IT is in imitation of this divine bene

volence, that the apostle exhorts us to be "kind, tender-hearted, forgiving one ano"ther, even as God, for Chrift's fake, hath

forgiven us." And can you doubt but that this is a rule of conduct highly becoming a chriftian's profeffion? It is, indeed, a duty founded on the highest sanctions; on the concurrence of our own reason, and our expectation of forgiveness in heaven. Befides, it is just, as well as charitable, and admirably suited to the state of human nature. Nothing can be more fallacious, than to form a fixed and determinate estimation of any one's character from his actions, conduct, and behaviour, at a particular season of life; because nothing is more certain, than that the heart is continually changing. For conviction on this head, let us commune with our own hearts. Who is there that cannot remember fome habits, of which he would not now be ashamed, and some particular modes of thinking, as well as acting, of which he does not,

at

at present, see the folly and absurdity, if not the finfulness and guilt ?

A LITTLE christian charity would enable us to extend these reflections to others. Nothing has a worse effect on the mind of man, than to suppose it incapable of virtue, and, with a cruel neglect, leave it to its own depravity. If many have been ruined by unlimited indulgence, many also have, doubtless, been loft by untimely rigor and needless severity. How many are there who would now fly with joy back to the bofom of virtue, were not their intercourse with the virtuous utterly cut off! Yes, there are crouds of splendid wretches, for whom humanity might drop a tear, who once might have been regarded as the fairest and most amiable portion of the human species; but who now are loft to honor, and to shame; whose misery must be of the most complicated and poignant nature; whose hearts reproach them, without enabling them to reform, and in whose bosoms the reviving spark of virtue serves only only to increase their anguish, 'till it is quenched for ever.

OTHERS there are, of a different description, who have returned from a course of vice and licentiousness to the happiness of virtue, and the blessed peace of godliness. Painful experience has discovered to many, not only the guilt and mifery, but the vanity and "deceitfulness of fin." When the ardor of youthful paffions has fubfided, reafon and reflection have fucceeded the dominion of appetite, and " reclaimed the finner from the error of "his way." The " day-spring from on "high" might have shone with fuller lustre on the minds of others, and they, who once " lived after the flesh, to fulfil " the lufts thereof," may now " hunger " and thirst after righteousness," and study to do only the will of God. Such too is the powerful influence of good example, of friendly exhortation, and wholesome reproof, that vice has been often forced to hide her head with shame, and "the " hearts "hearts of the disobedient have been " turned to the wisdom of the just."

WHENEVER these blessed effects begin to appear, we should admit the forrowing penitent with joy and gladness within the pale of chriftian love. Our confidence and friendship should no longer be withheld; that the wretch, who sometimes trembles at the rebuke of confcience, may with greater comfort listen to the warning voice of repentance, and perceive that the gate which leads to life, is not yet shut against him, and that virtue and religion are not without diftinction here. would be an act of exalted charity, and must hereafter rank us high in the estimation of our kind and merciful Judge, whose life on earth was spent in the redemption of finful mortals.

This

THE reformation of the wicked, or, at leaft, the discouraging of vice and fin, wherever we find them, is a duty the more indispensible, as it is, in some meafure,

sure, practicable to all. There is no one, however inconfiderable his station may be, but will do fome good, if he uses all his influence in checking the progress of wickedness, and promoting the cause of piety, by active benevolence, and the example of a virtuous and godly life.

WHETHER, therefore, the wicked or unfortunate meet us in our way, let us be always ready to heal, and not to wound. Let us despise the mean and ungenerous artifice of those, who would derive a fort of negative virtue to themselves from the enormities of the world, and enjoy a malignant pleasure in publishing the frailties and tranfgreffions of others; who build their pretensions to divine favor, not so much on their own good works, as on their comparative merit with the most atrocious sinners; and, instead of yielding to the voice of pity, or adverting to their own frailties, imitate the arrogant and presumptuous Pharifee, who thanked God,