They communicate the power, and without this power man is necessarily weak.

The views brought forward in the foregoing pages being understood, a question, Did you ever once believe? would never, in the sense it is used, again be asked. Man must, in order to persevere in obedience to the moral relations, continually believe; in other words, the facts of Christianity must be written on his heart; they must be to him a cloud by day and a light by night. They must, it may be once more repeated, be continually before his mind; since, if he keep them not, then the motives to action are gone, and he has no barrier left. Hence, Jesus Christ tells his followers, "Without me ye can do nothing; that is, without keeping the glorious truths, which I, as the Word, have made known, you can never have strength sufficient to persevere in the performance of those duties that I enjoin.

These views by some may be thought too simple; by others too abstruse; but such as they are, they are sent forth to find

in the minds of thinking beings an apppropriate resting place. And, in addition, to stir up in the mind of the Christian the importance of bearing in remembrance the glorious facts, objects of his faith; since it is by these alone that he will be enabled to ride safely through the billows of the temptations of life, and at last anchor in the haven of eternal peace.

ESSAY II.

ON THE BEST MEANS OF OBTAINING HAPPINESS CONSIDERED PHRE

NOLOGICALLY.

MAN, in his words and actions, is ever

prone to extremes.

The Horatian adage, "In medio tutissimis ibis," is very slightly impressed on his memory; or, if remembered, it is practically applied only to add to the sneer induced by some ludicrous violation of the rule, something of classic elegance. So it is with the opinions of men regarding HAPPINESS, as connected with our present existence. Some denominate the world as a stage for misery to act her disastrous part; as a desert; a vale of tears; a waste; a howling wilderness. Others

style it as the centre of every enjoyment; the field of pleasure; and the source of every bliss. Both go to the extreme: the truth lies between. The picture of the one class is too much loaded with clouds; that of the other too much illumined by light. The bitters of misery and the sweets of happiness are mingled in the same cup: The proportions, it is true, are not easily stated. Some one has attempted to decide, asserting that happiness is the rule, misery the exception." This seems, in the majority of instances, hardly to be the case. One says, man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward ;" and this, perhaps, is a nearer approach to the truth. However, the determination must be allowed to be difcult: the wisest, and those best acquainted with the varied conditions of human nature, allow that the proportion is pretty nearly equal. Still we cannot conceive that the Creator would inflict upon His creatures any share of misery more than is consistent with his plans of Benevolence. Holding this as true, on observing the great

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