The humble mind that ſeeketh to find favour in His ſight, and calmly examines its conduct when only His preſence is felt, will ſeldom form a very erroneous opinion of its own virtues. During the ſtill hour of ſelf-collection the angry brow of offended juſtice will be fearfully deprecated, or the tie which draws man to the Deity will be recognized in the pure ſentiment of reverential adoration, that ſwells the heart without exciting any tumultuous emotions. In theſe ſolemn moments man diſcovers the germ of thoſe vices, which like the Java tree ſhed a peſtiferous vapour around—death is in the ſhade! and he perceives them without abhorrence, becauſe he feels himſelf drawn by ſome cord of love to all his fellow-creatures, for whoſe follies he is anxious to find every extenuation in their nature—in himſelf. If I, he may thus argue, who exerciſe my own mind, and have been refined by tribulation, find the ſerpent's egg in ſome fold of my heart, and cruſh it with difficulty, ſhall not I pity thoſe who have ſtamped with leſs vigour, or who have heedleſsly nurtured the inſidious reptile till it poiſoned the vital ſtream it ſucked? Can I, conſcious of my ſecret ſins, throw off my fellow-creatures, and calmly ſee them drop into the chaſm of perdition, that yawns to receive them.—No! no! The agonized heart will cry with ſuffocating impatience—I too am a man! and have vices, hid, perhaps, from human eye, that bend me to the duſt before God, and loudly tell me, when all is mute, that we are formed of the ſame earth, and breathe the ſame element. Humanity thus riſes naturally out of humility, and twiſts the cords of
