elevated into rapture, and at another depressed with melancholy. Even good men of a more equable temperament, not comprehending the causes of their occasional dejection, may probably suspect that religion, which so evidently influences their hearts, af fects also their cheerfulness: while their less serious acquaintance will undoubtedly lament (according to the mummery of worldly lamentation) that such noble spirits should be ruined by methodism. Eugenes is one of those beings I have described, who, from delicacy of organization, feels more quickly than the common race of mortals; and though he has been visited by no grievous afflictions, a variety of circumstances have hitherto made him better acquainted with sorrow than delight. Eugenes was early instructed in the best principles of Christianity, and the merciful visitations of Providence have gradually taught him their real value. He has made no great progress in religion, yet I believe he is sin- . cere, and dreads sin more than suffering; but he has delicate health and very unequal spirits. It cannot be denied that religion is to him occasionally a source of pain as well as pleasure. His heart at times seems to overflow with gladness, but in other moments I have seen him dreadfully agitated. His friends perceive this, and express their fears of his being too religious. But in truth religion has no connexion with his complaint; it is only the field in which his natural temper displays itself. If Eugenes had fixed his affections on any other object, his spirits would have been liable to the same fluc

tuation we should still have witnessed in him the same returns of rapture and regret, of exultation and dejection.

I think it has appeared, that of the three descriptions of persons, who, in the common course of providence, are most likely to be earnestly religious, the first and the last will at the utmost only retain the same degree of melancholy as Christians, which they must have suffered as men; while the gloom imputed to the second class exists only in the ignorance or misconception of the spectators. At the same time it appears, that a certain quantity of real or apparent melancholy among Christians is far from being a just subject of surprize. On the contrary, if we consider the situation or tempers of those who are most likely to be affected with the offers of Gospel grace, the absence of what we so justly lament would be a much stranger pheno

menon.

So much for the causes which account for dejec tion of spirits among the religious, independent of religion. These it will be observed apply to persons of all ages. They act, however, most powerfully in the young; for Christianity has such influence in softening every sorrow, that these "natural tears" are gradually wiped away, and sometimes even the furrows they had worn in our cheeks almost wholly disappear.

Let us now inquire, what there is peculiar to the situation of Christians, which may account for some

further proportion of those distressing anxieties, which yet remain unaccounted for.

It seems allowed that religious melancholy is principally found in young persons, and I have before stated my apprehension, that it prevails particularly among young men. My reasons for that opinion are these. Women possess by nature a larger share of animal vivacity than men. The same kind Providence which plants antidotes by the side of poisons, while it subjects the softer sex to so many sorrows arising from physical and moral causes, has furnished them with a proportionate buoyancy of spirits to sustain the weight of their afflictions. This prevents in a great degree their falling within two of the three descriptions of persons above noticed, and qualifies indeed the dejection to which they would be subject from any of the numberless sources of human woe; for constitution has a mighty influence either in aiding or repelling melancholy, even when the immediate cause is wholly external. Besides which, women are in general much more innocent than men; and of the distress which can in any sense be imputed to religion, I have no doubt a very large portion is occasioned by the remembrance of past or the dread of future crimes. This conviction induced me to state, that gloom is particularly visible in that class of young religionists whom I termed converts. I call those converts, by way of distinction, who, after a certain course of vicious indulgences, or habitual indiffer

ence to the concerns of religion, learn to feel the perils to which they stand exposed, and the incalculable importance of those things they have neglected. It is natural, it is proper, that such men should be anxious, thoughtful, and at times even deeply afflicted; and in pointing out the very obvious causes of distress to Christians so situated, I believe I am accounting for a considerable part of the evil we lament, after deducting what arises from causes not at all peculiar to religious persons.

Some there are, who by the special grace of God, having been born of excellent parents, and trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," far from the haunts of corruption, have encountered few temptations, and therefore have comparatively few open and flagrant sins to repent of. To such as, being thus favoured, have improved their inestimable advantages; religion is indeed a cloudless sun," the source of light, and life, and joy, and genial warmth, and plastic energy." But public education is now fashionable; and it seems to be accepted as a clear truth, that no intellectual eminence can be expected without it. Whether this be so, let abler judges determine; it is enough for me to observe, that few parents possess courage enough to question the certainty of this axiom, or, (which would be much more noble) while they allow its authority, to prefer sanctity of morals before any literary endowments. Public schools, however, are the very seats and nurseries of vice. It may be unavoidable or it may not: "Non est leve tot puero

rum observare manus;" but the fact is indisputable. None can pass through a large seminary without being pretty intimately acquainted with vice; and few, alas! very few, without tasting too largely of that poisoned bowl. The hour of grace and repentance at length arrives, and they are astonished at their former fatuity. The young convert looks back with inexpressible regret to those hours which have been wasted in folly, or worse than folly; and the more lively his sense of the newly discovered mercies, the more piercing his anguish for past indulgencies. Is it not natural, is it not fitting, that a Christian so situated should for some time be at least serious? Is it nothing to have provoked the God of all power, and purity, and mercy! Nothing to have crucified our Redeemer afresh? Nothing to have grieved the Spirit of consolation? We may forget, but the Creator and Lord of the universe will not forget. We may suffer our former crimes to fade away in the vista of succeeding years; but to God there is neither past nor future. HE IS. Before the throne of his justice our sins are for ever present; and from that throne must the thunders of vengeance for ever be poured forth, if their rage had not been exhausted in the sufferings of the redeeming Emmanuel. Let us not think it strange then, if they who were once the "servants of sin" are seen at times mourning over their errors. Such sorrow, it must be allowed, is, to say no more, at least a seemly attendant of regeneration. Her tears shall soften the smiles of reviving joy; and the in