and contrite spirit; the religion that is daily fed by the sincere milk of the word; that is sustained by prayer and meditation; that sinks in the dust and ashes, and rises to set its affections on things that are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God: --and such was the religion of Clementine Cuvier.

But look now at the EFFECTS and CONSEQUENCES of religion as they appeared in Clementine. Trace them in her usefulness. See her like her divine Saviour, ever going about to do good, greeted wherever she went by the smiles of gratitude with which her compassion lighted up the countenance of sadness, and the tears of joy which her beneficence drew from the eye that was darkened with despair. Where in all the theatres, the ball rooms, and soirées of Paris, could there have been found among the daughters of fashion one to whom the wretched owed so much as to her? A love

of pleasure withers the affections of the heart from the needy, like the east-wind the leaves of the flower; it is religion that like a summer's sun causes them to expand and shed their reviving fragrance. To do good is God-like, both in communicating blessedness and experiencing it too; and there is no good so wide in its comprehension of benefits, nor so lasting in its duration, as that which we do for the spiritual interests of our fellow-creatures. Humanity smooths the passage of man to the sepulchre, but the religious benevolence which aims to convert a sinner from the error of his ways, and save a soul from death, seeks to confer the boon of a glorious resurrection to eternal life. Think not that I am advising you to withhold your efforts from attempting to relieve the temporal necessities of your fellow-creatures. The Saviour of the world, while achieving the sublimer object of saving the soul,

thought it not beneath his mercy, or unworthy of his dignity, to bestow ease and comfort upon the body. He fed the hungry, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind; in short, he had an ear to listen to every tale of wo, and a hand to dispense every kind of benefit. Imitate his example. Where is woman seen to best advantage, invested with her greatest charms, and shining in her purest radiance? Not in the gay circles of fashion, dazzling by the elegance of her dress, the beauty of her person, and the vivacity of her conversa'tion; the object of envy to one sex, and of flattery and admiration to the other. no! but in the chamber of sickness, a ministering angel to the sufferer, stripping poverty of its terrors, and assuaging the violence of pain, by efforts of kindness which none can perform as she can; in the hovel of want, carrying a supply, or that which

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shall procure it, for the poor destitute creature, who is

"

"Faint and desponding of to-morrow's bread: in the alms-house, binding up the heart of her that had seen better days, and whose spirits, broken at the recollection, revive for one short hour, under the sunshine of her affability and kindness. These are the brightest scenes of female honour and happiness too. On these visits of mercy she is watched, not only by the smiles of approving angels, but also of an approving God; while the testimony of a good conscience, attests the deeds of her benefi

cence.

But there is, I repeat, a holier kind of mercy, a more comprehensive and enduring kind of charity still, which she can perform; I mean mercy to the soul, which is the soul of mercy. The soul, the soul!

What a word is that! the immaterial sub

stance, the rational mind, the immortal principle! What is a man profited if he

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shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul: or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"-Matthew, xvi. 26. This is the language of him that best knows the value of the world, for he made it, and of the soul, for he redeemed it; and who could not therefore appreciate the soul at too high, or the world at too low a price. The salvation of immortal souls is the chief object of the infinite benevolence of God, the centre of his schemes, and the consummation of his works; it is that for which the Son of God became incarnate and died upon the cross; for which the Holy Spirit is poured out from on high; for which the Bible was penned by inspiration; and the whole apparatus of religious ordinances was constructed; which moves the admiration of heaven, and excites the envy and rage of hell. In this great work