ade their inner sanctuary. Do not therefore be led into
the mistake that for them there is no sanctuary, no citadel to defend.
Better take for granted the reverse, and use every lawful art and
persuasion to find the entrance to it. Of multitudes it is indeed true,
that they have "no religion to speak of"; but that with any intelligent
man is no longer a reproach. To sound a trumpet before one has a
disagreeable reminder of certain ancient pretenders. Some men, when the
heart is fullest, cannot speak; and nothing would be more unjust than to
charge with want of feeling for the deepest and highest subjects of
thought those who cannot frame a sentence to convey their emotions. Yet,
after all these considerations have been fairly weighed, it is still
desirable that men should communicate with each other far oftener than
they do, on the interests which concern all men alike,--the interests,
not of a temporal, but of an eternal state. A wholly unnatural reserve,
the result of false education, hedges in the subject of religion.
Never,--let this he a sacred and inviolable rule to you,--never, by
word, tone, or manner, falsify your own nature and experience, when
referring to this subject; never affect in the slightest degree an
interest you do not feel; never dare to open your mouth merely because
you are expected to do so,--and, my word for it, you will already
possess important negative qualifications, to say the least, for
conversing on the highest of all topics. I have exalted "tact" in
conversation, but here I would exalt simplicity no less. Lay aside the
_too many_ folds. Learn the courage to "speak right out," when you know
that your heart is charged with no malice or vanity, that you should
fear to speak. Have you never envied the courage of children in this
respect? I have. And it has seemed to me that to "become as little
children" is nowhere more urgently required than here, and that no rule
would sooner make talkers out of the silent ones,--you, my friend,
included. So with this, my last and best word, I take leave of you, not
despairing that you will yet be able to overcome your taciturnity, if
you take to heart these counsels of

YOUR FRIEND.

THE CHIMNEY-CORNER.

VIII.

THE NOBLE ARMY OF MARTYRS.

When the first number of the Chimney-Corner appeared, the snow lay white
on the ground, the buds on the trees were closed and frozen, and beneath
the hard frost-bound