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man survey the female character as it now stands often nervous, debilitated, and imaginative, and this superinduced chiefly by education and manners-and he will find it impossible that any great vigour of mind can be preserved or any high intellectual pursuits cultivated, so far as this character stands in his way.

"DOING AS OTHERS DO," is the prevalent principle of the present female character, to whatever absurd, preposterous, masculine, or even wicked lengths it may lead. This is, so far as it avails with man or woman, the ruin, death, and grave of all that is noble, and virtuous, and praise-worthy.

A studious man, whose time is chiefly spent at home, and especially a Minister, ought not to have to meet the IMAGINARY wants of his wife. The disorders of an imaginative mind are beyond calculation. He is not worthy the name of a husband, who will not, with delight, nurse his wife, with all possible tenderness and love, through a real visitation however long; but he is ruined, if he falls upon a woman of a sickly fancy. It is scarcely to be calculated what an influence the spirit of his wife will have on his own, and on all his ministerial affairs. If she comes not up to the full standard, she will so far impede him, derange him, unsanctify him.

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If there is such a thing as GOOD in this world, it is in the ministerial office. The affairs of this employment are the greatest in the world. In

prosecuting these with a right spirit, the Minister keeps in motion a vast machine; and, such are the incalculable consequences of his wife's character to him, that, if she assist him not in urging forward the machine, she will hang as a dead weight upon its wheels.

A woman may have a high taste: her natural temper may be peevish and fretful: she may have a delicate and fastidious mind: she may long for every thing she sees. It is not enough that she is, in reality, a pious woman. Her taste, her mind, her manners, must have a decorum and congruity to her husband's office and situation. She must bear to be crossed in her wishes for unsuitable objects: he will say, with firmness, "This shall not be. It is not enough, that it would gratify you: it is wrong. It is not enough, that it is not flagrantly sinful: it is improper, unsuitable to our character and station*. It is not enough that money will buy it, and I have got money: it would be a culpable use of our talent. It is not enough that your friend possesses such a thing: we stand and fall to our own Master."

* Nec, tibi quid liceat, sed quid fecisse decebit,

Occurrat.-

Claudian.

J. P.

ON

VISITING DEATH-BEDS.

I HAVE found it, in many cases, a difficult thing to deal with a DEATH-BED. We are called in to Death-Beds of various kinds :

The True Pilgrim sends for us to set before him the food on which he has fed throughout his journey. He has a keen appetite. He wants strength and vigour for the last effort; and, then, all is for-ever well! He is gone home, and is at rest!

Another man sends for us, because it is decent; or his friends importune him; or his conscience is alarmed: but he is ignorant of Sin and of Salvation: he is either indifferent about both, or he has made up his mind in his own way: he wants the Minister to confirm him in his own views, and smooth over the wound. I have seen such men mad with rage, while I have been beating down their refuges of lies, and setting forth to them God's refuge. There is a wise and holy medium to be observed in treating such cases:--" I am not come to daub you over with untempered mortar:

I am not come to send you to the bar of God with a lie in your right-hand. But neither am I come to mortify you, to put you to unnecessary pain, to embitter you, or to exasperate you." There is a kindness, affection, tenderness, meekness, and patience, which a man's feelings and conscience will condemn him while he opposes! I have found it a very effectual method to begin with myself: it awakens attention, conciliates the mind, and insinuates conviction:-" Whatever others think of themselves, I stand condemned before God: my heart is so desperately wicked, that, if God had not shewed me in his Word a remedy in Jesus Christ, I should be in despair: I can only tell you what I am, and what I have found. If you believe yourselves to be what God has told me I am and all men are, then I can tell you where and how to find Mercy and Eternal Life: if you will not believe that you are this sort of man, I have nothing to offer you. I know of nothing else for man, beside that which God has shewed me." My descriptions of my own fallen nature have excited perfect astonishment: sometimes my patients have seemed scarcely able to credit me; but I have found that God has fastened, by this means, conviction on the conscience. In some cases, an indirect method of addressing the conscience may apparently be, in truth, the most direct; but we are to use this method wisely and sparingly. It seems to me to be one of the characteristics of the

day, in the religious world, to err on this subject. We have found out a CIRCUITOUS way of exhibiting Truth. The plain, direct, simple exhibition of it is often abandoned, even where no circumstances justify and require a more insinuating manner. There is Dexterity indeed, and Address in this; but too little of the simple Declaration of the testimony of God, which St. Paul opposes to excellency of speech or of wisdom, and to enticing words of man's wisdom. We have done very little when we have merely persuaded men to think as we do.

But we have to deal with a worse Death-Bed character, than with the man who opposes the Truth. Some men assent to every thing, which we propose. They will even anticipate us. And yet we see that they mean nothing. I have often felt when with such persons: "I would they could be brought to contradict and oppose! That would lead to discussion. God might, peradventure, dash the stony heart in pieces. But this heart is like water. The impression dies as fast as it is made." I have sought for such views as might rouze and stir up opposition. I have tried to irritate the torpid mind. But all in vain. I once visited a young Clergyman of this character, who was seized with a dangerous illness at a Coffee-house in town, whither some business had brought him: the first time I saw him, we conversed very closely together; and, in the prospect VOL. III.

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