Without labour there is no arriving at rest, and without fighting no victory can be reached.

My daughter, now will I teach you the way of peace and true liberty. Be desirous always, my daughter, to do the will of another rather than your

own.

you.

Choose always to have less rather than more.

Seek always the lowest place and to be inferior to every one.

Wish always, and pray, that the will of God may be wholly fulfilled in

It is vain and unprofitable to be either disturbed or uplifted about future things, which may never come to pass.

We ask how much any one has done, but from what degree of virtuous principle she acts is not so carefully considered. We inquire whether she be courageous, rich, handsome, skilful, a good writer or a good singer; but how poor she is in spirit, how patient and meek, how devout and spiritual, is not often spoken of.

Forsake all, and you will have all.

As long as you live, you are subject to mutability of feeling, even against your will.

There is no security in this life from temptation.

Dispose not yourself for much rest, but for much patience.

If you defend not yourself on every side with the shield of patience, you cannot be long without a wound.

What harm can the words or injuries of any one do you? She hurts herself rather than you, nor shall she be able to avoid the judgment of God, whosoever she be.

Forsake yourself, resign yourself, and you will enjoy much inward peace. My daughter, always commit your cause to Me; I will dispose of it in due time.

My daughter, make it no matter of yours if you see other people honoured and advantaged, and yourself contemned and debased.

Your regard for your friend ought to be grounded in Me, and for My sake is she to be beloved, whosoever she be that you think well of, and who is very dear to you in this life.

My daughter, let not the sayings of other people move you, however fair and ingenious they may be.

A friend is rare to be found that continues faithful in all her friend's distresses.

Grant that I may observe truth and constancy in my words, and remove far from me a crafty tongue.

Oh, how good it is, and tending to peace, to be silent about other people, and not to believe all that is said, nor readily to report what we have heard.

Wait a little while, and you will see a speedy end of your evils.
Great rewards are promised to those that strive diligently.

A woman ought to employ herself in works of humility when strength is wanting for higher employments.

My daughter, mark diligently the motions of Nature and Grace, for in a very contrary and subtile manner do they move, and can hardly be distinguished but by her who is spiritually and inwardly enlightened.

Follow Me; "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Without the Way, there is no going; without the Truth, there is no knowing; without the Life, there is no living.

My daughter, beware thou dispute not of high matters, nor of the secret judgments of God. These things are far beyond the reach of our

faculties.

Many ask who is the greatest in the kingdom of God, who know not whether they shall ever find a place among the least.

God deceives you not; she is deceived who trusts too much to herself.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE HEART AND THE AFFECTIONS.

A Definition of Pride.-Vain People.-Woman's Favourite Passion.-Walking Humbly.The Pleasures of Humility.-Reading One's Own Character.-Sentiment and Feeling. -Affectation of Tenderness.-Patience under Suffering.-Ungenerous Feelings.Virtuous Emulation.-Vicious Envy.-The Successes of Others.

HE great end and intention of all the precepts of the Scriptures is the improvement and regulation of the heart; not the outward actions alone, but the inward affections which give birth to them are the subjects of those precepts. There are no virtues more insisted on as necessary to our future happiness than humility and sincerity or uprightness of heart; yet none more difficult and rare. Pride and vanity, the vices opposed to humility, are the sources of almost all the worst faults both of men and women. The latter are particularly accused-and not without reason-of vanity, the vice of little minds chiefly conversant with trifling subjects.

Pride and vanity have been supposed to differ so essentially as hardly ever to be found in the same person. "Too proud to be vain," is no uncommon expression, by which I suppose is meant, too proud to be over-anxious for the admiration of others; but this seems to be founded on mistake. Pride is, I think, a high opinion of one's self, and an affected contempt of others: I say affected, for that it is not a real contempt is evident from this, that the lowest object of it is important enough to torture the proud man's heart, only by refusing him the homage and admiration he requires.

Pride, though a distinct passion, is seldom unaccompanied by vanity, which is an extravagant desire for admiration. Indeed, I never saw an insolent person in whom a discerning eye might not discover a very large share of vanity, and of envy, its usual companion. One may nevertheless see many vain persons who are not proud; though they desire to be admired, they do

not always admire themselves; but as timid minds are apt to despair of those things they earnestly wish for, so you will often see the woman who is most anxious to be thought handsome, most inclined to be dissatisfied with her looks, and to think all the assistance of art too little to attain the end desired. To this cause, I believe, we may generally attribute affectation, which seems to imply a mean opinion of one's own real form or character, while we strive against nature to alter ourselves by ridiculous contortions of body, or by feigned sentiments and unnatural manners.

There is no art so mean which this mean passion will not descend to for its gratification-no creature so insignificant whose incense it will not gladly receive. Far from despising others, the vain woman will court them with the most assiduous adulation, in hopes, by feeding their vanity, to induce them to supply the craving wants of her own. She will put on the guise of benevolence, tenderness, and friendship, where she feels not the least degree of kindness, in order to prevail on goodness and gratitude to like and to commend her; but if in any particular case she fancies that airs of insolence and contempt may succeed better, she makes no scruple to assume them, though so awkwardly that she still appears to depend on the breath of the person she would be thought to despise. Weak and timid natures seldom venture to try this last method; and when they do, it is without the assurance necessary to carry it on with success; but a bold and confident mind will oftener endeavour to command and extort admiration than to court it. As women are more fearful than men, perhaps this may be one reason why they are more vain than proud; whilst the other sex are oftener proud than vain. It is, we suppose, from some opinion of a certain greatness of mind accompanying the one vice rather than the other, that many will readily confess their pride, nay, and even be proud of it, whilst every creature is ashamed of being convicted of vanity. You see, however, that the end of both is the same, though pursued by different means; or, if it differs, it is in the importance of the subject. Whilst men are proud of power, of wealth, dignity, learning, or abilities, young women are usually ambitious of nothing more than to be admired for their persons, their dress, or their trivial accomplishments.

Alas! vanity is a passion so prevailing, I had almost said universal, in our sex, that it requires all the efforts of reason, and all the assistance of grace, totally to subdue it. Religion is indeed the only effectual remedy for this evil. If our hearts are not dedicated to God, they will in some way or other be dedicated to the world, both in youth and age. If our actions are not constantly referred to Him, if His approbation and favour is not our principal object, we shall certainly take up with the applause of men, and make that the ruling motive of our conduct. How melancholy it is to see this phantom so eagerly followed through life!-whilst all that is truly valuable to us is looked upon with indifference, or, at best, made subordinate to this darling pursuit !

Equally vain and absurd is every scheme of life that is not subservient tu, and does not terminate in, that great end of our being-the attainment of real

excellence, and of the favour of God. Whenever this becomes sincerely our object, then will pride and vanity, envy, ambition, covetousness, and every evil passion, lose their power over us; and we shall, in the language of Scripture, "walk humbly with our God."

We shall then cease to repine under our natural or accidental disadvantages, and feel dissatisfied only with our moral defects; we shall love and respect all our fellow-creatures, as the children of the same dear parent, and particularly those who seek to do His will. All our delight will be "in the saints that are in the truth, and in such as excel in virtue." We shall wish to cultivate good-will and to promote innocent enjoyment wherever we are; we shall strive to please, not from vanity, but from benevolence. Instead of contemplating our own fancied perfections or even real superiority with selfcomplacency, religion will teach us to "look into ourselves, and fear." The best of us, God knows, have enough to fear, if we honestly search into all the dark recesses of the heart, and bring out every thought and intention fairly to the light, to be tried by the precepts of our pure and holy religion.

It is with the rules of the gospel we must compare ourselves, and not with the world around us; for we know that "the many are invited," and that we must not be "conformed to the world."

How necessary it is frequently thus to enter into ourselves, and search out our spirit, will appear if we consider how much the human mind is prone to insincerity, and how often, from being first led by vanity into attempts to impose upon others, we come at last to impose on ourselves.

There is nothing more common than to see people fall into the most ridiculous mistakes with regard to their own characters; but we can by no means allow such mistakes to be unavoidable, and therefore innocent. They arose from voluntary insincerity, and are continued for want of that strict honesty towards ourselves and others which the Scripture calls "singleness of heart," and which in modern language is termed simplicity-the most enchanting of all qualities, esteemed and beloved in proportion to its

rareness.

There is nothing in which this self-deception is more notorious than in what regards sentiment and feeling. Let a vain young woman be told that tenderness and softness is the peculiar charm of the sex-that even their weakness is lovely, and their fears becoming-and you will presently observe her grow so tender as to be ready to weep for a fly; so fearful, that she starts at a feather; and so weak-hearted, that the smallest accident quite overpowers her. Her fondness and affection becomes fulsome and ridiculous, her compassion grows contemptible weakness, and her apprehensiveness the most abject cowardice; for, when once she quits the direction of nature, she knows not where to stop, and continually exposes herself by the most absurd

extremes.

Nothing so effectually defeats its own ends as this kind of affectation; for though warm affections and tender feelings are beyond measure amiable and charming, when perfectly natural and kept under the due control of reason