vague.-COLEridge.

Fools make a mark at sin.

Bind not one sin upon another; for in one than shalt not be anpunished. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us; and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Who can understand his errors? cleanse Than me from secret faults.

THERE are spiritual diseases as well as bodily, and the former much more to be dreaded. These diseases may all be resolved into sin. As the human frame consists not merely in a number of parts put together in the same place, but of parts vitally united, all with their separate functions in due subserviency to each other, which gives us the idea of a system; so the mind consists of faculties and powers designed to act under due subordination to each other. Sin disturbs this harmony, confounds this order, and, consequently, is truly and properly in the mind what disease is in the body.— Robert Hall.