If we are commanded to subdue all the malevolent passions, we are at the same time taught how to conquer them; and if we sincerely and conscientiously follow the instructions we have received from divine wisdom, evil passions may assail, but they will never reign over us.

I may appeal to you in the words of St. Paul-"Remember ye not, "that when I was yet with you I "told you these things?" "Now

our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and "God even our Father, which hath "loved us, and given us everlasting "consolation and good hope through

grace, comfort your hearts, and sta"blish you in every good word and "work!"

LETTER VIE.

1

My dearest Lady Elizabeth,

HAVE, in my last letter, represented to you that an increase of love and reverence towards God must ensue as an inevitable consequence of our belief in the doctrines revealed by Jesus Christ. I have likewise shewn you that the perpetual exercise of love and gratitude towards a Being of infinite purity and perfection, must introduce dispositions highly favourable towards our fellow

creaturés.

creatures.

I now proceed to take a

more particular view of the additional light thrown upon the foundation of moral principle, and the consequent advantages derived to virtue from the instructions of our Saviour.

The chief advantage derived from the gift of reason is, that it enables man to profit by experience. To a proper application of the knowledge accumulated from this source, we owe all the improvements of society, all the wisdom of philosophy, and all the laws that govern the several states and kingdoms of the world.

Wherever the inestimable gift of reason had been most effectually im proved, there virtue was painted in the fairest colours, and vice described as most hateful and injurious. Among the heathens many wise men had from time to time arisen, who gave excellent instructions concern

ing the advantages resulting from a strict adherence to truth, integrity, and justice; and who, with great force of reasoning, warned men of the consequences of giving themselves up to their selfish and wicked passions.

Now all that these wise men had by the use of the reason given from God discovered of moral truth, was by Jesus Christ strengthened and confirmed. In what he added to their discoveries, he did not oppose, but assist the light of reason, and enabled it to shine farther and brighter than it had ever done before.

The heathen philosophers may be compared to men who laboured to remove a mass of iron ore from a bed of magnet. In vain did they exert their strength against the power of attraction. It proved too potent for their feeble efforts to overcome

It

It required knowledge which they had not to perceive the cause, and skill beyond what they possessed, to remove it. A lát

Happiness the object of all hearts, or, to carry on the metaphor, the universal magnet-was, by the doctrines of our Saviour, elevated to its true and proper situation. Where your "treasure is, there will your heart "be also."

I

The assurance which he brought of that happiness to which he thus directed us, shook to the foundation the strong holds of pride and selfishness, which are bound by bonds stronger than those of iron to the present world. These he, in the language of scripture, "broke asun"der like a potter's vessel." Through faith in his promises the present world must even so far lose its iniluence over our hearts as to prevent us from purchasing