by the acknowledged rules of taste, and it will be found that conversation, thus regulated and disposed, possesses the very secret of elegance, proportion, and animation; that politeness is the graceful drapery, which throws a veil over every unseemly part, and truth the animating principle, which gives to whatever is disclosed all the justness of symmetry, and all the expression and vividness of real life. THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS. I. ON THE HAPPINESS AND TRIALS OF THE CHRISTIAN. THAT true religion is substantial happiness, the Scriptures clearly and unequivocally set forth. It is described as a peace of God, which passeth all understanding, as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life; as joy in the Holy Ghost; as the kingdom of heaven within us. On the other hand, the believer is often represented as one who passes through much tribulation, and whose calling it is, to endure hardness and afflictions, to bear his cross, and to suffer with Christ. How, then, are we to reconcile these apparent contradictions? How can religion be happiness, and still the religious man be exposed to so much misery? In answer to this, I would observe, that the soul, like the body, is subject to two distinct kinds of suffering. If a man lies upon his bed, and feels in pain, this pain may arise from one of two causes; either from what is outward, and |