faith. I had preached and preached, and they had listened — still their lives were not holy. Had I done all? What else could I do? or what could they do? Were they to wait till faith came?

At last I proceeded: "It has occurred to me, sir, that much good might be done by a more diligent resort to the other ordinances of the Church, as well as preaching."

"I fear you will find ordinances but a feeble staff," said Mr. Flavel.

This struck me as rather inconsistent in one who had just been saying so much in favour of the ordinance of preaching: however, I continued—“ It seems to be implied in the first rubric of the Prayerbook that there shall be daily prayers in all parish churches. And I have thought, sir, that as we know from Scripture the great effect of prayer, nothing would be more likely to obtain God's blessing on a parish, and improve the hearts of the people, than to open the church every day for divine service."

Mr. Flavel appeared highly diverted at this suggestion; and said, laughing—

"That is rather a novel idea of yours, I must confess; but, pray, have you considered how you shall get the congregation together, especially if there are only prayers-for I suppose you do not intend to treat them with a sermon every day?"

I answered, that I had often seen in foreign churches a good many people engaged in prayer at

break of day; and that even in some of our cathedrals there was a fair congregation. It had struck me, that it was the intention of our reformers that there should be daily prayers in all churches as well as the cathedrals. The cathedrals were intended, in some measure, as patterns to the rest of the diocese ; and though the corrupt faith of the Church of Rome might greatly mar the value of their supplication, yet that the pure prayers of our own Church daily offered up could not fail of obtaining God's blessing.

Mr. Flavel evidently continued greatly amused at the warmth with which I defended my novel idea.

"My good young friend," he replied, with a patronising air, "I admire your zeal, and only regret to see (you will pardon me for saying it) that you are so little conversant with the wants and habits of the times" (this made me think I had been talking very foolishly; and I shrank before his superior knowledge and experience); but he added, "As you have done me the honour to seek my advice, and have evidently a zeal for the truth, I will tell you what I would recommend.-Have you got a goodsized school-room in your parish?"

"Very fair."

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Well, you cannot do better than have a prayermeeting there on the Thursday evenings."

"But," I replied, "it is within twenty yards of the church."

"Never mind that: people will come to the

school who would not go to church.

Besides, if you open your church, you must have the whole service, from Dearly beloved' to the end. Whereas, if you have it in the school, an extemporary prayer of your own will be sufficient before the lecture."

I ventured to urge that this plan seemed a little like that adopted by the dissenters; but he overruled my objection by observing, that if the dissenters had hit upon the taste of the people, we could not do better than take a leaf or two out of their book-fas est et ab hoste doceri.

Here Mr. Flavel looked at his watch; and understanding it as a hint that the half-hour had expired, I took my leave, thanking him very sincerely for his advice; and on the strength of it, instead of opening the church for daily service, as I had intended, I gave notice for a Thursday lecture in the school-room; and, instead of ranging, as I had been used to do, through the whole field of Scripture in search of subjects for my discourses, I confined myself chiefly to the doctrine of the atonement, justification by faith, and one or two others which are commonly designated as evangelical.

The consequence of these measures was, that having before been disconnected with any party in the Church, I now acquired the character of being an evangelical preacher. My church had been very well filled before, as churches generally will be when the clergyman takes pains to do his duty, and has no

natural deficiency; the only difference was, that now a few dissenters came occasionally to the evening service. This pleased me; and I thought I had made converts. It did not occur to me, that it was very possible I might have been going over to them, instead of their coming to me.

It rather took me by surprise, I confess, when one day, after I had begun my course of evangelical proceedings, a deputation of three of the leading dissenters in the neighbourhood waited on me, with a request that I would be a subscriber to their new school. Their object, they said, was the same as mine- to bring sinners to Christ; their doctrine was the same: why should we not, then, mutually assist each other? I felt that I was acting rather inconsistently in refusing their request.

There was a large pew in Somerton church, which was never occupied, unless the rest were all full, when the sexton ventured to put those who could not find places into it. This pew belonged to one of the principal farmers, a dissenter, who lived at a distant part of the parish. Soon after I began my evangelical preaching, I was gratified by seeing this gentleman enter his pew. His visit was repeated several Sundays; and I had the satisfaction of hoping that I had gained a convert to the Church. However, it happened that one week in preparing my sermon, I found my text applicable to the subject of infant baptism, and accordingly I introduced a few

remarks on the subject, thinking it might confirm my Baptist friend in his better views. On walking to the church, I had been glad to observe Mr. C driving up in his jaunting-car with rather a larger party than usual; and we exchanged very cordial salutations in passing. However, that was the last time I ever had the pleasure of seeing him or his friends in Somerton church. He did not come there, he said, to be preached at.

If clergymen preach dissenters' doctrine, dissenters will come to church when it suits their convenience. But once touch on their peculiar errors, and you see them no more. They come to judge, not to be judged.

The same causes which led to the desertion of my church by this gentleman drove away other of my dissenting admirers; and I was soon left to my old congregation: and even they were not quite so regular and attentive as they had been. They used to hear something worth hearing, they said, every Sunday; but now it was the same story over and over again. They did not know what was come

to me.

Not very long after my visit to Market Ashford, I received the following letter from my rector:—

"DEAR MR. Leslie,

"When the engagement was entered into between us, by which you were appointed to the curacy of Somer