relish for many things, but their affections do not deminish towards those who treat them kindly; their limbs and health and eye-sight, and memory may all fail, yet love never fails, with those who ever had a heart of gratitude. Should your life be spared until you are helpless, I hope you will have kind friends. Your children partake so much of their mother's dispositien, that I am inclined to think you have nothing to fear, somotimes, near relatives are the most obstinate and cruel! I presume you would not say you wished for another life to live it. I mean a natural life, you no doubt wish you had lived a better life, and that I think all Christians can say with propriety, as we have a law in our members, which was against the law of our minds; and we are like the Apostle when he cried out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death!" When he would do good, evil was present with him, and so it is with us:-thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Shall I ever have the privilege of taking you by the hand again? I do not know that I can expect it. If I never more see you in the flesh, the time is soon coming when our spirits will mingle, increasing in love and joy, it is hoped-and where no sin will interrupt. Sin destroys much of our communion with God. duty to do. "If thine give him drink." etc. Shall we be so sluggish dove, from the hea How much reason for mourning over our unfaithfulness and ingratitude to him who has so much care for us. I have thought for a few days past of the love of Christ. Who of us are willing to die for our enemies! such as revile us, and speak all manner of false things against us, or that take our property, or injure us at all; we dislike them;-and many times hate them, instead of loving and forgiving them as it is our enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirsts But who of us will die for our friends? still, and never act our part? Come holy venly hill, and sit, and warm our hearts. This ought to be our constant cry, for more love and light; more self-denial, more knowledge of ourselves, more hatred of sin, and less conformity to the world. I am heartily sick of myself, and wish I could sink more and more into the divine will, and sail in the ocean of pure blessedness, where joy and peace are not so often disturbed by the wicked devices of Satan, and the indwellings of our own corrupt hearts. But I must forbear, as I do not expect to be free from any natural propensity to sin: therefore pray for me. as long as life shall last, that I may be one that shall hold out faithful unto the end, while many make ship-wreck of faith, and their souls draw back, and God hath no pleasure in such. Yours in the bonds of Union and Love. ABIGAIL HOUSE. MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND: I received yours of the 25th, and will make no delay in answering your kind letter, which came to hand last evening. I could scarcely sleep after reading that you were very thankful that I cared enough for you to write you on the subject of religion. It ought to be a subject of constant acknowledgment of God's mercy and care over us, that he does lengthen out our lives to seek and serve him. You say your mind has been exercised more of late about your future welfare, and that you do not feel safe in your present condition. I am glad you are thinking, and continue to think, until you are constrained to say that God is love. Should you have a clear view of yourself and the sufferings of Christ for those who despitefully used and persecuted him, you would be astonished and cry out as above, surely God is love! Do not let any thing turn your steady thoughts aside; but read the scriptures more frequently, and as frequently be in your closet; keep yourself from vain company, for that will cause the spirit to depart; for Christ's spirit inmost, is a solemn spirit. It requires solemnity to go to the throne of grace, and doubly so when we behold our lost and undone condition. How indeed, can we be cheerful, when every moment we are exposed to death and afte death the Judgment? How then, my dear girl, can cheerful? or where is the time for amusement? we be I must stop here, and confess, I am ashamed while I warn others, that I myself spend negligently so many of my precious moments. But do as I say, not as I do. There is one, whose examples are far better to follow. Follow his and you will be safe. I intend to see you before long, if the Lord wills as I have but a short time to write. If I should fail, have the kindness to write me again. Let me impress this on your mind, that delays are dangerous, and I will still hope when I see you, that you will be able to say: "I have found him, whom my soul loveth." And I will say: "Hold him and do not let him go." O the joys of a young convert! when they can say: "He is the chiefest among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely." Yours in friendship, ABIGAIL HOUSE. DEAR SIR: Our Nation wears a gloomy aspect on the account of her being at war, within her own borders; her strength is failing as she becomes disordered, not that she has come to arms but the spirit of rancor, which is to be feared will amount to serious difficulties, -and how can we bear to see our once happy and independent Nation in confusion and Anarchy? It reminds me of the Jewish Nation:-they were once the people God delighted in, and as they commenced worshipping other gods, besides the living and true God, they met with his disapprobation, although the law was given to them by Moses, and Moses received it from God, on the Mount, and the very first and greatest command was: "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me." "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." "Remember the Sabbath day." "Honor thy father, and thy mother." "Thou shalt not kill." "Thou shalt not commit adultery." "Thou shalt not steal." "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor-nor covet anything of his." But before Moses came down from the Mount, they had made themselves an image, for man will worship something; and what was the result? Why Moses threw down the tables of stone, on which these laws were written, and that by the finger of God, for he could not endue their dancing and merriment; and called to know who was on the Lord's side-and all the sons of Levi came to him, and he told them to gird on their swords, and slay every man, his brother, and the same day there fell about three thousand men. Thus we see how God hates in both Jew and Gentile, the spirit, and also practice of idolatry. When our fore-fathers first set their feet on Plymouth rock they did not feel like falling down to worship Gods of gold, nor wood, nor anything made by men's hands, but him only that brought them over the briney deep, the same hand that led the children of Israel out of bondage, that they had so soon forgot: And who of us hath not broken his law? and are we justified? We think the Lord hath fought our battles in by gone days, that we might inherit this, our American soil. Our blessings have been abundant; our land has produced milk and honey. Men servants, and maid servants, and sheep and oxen, and if it were not for the sin of Slavery, I should still hope our Nation might be spared. But when we see idols set up in our churches, as Daniel calls them abominations where they ought not to be, we must look for desolation. God's spirit cannot dwell with idols, God dwelt in the temple until images were brought in-the Jews were very zealous for their law, and so are we:-we still are desirous of our form of worship, whether we have his holy spirit to guide and direct us or not; and that may be an idol. Our ministers preach against all other sins more than idolatry. Coveteousness is idolatry, for he that loveth his goods or money to excess is a coveteous person, and idolator. We may idolize our minister, our churches, our sect, (if popular,) our families, and in fine everything we love better than our Creator himself, is specious or rank idolatry. The scriptures gives us a knowledge of men in the latter days. For men shall be lovers of their ownselves, coveteous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affections, heady, high-minded, traitors, fierce, despisers of those that are good, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, etc.; and their folly shall be manifest, and proceed no farther, corrupt minds, reprobates concerning the faith. And now is not our community filled up too much with such characters, and will not God punish us for all our sins? and "Will his judgment always sleep? or will he be avenged on such a Nation as this?" Let these things sink down jinto our hearts, and reform one and trust the event. LINES. Yours, ABIGAIL HOUSE. Arise, O Lord with strength divine, We see the rod hang on our land, |