How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God! But when things in themselves indifferent, and which are only criminal, either by excess in the indulgence of them, or some effects which usually arise out of them, are proposed; the Christian is in danger of sliding insensibly forward towards the margin of the ice on which he has incautiously ventured, till it becomes too thin to bear his weight; and he sinks, before he is aware, into the waters of keen remorse. It is a self-evident truth, never to be forgotten by us, that the partition between that which is lawful and that which is unlawful, is so slight, as to make little or no resistance to any one who has foolishly proceeded to the utmost bounds of the former. The limit between obedience and transgression, virtue and vice, is only an hair's breadth in extent, and may imperceptibly be stepped over. Between a solid basis for the feet on the edge of a precipice, and the termination of the cliff, the distance is so small, as to be alarming to every one who has the use of his eyes. Who that is

1 Gen. xxxix. 9.

wise, would venture to the utmost extremity; lest he should be seized with a giddiness, or take one fatal step too far, and so plunge himself by his temerity into danger of destruction, in which fractured bones form the least object of apprehension? Can they who frequent the assemblies of the gay and dissipated sons and daughters of worldly pleasure, who visit the play-house, the ball-room, or the route, &c. &c. while they make a profession of Christianity; can they, I say, believe, what they profess to feel daily, that there is an enemy within their own bosoms, the carnal mind, which is always ready to yield to every temptation, and to side with every seductive influence from without?1 Would the commander of a besieged town, if he knew that there was a large party of disaffected persons within the walls, suffer frequent parleys to take place between the rebellious subjects and the hostile troops without? And if he were to permit so dangerous an intercourse; would he not be justly chargeable with supineness, a vicious carelessness, a want of vigilance, or an 1 See note Q. in Appendix.

overweening confidence in the safety of the place? And would he not be liable to be called to an account by his prince, whenever the event, naturally to be expected, even the capture of the town, should unhappily occur?

"Force never yet a gen'rous heart did gain;

We yield on parley, but are storm'd in vain."

But I shall tire you with my harangue; and, while I ought to be sitting in the posture of a pupil, I appear to be arrogating to myself the chair of instruction.

MRS. DORMER.

Do go on; remembering your promise of answering my questions so far as you are able.

MISS NEWMAN.

I have often been comforted, under the unmerited imputation of singularity, scrupulosity, censoriousness, uncharitableness, and other such charges (which the world is ever ready to lay

against the faithful followers of Christ, in order to screen themselves from accusations of an opposite nature), by reflecting that the frowns of the world are far less dangerous than its smiles. The former have a natural tendency to detach the affections of a Christian more and more from its vanities; while the latter as naturally tend to rivet his heart to them. I find that, if it be my grand aim to please men, I cannot be the servant of Christ;1 and that, if my spirit and conduct are such as conciliate the esteem and respect of the world, instead of congratulating myself on my success, I have reason to tremble on account of my state towards God; for Woe unto us, if all men speak well of us. The friendship of the world is enmity with God; whosoever, therefore, will be the friend of the world, is the enemy of God. 3

2

3 James iv. 4. How awful the address in this passageYe adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not, that the friendship of the world is enmity with God!!! A religious professor, who has given himself up to Christ by the most solemn obligations, and who rescinds his sacred vows by

In reading my Bible, I see that I am to be blameless and harmless, the child of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom I am to shine us a light in the world: that, instead of dreading those aacusations by which the world has always excused its own inattention to religion, I am to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, not even by sanctioning them with my presence, but rather to reprove them by a determined opposition to them in every shade of existence in which they may appear. My time is to be spent, not to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. It is to be my ambition to walk as Christ walked; and wherever I see the consecrated print of his foot, there with holy awe and grateful love I am to place my own: and though I am conscious of the impossibility of attaining to the measure of the stature of the

desecrating his affections to any other object, is guilty of spiritual whoredom and adultery.-Comp. Lev. xx. 10.