their hearts. Still, nature will have her yearnings, and despite of all their love and confidence, a wave of emotion will roll over them, when they think of yielding up their child forever into the hands of another. Turn back that wave, convert those tears into redoubled joy, by so conducting in all future time, as that they shall see they have not lost a daughter, but gained a son.

CONCLUSION.

In concluding this work, I would offer to the young reader a few thoughts respecting what may be called the CHRISTIAN BALANCE OF MIND. This is of very great importance to your permanent and greatest usefulness. So many conflicting schemes and interests as there are in the world, urged forward with such an impulse, every young Christian is liable to have his mind jostled and thrown off its balance; and thus to become eccentric, unsound in his judgment, one-sided. This state of mind is sometimes the less controllable, from the very fact of its being under a religious impulse; since for this reason it becomes a matter of conscience, perhaps a supposed excellence of char

acter.

All good men will agree that the great object of our existence is to glorify God and enjoy him forever; that it is our duty to give up this world and

all idolatrous attachments from our hearts, and to take God for our supreme portion and King; to join ourselves to Christ and his cause, trusting in his grace, and endeavoring to advance his kingdom.

But respecting the best means of promoting religion, respecting the particular things to be done, there have ever been some differences of opinion; and if I mistake not, in the present modes of operation, there is some tendency to increase them.

Let a man fix his eye strongly on some one specific form of evil or sin to be removed, or of supposed good to be done, let him perhaps converse, write or lecture constantly upon it, and it will at length fill his mental vision and absorb his interest. Let a family take a periodical exclusively devoted to some one object, let this constitute the most of their transient reading, and they will finally come into the same state of mind.

Now I am not objecting to having particular persons set apart to particular objects. I believe that to some extent the principle of the division of labor demands it. Much less would I object to the natural operation of that law of mind, which gives to a man a deep and peculiar interest in any particular good object which he has espoused. I love to see it. It argues sincerity. It is one of the essential means of accomplishing the world's renovation. But two cautionary rules are necessary, only two, the observance of which will

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always carry my young reader safely, and preserve his mental balance.

Should you ever become absorbed in any one good object, you have in the first place only to remember this law of mind which I have stated, and to consider that there are many others too, who have their particular objects, which they consider of as much importance as you do yours. It is said that in England some men spend their lives, operating upon no larger an object than the head of a pin. If they have a becoming zeal and fidelity in their calling, that object engages their thoughts and absorbs their secular interest more than all the other affairs of the kingdom. Yet if they have common sense and a very slight knowledge of the world, they know very well that there are other objects besides the head of a pin, and if they are aware of this law of mind to which I have alluded, they know that other men view their respective objects in some measure as they do theirs. that a man may even adopt the head of a pin for his object, and still preserve the integrity and balance of his mind, if he will only remember what the human mind is.

So

In the second place, considering the different positions occupied by different minds, if you cannot in a moment make others see your object just as you do, you must not grow impatient and begin to denounce them. Perhaps at the very moment be

fore you begin to denounce, they are straining their eyes with all their might to see as you do; but no sooner do you exhibit the impatient and denunciatory spirit, than their eyes are instantly closed against you forever, and your mind loses its moral balance and becomes tilted over upon one side. Now this calamity may always be avoided, by your faithfully exercising "the meekness and gentleness of Christ."

These then are the two rules for preserving the Christian balance of mind, and may they be written indelibly upon the soul of every young man in the nation, especially every one who embarks in the glorious enterprise of doing good to mankind.

1. ALWAYS CONSIDER THE KNOWN NATURE AND TENDENCIES OF THE HUMAN MIND.

2. ALWAYS CHERISH THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. Observe these rules, and if your object is good and worthy, no matter how absorbed and zealous you are in it; the more so the better. Your zeal will be "according to knowledge," you will be a discreet and safe man, you will have the confidence of wise and judicious Christians, and they will love and honor you the more, the more you love your object and "magnify your office."

Such is the character of very many of the excellent men, who are acting their parts nobly in the different subordinate, but important departments of Christian enterprise. And why may not such be

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the character of all? It is not in the writer's heart to find fault with any man who is endeavoring to do good, much less to impeach his motives; but if some of those who are "zealously affected alway in a good thing" were more observant of these plain common-sense rules of the gospel, it is perhaps not too strong to say that it would be better for them, and for their objects too.

There is perhaps no time when a man's mind, to use a sailor's phrase, is in greater danger of being capsized," than when he has got hold of some new object. As soon as he has employed his thoughts upon it just long enough to take it fully into his mind, before he has had time to regulate his first impulse or judgment by a recurrence to other objects, and while yet under the peculiar excitement produced by novelty, he is very liable to lose his right balance.

This truth will be found to have a striking exemplification in the case of those who take hold of some new object aside from their customary vocation. Wondering why themselves and all the world have been blind and dead till that moment, they are very apt to say and do extravagant things, and thus to place themselves in a position unfavorable to their future usefulness. A little caution on this point, may not therefore be wholly out of place.