University of Virginia Library

Saturday, P. M.
RELIGION.

“Having given you my sentiments on
a variety of subjects which demand your particular
attention, I come now to the closing and
most important theme; and that is Religion.
The virtuous education which you have received,
and the good principles which have been instilled
into your minds from infancy, will render the
enforcement of Christian precepts and duties a
pleasing lesson.

“Religion is to be considered as an essential
and durable object; not as the embellishment of
a day; but an acquisition which shall endure and
increase through the endless ages of eternity.

“Lay the foundation of it in youth, and it
will not forsake you in advanced age; but furnish
you with an adequate substitute for the transient
pleasures which will then desert you; and
prove a source of rational and resined delight; a
refuge from the disappointments and corroding
cares of life, and from the depressions of adverse
events. “Remember now your Creator, in the
days of your youth, while the evil days come not,

nor the years draw nigh, when you shall say, we
have no pleasure in them.” If you wish for
permanent happiness, cultivate the divine favour
as your highest enjoyment in life, and your safest
retreat when death shall approach you.

“That even the young are not exempt from
the arrest of this universal conqueror, the tombstone
of Amelia will tell you. Youth, beauty,
health and fortune, strewed the path of life with
flowers, and left her no wish ungratified. Love,
with its gentlest and purest flame, animated her
heart, and was equally returned by Julius.
Their passion was approved by their parents and
friends; the day was fixed, and preparations
were making for the celebration of their nuptials.
At this period, Amelia was attacked by a
violent cold, which, seating on her lungs, baffled
the skill of the most eminent physicians, and terminated
in a confirmed hectic. She perceived
her disorder to be incurable, and with inexpressible
regret and concern anticipated her approaching
dissolution. She had enjoyed life too highly
to think much of death; yet die she must!
“Oh,” said she, “that I had prepared, while in
health and at ease, for this awful event! Then
should I not be subjected to the keenest distress of
mind, in addition to the most painful infirmities
of body! Then should I be able to look forward
with hope, and to find relief in the consoling expectation
of being united, beyond the grave,

with those dear and beloved connexions, which
I must soon leave behind! Let my companions
and acquaintance learn from me the important
lesson of improving their time to the best of
purposes; of acting at once as becomes mortal
and immortal creatures!”

“Hear, my dear pupils, the soleman admonition,
and be ye also ready!

“Too many, especially of the young and gay,
seem more anxious to live in pleasure, than to
answer the end of their being by the cultivation
of that piety and virtue which will render them
good members of society, useful to their friends
and associates, and partakers of that heart-felt
satisfaction which results from a conscience void
of offence both towards God and man.

“This, however, is an egregious mistake; for
in many situations, piety and virtue are our only
source of consolation; and in all, they are peculiarly
friendly to our happiness.

“Do you exult in beauty, and the pride of
external charms? Turn your eyes, for a moment,
on the miserable Flirtilla.[1] Like her, your features
and complexion may be impaired by disease:
and where then will you find a refuge
from mortification and discontent, if destitute of
those ennobling endowments which can raise you
superior to the transient graces of a fair form;
if unadorned by that substantial beauty of mind

which can not only ensure respect from those
around you, but inspire you with resignation to
the divine will, and a patient acquiescence in the
most painful allotments of a holy Providence?
Does wealth await your command, and grandeur
with its fascinating appendages beguile your
fleeting moments? Recollect, that riches often
make themselves wings and fly away. A single
instance of mismanagement; a consuming fire,
with various other misfortunes which no human
prudence can foresee or prevent, may strip you
of this dependence; and, unless you have other
grounds of comfort than earth can boast, reduce
you to the most insupportable wretchedness and
despair. Are you surrounded by friends, and
happy in the society of those who are near and
dear to you? Soon may they be wrested from
your fond embrace, and consigned to the mansions
of the dead!

“Whence, then, will you derive support, if
unacquainted with that divine Friend, who will
never fail nor forsake you; who is the same
yesterday, to-day, and forever?

“Health and youth, my dear girls, are the
seasons for improvement. Now you may lay up
a treasure which neither sickness nor adversity
can impair.

“But the hour of distress is not the only time,
in which religion will be advantageous to you.
Even in prosperity, it will prove the best solace,

and the highest ornament of your lives. What
can be more dignified, respectable, and lovely,
than the Christian character? The habitual
practice of those duties which the gospel inculcates
will give lustre to your beauty and durability
to your charms. By correcting your passions,
it will improve your joys, endear you to
your friends and connexions, and render you
contented, happy, and useful in every stage and
condition of life.

Religion will not deprive you of temporal enjoyments;
it will heighten and increase them.
It will not depress, but exhilarate your spirits.
For it consists not in a gloomy, misanthropic
temper, declining the social and innocent delights
of life; but prepares the mind to partake
with satisfaction of every pleasure which reason
approves, and which can yield serenity and peace
in the review. Be not ashamed then of appearing
religious, and of rising by that mean
above the vain, unthinking crowd.

“Let not the idle jests of heedless and unprincipled
companions deter you from a stedfast
adherence to the path of truth and righteousness.
“Follow not the multitude to do evil.” Never
conform to fashion, even though it claim the
patronage of politeness, so far as to countenance
irreligion in any of its modifications.

“Jesting upon sacred subjects, ridiculing the
professors of Christianity, light and irreverent

conduct upon solemn occasions, ought to be cautiously
avoided and decidedly condemned. Too
many girls are so extremely thoughtless as to
carry the levity of their manners even to the
sanctuary; and by whispering, winking, tittering,
and other indecent actions, display their folly
to their own disgrace, and to the great disgust
of all judicious and sober people. Such
behaviour is not only offensive to the Deity, but
insulting to all who would worship him free from
interruption. It is not only an indignity offered to
religion, but a flagrant breach of the rules of good
breeding. Content not yourselves, therefore,
with a bare attendance on the institutions of religion;
but conduct with propriety, decorum,
and seriousness, while engaged in the solemn service.
Bear in mind, that you assemble with a
professed purpose of paying homage to the Supreme;
and consider yourselves as in his immediate
presence!

“The offices of devotion demand your attention
in private, as well as in public.

“Accustom yourselves, therefore, to stated
periods of retirement for meditation and prayer;
and adopt every other mean which is calculated
to keep alive in your minds a due sense of
your dependence and obligations, and to inspire
you with that uniform love to God and
benevolence to the human kind, which will prove
your greatest glory here, as well as your crown
of rejoicing hereafter.”

THE hour of departure having arrived, on
Monday morning, Mrs. Williams assembled with
her pupils; when the regret, visibly depicted on
every countenance, was variously expressed. The
tear of grateful regard stole silently down the
bloomy cheeks of some: others betrayed their
sensibility by audible sobs, which they could not
repress and all united in testifying the sense
they entertained of the advantages they had received
from Mrs. Williams's tuition, the happiness
they had enjoyed in each other's society, and
their determination to remember her counsels,
cultivate continued friendship among themselves,
and endeavour to be worthy of her's.

Mrs. Williams then took an affectionate leave
of each one, and left them with her daughters.
The most cordial good wishes were mutually interchanged,
till their carriages received and separated
them.

The friendship and unity thus commenced and
confirmed, were never obliterated. They always
cherished the most sincere affection for their Preceptress,
and each other; which they displayed in
an unreserved and social correspondence, both
personal and epistolary. The residence of Mrs.
Williams they denominated Harmony-Grove,
which it ever after retained, and by which it is
designated in the following selection of their
letters.