You are our friend. You are warm-hearted and generous, and have many other good qualities for which we love and praise you. Yet you have a fault, and a growing one, which, if you do not regard, will embitter your future life. You are over-sensitive to the opinions of every person in the little world in which you live and move. You place your happiness entirely too much in other people's keeping. A word of praise unduly lifts you up; and a word of censure casts you down. The slightest dart of criticism leaves a wound which is very slow to heal. It will be very hard for you to forgive an honest friend who thus dares to tell you this plain, unpardonable truth. You deny with warmth the charge—of course. But your very warmth of manner betrays you. It is hard for any man to know himself, and it is doubly hard for you. Glance backward on the past, and mark how often your over-sensitive spirit has been wounded. Only see how quickly and how often you have taken a slight when really no slight was ever intended. Pray, then, for two things: First, for grace of humility. Take care how you rate yourself higher than any one else in the whole world will rate you. If others fail to see your good qualities, so much the worse for them. They are blind, so pity their misfortune. Praise God for all your gifts, and use them wisely and constantly. Then pray that you may do your work in life as in the sight of God. Seek to please and honor him, and put away all selfish motives. Whether men smile or frown, go straight ahead, and you will have an approving conscience and at last a great reward.—Sel.