To those Commencing a Religious Life.
1. Do not expect so sudden and remarkable a change as to leave no doubt of its reality. Usually, there is in the Christian heart, a perpetual struggle between good and evil, and thus a continual competition of evidence for and against, according as the good or evil prevails. 2. Evidence of piety is not so much to be sought in high emotions of any kind, as in real humility, self-distrust, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, sorrow for sin, and a continual effort in every-day life, to regulate our thoughts, feelings and conduct, by the Word of God. It is the nature, and not the degree of our affections, which is to be regarded in the examination of our evidences. 3. Do not expect to find in your own case, every thing you have heard or read of in the experience of others. 4. Do not suppose that religion is a principle of such self-preserving energy, that when once implanted in the soul, it will thrive and continue to increase without effort. God will not sustain and bring to maturity the work of grace, without your own voluntary concurrence in the diligent use of means, more than he will cause the harvest to whiten in the field of the sluggard. 5. Do not expect to be made happy by religion unless you become eminent Christians. The Christian may be the happiest man on earth, but he must be a faithful, active, and devoted Christian. 6. Do not make the practice and example of other Christians the standard of piety at which you aim. But look into your Bible and see how Christians ought to live. See how the Bible says those who are Christians must live, and then if you find your Christian friends living in a different way, instead of having cause for feeling that you must do so too, you have only cause to fear that they are deceiving themselves with the belief that they are Christians, when they are not. 7. Remember that your evidence of possessing ceases when any thing else has the first place in your thoughts and interest. Religion should not lessen our love for our friends, or our enjoyment of rational pleasures; but the desire to please God in all our ways, should be the prevailing feeling of the mind. 8. Never for one day omit to read the Bible, with prayer. This is a most important direction. It is of the utmost importance that you should never for once, break through this habit. Prayer and the Bible, are your anchor and your shield; they will hold you firmly in the path of duty, and protect you from temptation. 9. Attempt by your efforts and example, to raise the standard of piety and activity. 10. Be active in promoting all benevolent objects. Make it an object to prepare to lead with propriety, when necessary, in all social duties. At this period, let every Christian learn to guide the devotions of others, as well as to lift up his own private supplications. 11. Remember that the principal duty of a Christian as it respects others, is to excite them to the immediate performance of their religious duty. There is no Christian but can find some one mind at least, over which he can have some influence, and if we can do any thing to save others from eternal death, nothing should for a moment prevent our attempting it. 12. Lastly do not be discouraged because you find that you are very deficient in every one of the particulars specified. Remember that the Christian life is a warfare, and that it is only at the end, that we are to come off conquerors. When you feel your own strength and resolution failing, go to Him who hath said, "My grace is sufficient for thee, and My strength shall be made perfect in weakness." Call upon Him, "and He will be very gracious unto the voice of thy cry; when He shall hear it he will answer thee." Remember also, the conflict is short; the race will speedily be accomplished.—Christian Secretary.