exhibited. We feel, by our own disgust at its exhibition in others, how much disgust we ourselves should excite did we not invest it with the soft garb of gentle manners and a polished address. When therefore we would not condescend "to take the lowest place, to think others better than ourselves, to be courteous and pitiful," on the true Scripture ground, politeness steps in as the accredited substitute of humility, and the counterfeit brilliant is willingly worn by those who will not be at the expense of the jewel.

There is a certain elegance of mind which will often restrain a well-bred man from sordid pleasures and gross voluptuousness. He will be led by his good taste perhaps not only to abhor the excesses of vice, but to admire the theory of virtue. But it is only the crapule of vice which he will abhor. Exquisite gratifications, sober luxury, incessant but not unineasured enjoyment, form the principle of his plan of life, and if be observe a temperance in his pleasures, it is only because excess would take off the edge, desirey the zest, and abridge the gratification. By resisting gross vice he flatters himself that he is a temperate man and that he has made all the sacrifices which self-denial imposes. Inwardly satisfied he compares himself with those who have sunk into coarser indulgences, enjoys his

own superiority in health, credit and unimpaired faculties, and triumphs in the dignity of his own character.

There is, if the expression may be allowed, a sort of religious self-deceit, an affectation of humility which is in reality full of self, which is entirely occupied with self, which resolves all importance into what concerns self, which only looks at things as they refer to self. This religious vanity operates in two ways. We not only fly out at the imputation of the smallest individual fault, while at the same time we affect to charge ourselves with more corruption than is attributed to us; but on the other hand, while we are lamenting our general want of all goodness, we fight for every particle that is disputed. The one quality that is in question always happens to be the very one to which we must lay claim, however deficient in others. Thus, while renouncing the pretension to every virtue, "we depreciate ourselves into all." We had rather talk even of our faults than not occupy the foreground of the canvas.

Humility does not consist in telling our faults, but in bearing to be told of them, in hearing them patiently and even thankfully; in correcting ourselves when told, in not hating those who tell us of them. If we were little in our own

eyes, and felt our real insignificance, we should avoid false humility as much as mere obvious vanity; but we seldom dwell on our faults except in a general way, and rarely on those of which we are really guilty. We do it in the hope of being contradicted, and thus of being confirmed in the secret good opinion we entertain of ourselves. It is not enough that we inveigh against ourselves, we must in a manner forget ourselves. This oblivion of self from a pure principle would go further towards our advancement in Christian virtue than the most splendid actions performed on the opposite ground.

That self-knowledge which teaches us humility teaches us compassion also. The sick pity the sick. They sympathize with the disorder of which they feel the symptoms in themselves. Self-knowledge also checks injustice by establishing the equitable principle of shewing the kindness we expect to receive; it represses ambition by convincing us how little we are entitled to superiority; it renders adversity profitable by letting us see how much we deserve it ; it makes prosperity safe, by directing our hearts to him who confers it, instead of receiving it as the consequence of our own desert.

E*

We even carry our self-importance to the foot of the throne of God. When prostrate there we are not required, it is true, to forget ourselves, but we are required to remember HIM. We have indeed much sin to lament, but we have also much mercy to adore. We have much to ask, but we have likewise much to acknowledge: Yet our infinite obligations to God do not fill our hearts half as much as a petty uneasiness of our own; nor His infinite perfections as much as our own smallest want.

The great, the only effectual antidote to selflove is to get the love of God and of our neighbour firmly rooted in the heart. Yet let us eyer bear in mind that dependence on our fellow creatures is as carefully to be avoided as love of them is to be cultivated. There is none but God on whom the principles of love and dependence form but one duty.

ON THE CONDUCT OF CHRISTIANS IN THEIR INTERCOURSE WITH THE IRRELIGIOUS.

THE combination of integrity with discretion is the precise point at which a serious Christian must aim in his intercourse, and especially in his debates on religion, with men of the opposite description. He must consider himself as not only having his own reputation but the honour of religion in his keeping. While he must on the one hand" set his face as a flint" against any thing that may be construed into compromise or evasion, into denying or concealing any Christian truth, or shrinking from any commanded duty, in order to conciliate favour; he must, on, the other hand, be scrupulously careful never to maintain a Christian doctrine with an unchristian temper. In endeavoring to convince he must be cautious not needlessly to irritate. He must