LETTERS ON FEMALE CHARACTER. MY DEAR MARY, LETTER I. Your present situation excites my keenest sympathy, and awakens in my heart an earnest desire to do something for you, that will prove my disinterested affection. The loss you have sustained, by the removal of your beloved mother to a better world, must always be severely felt, even when time and resignation have subdued the violence of natural grief. You will perhaps feel the want of her guidance more, as you advance towards the busy season of life, than in the helpless period of childhood. I will therefore endeavour to set before you some of those precepts, by which she formed a character of no ordinary worth and excellence. was, in the strictest sense of the word, a Christian, and she expressed in her dying moments, a perfect resignation to the will of Him, who had seen fit to deprive you of a monitor, at the most critical season of life. "My friend," said she to me, while her countenance already partook of the seraphic expression of the disembodied saints-"my friend, to human wisdom it might seem strange, that my child should be left alone, when she will most need a mother's care; but to me, nothing is strange, that divine wisdom sees fit to dictate. Since B She it is His will, I leave her apparently without protection, secure in that unseen mercy that hovers over the forlorn and destitute. I waste not a conjecture on her probable destiny. I have too long trusted my Heavenly Parent, to need further assurances of his unchangeable goodness. My child is as safe under his protection, as if hosts of friends and kindred were contending for the office of befriending the orphan, when her mother shall have entered into heavenly rest."-Never did I see a more beautiful exemplification of the promise which she repeated with a smile of rapture, as she breathed her last sigh-"I will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on me." Yes, my dear Mary, these were the last words of your sainted parent, and it is my earnest prayer, that you may be enabled to bind them as a talisman to your heart, and make them the law of your future life. Since, then, it has pleased a being of infinite mercy, to remove your protectress from you, it becomes your duty, or rather I will term it your privilege, to receive the full assurance, that he will supply her place to you, in such a time and manner as he may deem expedient. You are not desolate, for Omnipotence itself is pledged to protect you, and you have only to stand still, and see the salvation of God. Let me entreat you, then, to begin in the vernal season of life, to lay up stores for the future. Faith, which is the fundamental requisite of true religion, grows and strengthens gradually where it receives careful culture; but it requires the utmost vigilance, and the most unceasing attention, to nurture this essential grace, in a soil so repugnant to its growth as the human heart. You have already professed Christianity, and surrendered your young heart to its lawful possessor. This is one of the blessed results of a religious education. But you have not now an evangelical guide, to pioneer the way for you, through the opening labyrinth of human life. Much of your success in avoiding the evils which abound in this region, will depend upon the degree of faith, which actuates your reliance upon heavenly goodness. Many persons talk of their faith with complacency, when its utmost extent is to elicit a belief in the historical account of the Redeemer's birth, life, sufferings, and death. But as for the faith which "purifies the heart, works by love, and overcomes the world"—they know it not, neither do they feel their deficiency. This faith, however, is indispensable to true Christianity. You must not only believe, but you must love the doctrines of our holy religion, or its ways are not pleasant, or its paths peaceful. Unless you make the laws of Christ your ruling principles of action, you will rise but slowly in Christian attainments. Many professors do not even pretend to walk humbly with God, or to keep themselves unspotted from the world. They keep up external appearances, and attend sedulously to forms; but there is little of the vital spirit of Christianity in these observances. The heart is still unchanged, and under the direction of carnal motives. How few among these nominal Christians, actually believe in the work of the Holy Spirit! And yet they talk volubly of their faith, as if to make up for the deficiency within, by a redundance of words. But true religion is an internal principle. It rules the heart, and sends out from that seat of life and thought, the impulses which direct the conduct. Our faith is sent to us from heaven, as a messenger of love, to prepare us for ascending to those blissful realms, when the disembodied spirit is free from its tabernacle of dust. God himself is the author of Christianity. He foretold it from the time when the penalty of their transgression fell upon our first parents. He was moved by the tears and prayers of their penitence, to promise vengeance on the destroyer of their peace. For upwards of four thousand years, the world was in expectation of the coming Messiah, who at length appeared in fulfilment of prophecy, and confirmed his mission by miracles and signs, which continued until the establishment of his doctrines among men. 'These doctrines are pure from that alloy which attends the best works of imperfect human wisdom: they are perfectly consistent, and beautifully sublime! One decisive proof of their divine origin is, that when once the mind of man is brought to study and comprehend them, it rests fully satisfied with their fitness and sufficiency. The precepts of this religion are holy and just, and its laws were ratified by the blood of its author. The worship of Christ as a saviour, is a spiritual worship. His service is rational, and rendered practicable by the helps that it affords to human weakness. This religion was not introduced by power; for it was the object and aim of power to overthrow it. The world did not establish it; for it was the declared enemy of the world,—it despised its maxims, and condemned its enjoyments as vain and empty. Christianity is not merely a rule of life, though it presents the most perfect rule that the world ever knew. Had mankind been in a state of innocence, such a rule would have sufficed; but fallen creatures must have something besides the law which they have violated, to subject them to restraint. The gospel, therefore, does not afford a law for the innocent, but a means of salvation for the guilty. It is suited to the exigencies of man in his fallen state; not to the requisitions of a guiltless and upright race of creatures. The law is already violated. The gospel brings salvation to those who have been guilty of this violation. It follows of course, that no mere system of forms, adopted from human motives, can reinstate a fallen race in their primitive innocence. The religion which suits our necessities, must be one which transforms the soul into the image of its author, and makes us like minded with our great pattern. In short, the heart, that is, the thinking and feeling principle within us, must be changed; and nothing short of omnipotent power can effect this miracle. It must be clearly understood, that the change is to be radical; the heart is not improved, or added to, or new modified, but changed; old things must pass away, and all things become new. According to the emphatic language of Scripture, man must be born. again. Surely this term would not be used to imply an ordinary alteration of feeling or sentiment. Some weak believers reject the expression, because they say it means an impossible thing. But cannot the same spirit, which moved upon the face of the waters in the creation of the world, move within the human heart, so as to bring order out of chaos, and light out of darkness? And how can that thing be pronounced impossible, which happens every day among the children of men? Man becomes a new creature, by a total change in his will, his wishes, his hopes, his actions. His will is brought into conformity with that of his Heavenly Father. His wishes tend towards holy things. His hopes soar to heaven. His actions are dictated by a just and upright law, which is the governing impulse of his renewed heart. What can be greater than the difference between this man, and the same being who once followed blindly the dictates of his own corrupt inclinations, desired only carnal things, never thought of heaven, and acted according to his own vile, earthly desires. It is plain, therefore, that the expression, "a new creature," is not figurative or hyperbolical, but literal,-man is born again of the Spirit, and becomes "a new creature." True religion, |