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they meet with no encouragement. Any thing, even a convivial visit, is become of more importance than spending two hours in religious conversation and reading. All seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's. Religion, with many of its professors, is but a secondary concern, not worthy of being the subject of conversation in their social visits. Ought these things so to be? Have we so learned Christ? O that mine head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night over the sin and iniquity that prevail, and call down the judgments of Heaven upon us. Wars and rumours of wars are convulsing the earth. Perhaps New England has seen its happiest days. O that Christians would awake from their slumbers, stand in the gap, and plead mightily for our nation.. O that our President, and all invested with authority, may be guided and directed by that wisdom which comes from above, and adopt measures salutary and prudent.. O that we may all individually repent of our provoking sins, and walk softly and humbly before God, all the days of our lives. Arise, O Lord; fayour Zion. Bless our missionaries; bless our dear country; bless all the nations of the earth with peace and religion..

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO MISS N. K. OF
NEWBURYPORT.

MY DEAR COUSIN,

Beverly, July 6, 1812.

LAST evening I attended worship at Mr E.'s Chapel, where a most excellent sermon was delivered by Mr E. of Salem, from these words, "He that is not for me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." There is no medium in this case, my

cousin. We are serving God or mammon. We are preparing for immortal glory, or posting on to destruction. Let infidels and atheists contemptuously sneer at the humble Christian, and audaciously say, "No God, no future punishment;" but they shall know, perhaps too late, that heaven and hell are not mere chimeras, but awful realities. They shall know that the Christian has not "followed cunningly devised fables;" but that he has chosen the good part, the pearl of great price, of infinitely more worth than millions of perishing worlds. O my cousin, my cousin, the time is short! We stand on the borders of the unseen world, on the verge of heaven or hell. After we have witnessed a few more rising and setting suns, we shall go the way whence we shall not return. Wealth, honour, pleasure, will ye cheer us in our departing moments, smooth our dying pillows, irradiate the gloomy vale, and ascertain our titles to crowns of glory? Thy smiles, dear Jesus, can dispel the horrors of the grave, and fill our souls with glory unutterable. The religion of the most renowned heathen philosophers could never effect this. No; to them all was uncertainty and darkness beyond the grave. By the gospel, life and immortality are brought to light. Let us not neglect these blessings, lest the heathen rise up in judgment, and condemn us. Let not our immortality, that grand prerogative of our nature, prove our everlasting curse. O no! let us deposit our souls by faith and love in the hands of Jesus, and then they shall be safe under the wreck of worlds, and dissolution of nature. "Our faith shall sit secure, and bid defiance to the gates of hell.”

The sun has left our hemisphere, and darkness bids me close. Respects to your honoured parents. I am yours affectionately,

F. W

LETTER TO MISS N. J. OF BEVERLY.

Beverly, July 6, 1812. EXPECTED Company will prevent my visiting you this afternoon, and attending the meeting, but if you will excuse my intrusion, I will converse a few moments with you by epistle.

May this be the commencement of a correspondence and friendship, founded on the rock Christ Jesus. Then it shall live and flourish, when time shall be no more, refined, enlarged, and exalted in the Paradise of God. There we shall meet with the prophets, apostles, and martyrs; there we shall meet, not only with those Christians with whom we are personally acquainted here, but millions, whom we never saw, redeemed out of every tongue, and nation, and clime, an exceeding great multitude, which no man can number, all cemented together in the most indissoluble union-all one in Christ Jesus. There we shall join with seraphic spirits in singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. But this is not all. We shall see Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, the Saviour of sinners, the Captain of our salvation, the Prince of peace. Lost in admiration, love and extacy, we gaze on his resplendent beauties, and superlative glory; we adore his stupendous electing love, and chaunt his praises in melodious strains. This is he who was born in a manger, who constantly went about doing good, who had not where to lay his head, who suffered patiently the scorn and derision of rebellious worms, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Behold him in Gethsemane ! He is sore amazed and very heavy, exceeding sorrowful even unto death; in such an agony that he sweat as it

were blood from every pore. Attend him to Calvary. There, extended on the cross, forsaken by his disciples, partially forsaken by his Father, his body in the most exquisite anguish, his soul overwhelmed with the ponderous load of all our sins, he meekly bows his head and dies. "Heaven wept that man might smile; heaven bled that man might never die: Bound every heart, and every bosom burn." I can say no more on this mysterious, glorious theme. My inexperienced pen is inadequate to the task. Surely disembodied redeemed spirits, must make all heaven resound with loud acclamations to their great Deliverer. Well might the angels sing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men," at the birth of the "Babe of Bethlehem." Well might the apostle count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. To know Jesus and him crucified; to feel a spark of his love in our hearts, is a rich enjoyment, a prelibation of heaven, to which a confluence of terrestrial delights bears no comparison. "God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." Love and humility are, I apprehend, the quintessence of religion.. Could I but descry these two graces habitually in my heart, I should need no surer criterion of my union to Jesus, and part in his redemption. If I know any thing my deceitful heart, I think I do long to possess them in the highest degree, and ever to act under their influence. But alas! pride, that predominant sin in all, discovers itself in a variety of forms, and works within to my great grief and detriment. "O for perfect likeness to my Lord!" O for a humble and contrite spirit, which the Majesty of heaven will not despise !

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I trust you enjoy the presence of your covenant God,

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and are engaged in his service. He is a good Master, and worthy of our entire confidence and obedience. You will ever have reason to rejoice, that you enlisted under his banners, and put your trust under the shadow of his wings. If he has called us from darkness unto light, we are engaged in a warfare which death only will terminate. If Satan cannot prevent our salvation, he will at least do all in his power to annoy our peace and comfort. But we need not fear. He and all our enemies are subject to our Prince, and can do nothing but by his permission. More and greater are they that are for us, than they that are against us. The conflict will soon be over. are what we profess, we shall soon be beyond the reach of an ensnaring world, a wicked heart, and a malicious adversary. Yes, my sister, life is but a transient passage from the cradle to the tomb. The important period is fastening on, when our work will be finished, our race run, our probation ended. O for wisdom to redeem the time, to improve the precious moments, as they take their flight, to the glory of God, and the good of our fellow mortals. Let the love of Jesus constrain us to use every talent and every faculty in promoting his kingdom, and recommending his religion. Freely we have received, let us freely give. Much has been done for us, shall we not burn with an ardent desire to do something to evince our love to the blessed Jesus? Never, never, let us be ashamed of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. No; we will glory in it: We will manifest to the world, that we live as strangers and pilgrims here, that we have meat to eat that they know not of-joys to which they are strangers, and that we are the disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus. May he give us grace thus to act; for our sufficiency is of God.

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