From thoughts unconfcious of a guilty fmart, IT is in vain to put wealth within the reach of him who will not stretch out his hand to take it. KEEP a daily watch over your fpeech and behaviour; attend to the dictates of confcience, and obferve its rules; follow them without reluctance; and may he who illumines the mind of the humble, enable you to adorn your Christian profeffion, and live up to the character of a probationer for eternity. THE more you are elevated in life, or ranked among the great and affluent, the more it becomes you to be circumfpect in all your actions; God's all-feeing eye is upon you, and men observe your failings. The more you are increased in wealth, the more should you fink in self-abasement, and rife in gratitude and benevolence. THE benevolence of a good man always terminates his projects in the relief of distress, the detection of fraud, the defeat of oppreffion, and the diffufion of happiness. HOW comfortless is the forrow of him, who feels at once the pangs of guilt, and the vexation of calamity which guilt has brought on him. ONE advantage gained by calamities, is to know howto fympathize with others in the like troubles. IT is often found, that to be armed against calamities with a tranquil mind, is either a probable way to avoid them, or at least to protract the season of their arrival; and if there was nothing elfe in it but the rendering them the more tolerable when they happen, it would be prudent to try the experiment. THE ROBIN, O COME, thou melancholy muse, Her mantle grave cool evening spreads, Stern winter brings his gloomy train, Each pleafing landscape fades from view; In folemn ftate he shuts the scene, To flow'ry fields we bid adieu! Quite ftript of every beauty, fee How foon fair Nature's honours fade! Their naked branches now behold, Bleak winds pierce thro' with murmuring found; Chill'd by the northern breezes cold, Their leafy honours ftrew the ground. So man, who treads life's active stage, In tender youth, or riper age, Alas! Alas! and can we choose but moan, But fee the tender Red-breast comes, Then foothes me with his plaintive tale O welcome to my homely board! There, unmolested, fhalt thou stand; Since thou, of all the warbling throng, And many a pleafing thought infpire. LET humility and condefcenfion prefent you as a pattern to your inferiors, affability and good-nature gain the efteem of your equals, refpet and deference that of your fuperiors: for in fo doing you will best imitate the example of our bleffed Saviour when on earth. GIVE your heart to your Creator and Redeemer, reverence to your fuperiors, honour to your parents, your bosom to your friend, your ear to good counsel, and alms to the poor. HE that gives to all without difcretion, will foon stand in need of every one's affiftance. Liberality does not confist / fo much in giving largely, as in giving seasonably. DAILY experience teaches us, that the contempt of calumny makes it die, whereas refentment revives it. THE anxieties of a crown are not to be coveted, nor the honours of a throne enjoyed by all. If you envy the monarch any thing, let it be the many opportunities he has of doing good, rewarding diftreffed merit, alleviating the miferies of the poor, and making the widow's heart to fing for joy this would be an envy truly laudable and praiseworthy, fuch as would add true greatness to nobility, and well become the breaft of a Chriftian. : MY fpirit looks to God alone; Trust him, ye faints, in all your ways; IF the fun fhines on you as you are walking, let it direct your thoughts to him who is the glorious Sun of Righteoufnefs; may his benign rays of love and grace irradiate your foul, difperfe your fears, animate your hope, enliven your defires, and cause you at length to shine with inextinguishable brightness, in the blissful regions of light, life, and glory! REMEMBER that true fortitude furmounts all difficulties; and that you cannot pass into the temple of honour, but through that of virtue. FRIENDSHIP is a fweet attraction of the heart, towards the merit we esteem, or the reflections we admire; and produces a mutual inclination between two persons, to promote each other's intereft, knowledge, virtue, and happiness. VOL. II. G NATURE NATURE hath wifely furnished us with two ears, and but one tongue; a most useful lesson, if rightly attended to. WHAT fignifies to man, that he from heav'n He walks fublime, and views the starry skies, HE is not to be esteemed liberal who does, as it were, pick a quarrel with his money, and knows not how either to part with it, or keep it; but he that difposes of it with difcretion and reafon, that proportions his bounty to his ability, choofes his objects according to their neceffities, and confers his bounties when they can do moft good. THERE is nothing in the female fex more graceful or becoming than modefty. It adds charms to their beauty, and gives a new foftnefs to their fex. Without it, fimplicity. and innocence appear rude; reading and good fenfe, masculine; wit and humour, indelicate. This is fo neceffary a quality for pleafing, that the loofe part of the fex, whofe study it is to enfnare mens hearts, never fail to fupport the appearance of what they know is fo effential to that end. How lovely then is the real modeft woman! SOCIETY is in its own nature an inftrument of happinefs, and it is made much more fo by the indigencies and infirmities of men. Man, of all creatures in the world, is leaft qualified to live alone, because there is no creature that has fo many neceffities to be relieved. And this feems to be one of the principal means ufed by Providence to fecure mutual amity, and the reciprocation of good turns in the world, it being the nature of indigency, like common danger, to endear men to one another, and make them herd together like fellow-failors in a ftorm. And this indeed is the true cafe of mankind; we all fail in one bottom, and in a rough fea, and ftand in need of one another's help at every turn, both for the neceffities and the refreshments of life. THE |