to practise it aright. The warm affections of young Christians are apt to carry them too far in some things, although with the best design. It is no less the will of the Great God and Saviour, that we be wise as serpents, as well as harmless as doves. Want of proper caution may hurt the religion of Jesus as much as insincerity and craft. Christ's disciples are sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. This calls for the greatest care and circumspection. Dependance on the Lord is to be exercised, that one may not hurt his interest, and prejudice those against the ways of their God who are otherwise minded. Christ appoints that pearls be not laid before swine.' The pearls of the things of God are not to be laid before persons in conversation, who are known to have the spirit of scorners of these great and glorious things, and to be disposed to make a bad use of what is ever so well intended, however well it may be expressed. The pearls of reproof and rebuke are not to be cast before swine, those who are daring in sin, and obstinate in evil ways, lest they trample them under their feet, contemn them, turn again and rend the reprovers, and hurt them in character, or at least wound their spirits, in place of profiting by the reproof. To administer a suitable rebuke to reach the end desired, requires much spiritual wisdom, prudence, and Christian temper. Without these, it is like to do more hurt than good. There are evil times of general corruption and danger, when, though persons in public office must speak, private believers who are prudent, as exercises of spiritual prudence, ought to keep silence, because it is an evil time, and persons are become incorrigible. Amos v. 13. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.' Holy silence in some instances does more service to religion

1

than any thing said, how suitable, how seasonable soever it may appear to be. Lamentations iii. 28, 29. 'He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.' Christianity is true wisdom. Job xxviii. 28. And to man he said, The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.' The religion of Jesus both requires us to attain prudence and to practise it. It teaches that there is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak, Ecclesiastes iii. 7. It directs when to speak in confessing Christ before men, and when one should keep silence in obedience to him. Rashness and imprudence are not only natural weaknesses, but moral evils. Ecclesiastes v. 3. A fool's voice is known by the multitude of words.' Christ kept silence when falsely accused, so that his unjust judge marvelled. Matt. xxvii. 13, 14. Hearest thou how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him never a word.' We must have a warrant from the Lord's word, a clear call in Providence in connexion with the Bible, and in subordination to it, for what we do, else it is not done in faith. If not in faith, so far are we from having reason to expect any good from it, that it is indeed sin. Romans xiv. 23. For whatsoever is not of faith is of sin. I am, dear Madam, yours," &c. "January 1771."

Mr Walker to Lady Glenorchy.

66

January 2, 1771. "The manner in which your Ladyship was affected on Friday last, has left a very deep impression on my mind. Your spirit is by far too strong for your body; and yet such is the human constitution, that the spirit

cannot hurt the body without impairing its own vigour, while it disables the instrument in, and by which it must necessarily act. I can easily perceive that you have more sensibility than you are aware of. You had laid your account with the persecution of the world; and it is my real opinion that you are invulnerable on that side; one that can despise its smiles, must certainly be superior to its frowns. But your heart has already told you, that it is not equally fortified against sufferings from another quarter. When the purest intentions, when the most generous and disinterested schemes of usefulness, (for in this light all your aims and operations have invariably appeared to me), when these do not meet with the approbation and support of those who acknowledge the same Lord, and are engaged in the same cause, especially when you apprehend that such begin to look upon you with a jealous eye, and are become cooler in their love, and more reserved in their confidence,-then, your Ladyship will confess that your heart receives a wound which pains it very sensibly. This is a trial which perhaps you did not reckon upon, and might have wished to escape; and yet I have no doubt, that even this is one of the many well chosen ingredients, which your wise and tender-hearted Physician hath selected, and ordained to work together for your good.

"It hath pleased God to form you by his Providence and grace, for important services in his spiritual kingdom. But he hath not left you to choose either your station or your work: In both these particulars your resignation to his will must be entire and unreserved. When I had the honour and happiness to be first acquainted with your Ladyship, you seemed to move in a sphere, in which I thought you could not fail to be eminently and extensively useful. I then

beheld, what I had long wished to see, one who might have been seated as queen in Vanity Fair, and even courted to ascend the throne, nobly preferring the pilgrim's staff to the sceptre, and resolutely setting out on the wilderness-road to the celestial city. In this amiable light I still view you with pleasure, though I cannot help suspecting, that an over-anxiety to shun the dangerous pits on the left hand of the narrow way, hath rendered you less attentive than was necessary to some openings on the right hand, which ought likewise to have been avoided. My plain meaning is, that Lady Glenorchy, through an excess of self-denial, hath for many months past been employing that activity in the open fields, which, before this time, might have enlightened, warmed, and adorned some of the principal apartments in the house.

"I am far from thinking that your labours of piety and love have been fruitless; but I seriously believe that their fruit would have been more abundant within your proper sphere.

"The most ornamental parts of your character as a Christian, and those which are the most demonstrative of the power of godliness, can make no impression at all upon the lower ranks of people. Your condescension may gratify them, your liberality will certainly profit them, and your advices, thus accompanied, may penetrate deep into their hearts. But how can such persons estimate your renunciation of those alluring pleasures, with which they are altogether unacquainted? You work at present with less than half the strength with which God hath armed you. The only weapons you can employ, are your station and fortune, and these, at the age of threescore years and ten, will serve you just as well as in the bloom and vigour of youth, There are other weapons in your possession, altogether

peculiar to your season of life-weapons of a finer polish and keener age, which, if properly applied, will do more execution in a very short time, among persons of rank and education, than all the ponderous artillery of title and opulence will be able to perform, for many long years, among those inferior classes to which your attention is at present almost wholly confined. In short, my Lady, were I an ememy to the cause for which you contend, I should certainly wish to encounter you at the very spot you have chosen, and would give you no more opposition than might suffice to amuse and detain you where you are, and prevent your removing to more advantageous ground. You not only want auxiliaries who cordially love you, and would reckon themselves happy in contributing their aid, (though they are unwilling to accompany you in the levelling scheme), but you even want room in that narrow field, for bringing into action some of the best of those forces that are properly your own. I know with what regret you look back upon the time you spent in Egypt. At present, it appears to you an awful blank-a mere vacancy in life, or something worse; and I readily admit, that had you been suffered to live and die there, both your time and your soul would have been lost irrecoverably. But now that you have got to the Canaan side of the Red Sea, I would have you to know, that the time you reckon lost may not only be redeemed, but even serve to enrich the many years of real and useful living, which I trust are in reserve for you.

Why did the Lord give you favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto you such things as you required? (Exod. xii. 36.) Was it that you should throw them aside into some dark corner, and hide them as if they were stolen goods you are ashamed