who was frequently with him, to preach for him in the afternoon. His complaint terminated in a total suppression of urine. He continued in exquisite pain, till about the middle of the week; from that time he seemed to be quite at ease: but as he never spoke after, the cause of the transition from so much pain to sudden ease remained unknown. He breathed He breathed strong and full through his nose, for the last three days of his life, without once opening his lips. But his countenance discovered an animated serenity, which was much noticed by those who saw him. He breathed his last, without the smallest convulsive motions, on the evening of the following Lord's day, in the latter end of September, 1769, in the 78th year of his age.

The controversy, which, it seems, subsided when his Sober Inquiry appeared, was occasioned by the publication of a book, entitled, The Marrow of Modern Divinity. I have not seen his Sober Inquiry; but I have in my possession his answers to Mr. Sandiman, who had animadverted upon Mr. Harvey's Theron and Aspasio, in two volumes, 12mo. under the signature of Palemon.

My paper contradicts a report, that the late Rev. Mr. Walker, of Edinburgh, had made many alterations in the third volume of Mr. Riccaltoun's Works, (containing Notes and Observations on the Epistle to the Galatians,) and declares that Mr. Walker neither made nor proposed any alterations; but only corrected the proof sheets.

Jan. 31, 1795.

I am, Sir, yours,

OMICRON.

ON FEMALE DRESS.

OMEN who profess godliness, and who have the care of young persons of their own sex, are perhaps in no point more blameable, than in the example which some of them set, and the liberty which perhaps a greater number allow, of undue conformity to the world, in the article of dress. Few ministers touch upon this subject in their public discourses; and indeed it is not very easy to treat it with propriety from the pulpit. Yet whatever is unsuitable to the Christian profession, an inlet to temptation and productive of evil consequences, should in some way or other be noticed, by those who have the honour of the Gospel, and the welfare of their fellow-creatures, at heart. I make no further apology for offering a few hints, which I hope will not give offence, and which I pray, so far as they are agreeable to the Holy Scripture, and confirmed by experience and observation, may be attended to.

I doubt not but many parents who desire to see their children brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, give them many excellent lessons in the nursery. They endeavour to impress their tender minds with a sense of their sinful state by nature, of the evil of pride, and of the vanity of the world.But when their children begin to appear in public view, for want of due reflection, or resolution, or both, they either encourage, or at least permit them, to form habits, which have a direct tendency to counteract all the benefits which might otherwise be hoped for from the instruction of their early years.

I am certainly no connoisseur in the article of dress; but I know how I am affected by what I see: and I can hear what other people say. The simplex munditiis of Horace, which may be translated, an unaffected neatness, according to different situations in life, seems a tolerable definition of a becoming dress.

But Christian women should aim to comply with the apostle's advice, to adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety. When he adds, "Not with gold, or pearls, or costly array," I do not think it necessary to take this restriction so rigidly, as to affirm, that such ornaments are, universally and without exception, unlawful. I think this is one of the many expressions in Scripture, which are to be understood in a comparative sense. Thus when our Lord declares, "That unless a man hate parents, "wife, children, and his own life, he cannot be my

disciple;" we are sure he does not contradict, what by his authority is expressly enjoined in many other passages, that we should pay a due regard to our relations, and take a proper care of ourselves. He only teaches us, that whenever our dearest temporal concernments stand in competition with what we owe to Him, they must be given up and renounced.

The providence of God has made an evident distinction of rank and subordination in civil life. There is a long gradation from the highest state of those whom we call the rich, to the lowest state of the honest and industrious poor. It is to be hoped, that some of his own dear people may be found in all these different conditions. And I see no inpropriety in paying some regard to them in dress. At present, however, through the dissipation and extravagance of the times, the proper distinction is almost wholly lost, and it is often

not easy to distinguish, (except perhaps in the article of Jewels,) between a countess and a milliner.

If clothes are considered merely as a covering for the body, and a defence from the cold, it will be difficult to draw the line, and to determine exactly between what is necessary and what is superfluous. I think some women may as lawfully wear satins and pearls, as others may wear stuffs and glass beads; and it is more for the honour of the Gospel, that a woman professing godliness should be distinguished from others, by modesty, sobriety, and good works, than by the shape of her cap, or the colour of her garment.

Yet even to ladies of the greatest affluence, who love and fear the Lord, I will venture to suggest a word of caution. To you I say nothing of the expense; you can, as the phrase is, very well afford it. And if in other respects you are generous and bountiful, ready to distribute, and willing to communicate, the cost of what you choose to wear is of no great consideration. But a nice attention to dress will cost you much of what is more valuable than money-your precious time. It will too much occupy your thoughts, and that at the seasons when you would wish to have them otherwise engaged. And it certainly administers fuel to that latent fire of pride and vanity, which is inseparable from our fallen nature, and is easily blown up into a blaze. I hope you will not be among the first of those who are eager to catch at, and give sanction to every new mode; nor is it necessary, if the mode be decent and general, that you should be the very last to adopt it. But something there should be in your exterior, to indicate, that though yo do not affect a needless and scornful singularity, (which is often the source of censoriousness and envy,) yet your heart is VOL. VI. 3 N

not set upon these little things. If a woman, when going to public worship, looks in the glass, and contemplates, with a secret self-complacence, the figure which it reflects to her view, I am afraid she is not in the frame of spirit most suitable for one, who is about to cry for mercy as a miserable sinner.

There are likewise women, who, we would hope, are pious, and therefore, of course, benevolent. But an attachment to dress, and a desire to approach, as near as they can, to the standard of those who are their superiors in fortune, blunt their compassionate feelings, and deprive them of the usefulness, comfort, and honour they might otherwise attain. The expense of their dress is so great, compared with the smallness of their income, that when they have decorated themselves to their mind, they have little or nothing to spare for the relief of the poor. I doubt not, but they take it for granted, that, upon the supposition that our Lord and Saviour was again upon earth in a state of poverty and humiliation, as when he walked in the streets of Jerusalem, and they knew that he wanted a garment, when they were about to spend their spare money in some useless piece of finery, they would gladly forego their purpose for the honour of assisting him. But the heart is deceitful. If we live in the neglect of present duty, we have no right to suppose we should act better in different circumstances. He has said, "Inasmuch as ye did it to the least of these my brethren, yet did it unto me." And if we are inattentive to the wants of those, whom he appoints to be his representatives, we cannot be sure that we should be properly attentive to himself, if he was with us in per-. son, and in a low obscure condition.

But I am not so much hurt by observing the ma