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tain, that there is positive merit n attending re- lliglous meetings, apart from inc instructions which they afford They may imagine that this scrupulous and lncessant attendance will atone for other negi genccs and fill up some ugly blanks in thelr moral department: and that, therefore, it is prudent thing for them to com pound for duties with ceremonies, and divert the security of consience and of Heaven from the substance of the shadow to piety.

 Some people are always going to church, lec- ture and conference, because they have nothing else 10 do-tiiat is to say, because there is no- thing else that they will do; for if we were dis posed todo all our duty, we shall never lack 1 employment.

 am sure that very many of those who ass- 1 duously wait on the various assemblies and iex- ereises in connexion with religion, doso from the 1 persuasion that they are engaged in a high and actual duty and are performing what IS well pleasing in the sight of God. However muchI respect the feelings Of such peIsons-and do most sincerely respect then--l cannot but la ment their erroneous views: 1 cannot give up my conviction that thcirconduct proceeds from mistaken impressions.

 mean not to disparage the institutions of public and social religion. l delight 10 see village pointed out by its church spire. de- light to hear the voice fpraise filling the house of God. l delight to behold those who egoY. the blessings of Christianity, endeayoring to diff fuse them by every suituble meansn every pos sibleplace. But l hate to see man leaving his business ortrade to be instructed in the doc triae of total depravity, orto talk solemn fustian' with himself; and hate to see a woman take all her religion to church or eonyentele, and let her own house burn up if it will, with every thing in it, while she is dissolving in tears at some shocking story about the Hindoo widows who burn themselves. Oh! why will We not make religion the unreserved and smiling com panon of our hearts and our homes, and our du- ties, instead of forcing her to be the object of formal, and mysterious, and liieless ceremony.

 Christian Jnoattor.