that of living in a constant and uti remitting consciousness of the presence of God. The desire of pleasing him will then be the predominant desire of our hearts; and this desire, when it becomes habitual, will, by destroying the power of the malignant passions, cut off the most formidable enemies which truth has to encounter. It will then be our first wish, with regard to those we love, that they should be beloved by God; and therefore, instead of dissembling their faults, we shall endeavour to amend them. Fear will then inlist on the side of truth; for how should we fear" those who can only kill the body," when impressed with an awful consciousness of standing in the presence of Him, "who can cast "soul and body into fire everlast❝ing."

Were our faith in the existence and

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and presence of the Deity sufficiently strong, and our belief in a state of future retribution sufficiently accurate, it would be almost impossible for us in any instance to make a willing departure from truth. All the little arts of palliation and equivocation would then be held in deserved abhorrence. We should, in all we say, speak as those who "speak not "unto men, but unto God;" who know that as he now sees us, we shall hereafter be seen by all.

A child who had been induced to tell lies through fear of punishment, would not (unless the habit were very inveterate indeed) tell a falsehood in which he was certain of being immediately detected. And what is the span of life! how short! how uncertain! How little is it worth our pains, for any paltry consideration, to dissemble what in a little-a very little

while, will stand revealed to men and angels!

The farther my acquaintance with the world extends, the more deeply am I confirmed in the opinion, that the principles of truth have no other solid basis than the fear of God. If I have ever been led to imagine that notions of honour and of self-respect would insure a strict adherence to truth and justice, I have been amply convinced of my error!

Honour, true and genuine honour, has indeed the spirit of truth and justice for its very essence. It is,

when thus connected, immutable and inflexible in its decrees, obliging people to act in the privacy of retirement as they as they would act on the crowded theatre of public life; giving to promises the force of law, and to confidence received, the bond of security. And do not the principles

of religion do all this? Religion is therefore the basis of honour. Seriously, and from conviction, I can assure you, that the sense of honour, which has no other foundation than the opinion of the world, has neither strength nor substance. Before the impetuosity of the passions it melts like the snow-flake, which is now driven against my window by the

southern wind!

Nor is an habitual sense of the presence of God less essential to the practice of justice, than I have shewn it to be essential to the practice of truth. Truth and justice are inseparably connected. They who love the one must cherish the other. They who despise the one must forsake the other also. The same passions which lead to a transgression of the one will lead to a transgression of the other; and the same principles

ples which preserve the integrity of . the one, will fix a regard to the other in our hearts. So long as we permit pride, or self-love, or interest, or fear, or any other passion, to induce us to make exceptions with regard to the strict practice of either truth or justice, we deceive ourselves if we imagine that truth and justice are to us as principles. We, in that case, have in fact no principles. We are the mere slaves of present impulse, and live as the brutes which perish.

Justice, in its strictest sense, includes the strict performance of all the duties we owe to God, to our fellowcreatures, and to ourselves. If justice be in our hearts a principle of action, we shall carefully inform ourselves of the nature and extent of these several duties, so that we may be found deficient in none: giving unto Cæsar E 5 what