Some who are reduced to the last extremity, would rather perish, than expose their condition to any, save the great and noble minded. They esteem such to be wise men, generous, and considerate of the accidents which commonly befal us. They think, to those they may freely unbosom themselves, and tell their wants without the hazard of a reproach, which wounds more deeply than a short denial.

Let a benefit be ever so considerable, the manner of conferring it is yet the noblest part.

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No object is more pleasing to the eye than the sight of a man whom you bliged; nor any music so agreeable to the ear, as the voice of one who owns you for his benefactor.

The cloth of humility should always be worn on the back of christianity.

Where humility is the corner stone, there glory shall be the top stone.

A great mind enables a man to maintain his station with honour, so that he only makes use of what he meets with in his way, as a pilgrim that would fain be at his journey's end.

Judgment of every kind is the child of ob

servation.

It is not the active, but the indolent, who weary; it is not the temperate, but the pam pered, who are capricious.

How charming is piety when it is the child of gratitude, not of fear; and when its characteristics are cheerfulness and benevolence.

All is hollow where the heart bears not part; all is peril where principle is not the guide.

M

He alone is great, and perfect in his nature, whose energies of mind are tempered by the softer feelings; he then receives, uncorrupted, the sun of prosperity; and though often exposed to, is never borne down by the blasts of adverse fortune; he bears about him for himself, and for others, every flower that sweetens the path of life-every fruit that invigorates him cheerfully.

During the whole progress of human events, the principal materials of our comforts, or uneasiness, lie within ourselves, every age will prove, burdensome to those who have no fund of happiness in their own breasts.

There are three characters which every man sustains; and these often extremely dif ferent from one another. One which he possesses is his own opinion ;—another, which he carries in estimation of the world;-and a third which he bears in the judgment of God; it is only the last which ascertains what he really is.

RETIREMENT, SELF EXAMINATION

AND REFLECTION.

THE least difficulties and scruples in z

tender conscience, should not be treated roughly, they indicate grace and the fear of God; they are as a knot in a silken thread, and require a gentle hand to loose them.

It is one of the sad effects of the fall, that men can never rest satisfied with the midway of all extremes: like the pendulum of a clock they seem condemned to pass and repass the mark of truth, without a possibility of stopping at the point of gravitation.

Serious reflection will help to digest what we hear, many spend hours in hearing, but

not a moment in reflection, and thereby lose all the benefit.

Wisdom should rather be the offspring of reflection, than the fruit of bitter experience.

For want of self examination, men have their accounts to cast up when they should have them ready to deliver in; they have their evidences of grace to seek when they should have them to show.

The man who would be a judge must first sit upon his own bench; they are only religious lepers, who care not for scripture looking glasses.

Self examination is like fire, which not only tries the gold, but purifies it also.

The bottom of our diseases lies, in not searching our diseases to the bottom.