CHARACTER.

IN society, character is the first, second, and the ultimate quality. A man is never ruined who has not lost his character, while he who has lost character, whatever be his position, is ruined as to moral and useful purposes. Envy and calumny will follow a man's success like his shadow; but they will be powerless, if he is true to himself, and relies on his native energies to beat or live them down.-Virtues may be misrepresented, but they are virtues still; and in vain will an industrious man be called an idler; a sensible man a fool; a prudent man a spendthrift; a persevering man a changeling; or an honest man a knave. The qualities are inherent, and cannot be removed by words, except by a man's own consent. At the same time all calumniators, thrice detected, ought to be banished as criminals, unworthy of the benefits of the society of which, however powerless, they endeavour to be the pest and bane.

BEWARE OF COVETOUSNESS.

COVETOUSNESS is a vice that not only hardens the heart, and contracts the understanding, but it dries up the streams of benevolence and charity, and totally unfits a man for the social state.

Consider it in connexion with death and eternity. No individual of the human family is exempt from death. It is a debt which all must pay. Death is a most formidable foe. His power is irresistible-his attack cannot be repelled, nor can we elude his pursuit. Money can procure you no shelter from this terrible adversary. You cannot bribe the king of terrors; you cannot

purchase a covenant with the grave. If the bribe were offered, it would be broken. Death will strip you of all your possessions. He will be alike regardless of their glory and their extent.

But how awful is the condition of a covetous man in relation to futurity! God is the supreme good; and his favour and service should be esteemed the highest good and end. But the covetous man makes money his supreme good, and its acquisition the chief end of his being. He puts it, therefore, in the place of God. He becomes an idolater; and in a future world will have his portion with murderers and liars, "in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone."

If there be a word of truth in the New Testament, some preparation is necessary for a future state. But what leisure has an avaricious man to prepare for eternity, when every moment of his time that can be spared, from the seasons allotted to refreshment and repose, is occupied in the pursuit of wealth, and the energies of his mind entirely bent on its acquisition?

Can the love of an infinite being have any place in his bosom ? Can there be any delight in God, when all his moral perfections are in direct opposition to this degrading and criminal passion? Can there be any aspirations after heaven, any desire or relish for its pleasures and pursuits, or any efforts made to lay up treasure there, when the whole soul is fixed on the accumulation of riches, in the present state? Can a

man love God or worship his Maker, when he adores an earthen idol, and bows down at his feet? Nothing can be more opposite than these courses of action; and nothing more contrary to one another, than the happiness of heaven and the love

of money. In short, to use the emphatic and impressive language of Scripture, "the love of money is the root of all evil.”

The indulgence of this sinful propensity deprives a man not only of present happiness, but of future felicity. Are there any covetous persons amongst our readers? If so, we would thus address them. Remember that the very earth disowns you, society expels you from its bosom ; enshrouded as you are in the darkness of your selfishness, the rays of humanity do not light upon you; much less can the beams of that glory in which the Deity resides, ever illumine or cheer your solitary and desolate spirits!

HOURS HAVE WINGS.

HOURS have wings, and fly up to the Author of time, and carry news of our usage. All our prayers cannot entreat one of them either to return or slacken his pace. The misspending of every minute is a new record against us in heaven: sure if we thought thus, we would dismiss them with better report, and not suffer them to go away empty, or laden with dangerous intelligence. How happy were it, that every hour should convey up, not only the message, but the fruit of good, and stay with the Ancient of Days to speak of us before his glorious throne.

THE VALUE OF RELIGION.

SIR HUMPHRY DAVY, who died in 1829, was one of the first philosophers of the age. Born in poverty, in an obscure corner of England, he

raised himself by industry and merit, unaided by friends, to such distinction that he was chosen, at the age of twenty-two, to fill the chair of Chemistry at the Royal Institution in London. A few years afterwards he placed himself in the chair of the Royal Society of London, and at the head of the chemists of Europe. The testimony of such a man on the subject of religion must be acknowledged by all, to be most valuable. It is as follows:

"I envy (says he) no quality of the mind or intellect in others; not genius, power, wit, or fancy; but if I could choose what would be most delightful, and I believe most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing."

Equally valuable is the testimony of Sir Isaac Newton in favour of the truth of revelation. When Dr. Halley ventured once to say something in his presence disrespectful to religion, Newton silenced him, saying, "I have studied these things; you have not!" How many an infidel would be silenced, if he would but suffer reason and modesty to whisper in his ear, "Newton studied these things; you have not!"

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RELIGIOUS RETIREMENT.

If we look back on the usual course of our feelings, we shall find that we are more influenced by the frequent recurrence of objects, than by their weight and importance; and that habit has more force in forming our characters, than our opinions have. The mind naturally takes its turn and complexion from what it habitually con

templates. Hence it is, that the world, by constantly pressing upon our senses, and being ever open to our view, takes so wide a sway in the heart. How, then, must we correct this influence, and by faith overcome the world, unless we habitually turn our attention to religion and eternity? Let us make them familiar with our minds, and mingle them with the ordinary stream of our thoughts; retiring often from the world, and conversing with God and our own souls. In these solemn moments, nature, and the shifting scenes of it, will retire from our view, and we shall feel ourselves left alone with God. We shall walk, as in his sight: we shall stand, as it were, at his tribunal. Illusions will then vanish apace, and every thing will appear in its true proportion and We shall estimate human life proper colour. and the worth of it, not by fleeting and momentary sensations, but by the light of serious reflection and steady faith. We shall sec little in the past to please, or in the future to flatter. Its feverish dreams will subside, and its enchantments be dissolved.

From these seasons of retirement and religious meditation, we shall return to the active scenes of life with greater advantage. From the presence of God we shall come forth with our passions more composed, our thoughts better regulated, and our hearts more steady and pure. Let us not imagine that the benefit of such exercises is confined to the moments which are spent in them; for as the air retains the smell, and is filled with the fragrance of leaves which have been long shed, so will these meditations leave a sweet and refreshing influence behind them.