fords an abundant supply of all spiritual blessings, freely given to him in the Redeemer, and received as they are wanted by the hand of faith out of the fulness of Christ. Whosoever therefore has obtained this precious faith, possesses with it a quiet conscience at peace with God, and is thereby enabled at all times to come boldly to the throne of grace, for the purpose of receiving help and assistance to uphold and quicken him in his heavenly

course.

"I was undoubtedly at the time I speak of, in a situation not favourable, humanly speaking, to the attainment of the state of mind above described: but supposing that I had already possessed it, my difficulties were not such as would have interfered greatly with my advancement; since I found, after the first eight-and-forty hours at my uncle's, that my relations seemed very much inclined to leave me to myself.

"My uncle, though a coarse man, was not an ill-natured one. My cousin Geoffry was, I found, disgusted with his sisters' forwardness, and particularly offended at their intimacy with Sir Timothy; insomuch that he was heard to say, that he infinitely preferred his cousin Jenetta's Methodistical reserve to their vulgar dash.. My female cousins had reasons of their own, which may be hereafter discovered, for acquiescing very quietly in keeping me in the back ground. My aunt was very well satisfied to have my company at home when her daughters were absent; and my cousin Frank was altogether a person of too little consequence to have affected a serious person in any way. All this I presently perceived, yet not with the pleasure which might have been expected, but rather with something like indignation, in discovering that I might do just as I liked, and that I and my religion were of so little consequence in the family, as to afford no hope whatever of the violent persecution which I had promised myself.

"The excuse offered by me, relative to the recent death of my mother for my not going out, had not only been judged sufficient for my not going to the play, but was pleaded for me by my cousins during many months afterward, whenever any little party of pleasure was in agitation insomuch that I at length became offended,

and had I not been checked by shame, should have said more than once, 'I think it ought to have been left to me to decline joining the proposed party.'

"Thus, as I have before intimated, several months passed away, during which, it being then the summer halfyear, the town was nearly empty, all the fashionable people being either at watering-places or at their country houses; and among these was the celebrated Miss Hawkins, of whom my cousins had always a vast deal to say. Throughout this interval, which my cousins called a very dull one, the family was now and then enlivened by short visits from Sir Timothy, who residing some miles out of town, as my cousin Geoffry had remarked, found it more agreeable, whenever business required him to spend a night in town, to take his meals at my uncle's house, and to rattle away with my cousins, than to spend his lonely hours at the inn. On these occasions it was generally contrived that I should be as much out of the way as possible, my aunt always finding some little employment for me at the further end of the house; a circumstance which, while the ideas of Theophilus and my mother were fresh in mind, was of so little importance to me as not to call forth my observation. But, as I before remarked, being totally destitute of the vital spirit of religion, it was not to be wondered at, if the worldly conversation which I daily heard, and the worldly precepts which were daily inculcated in the family, should at length carry their baneful influence to my heart, and give an entirely new direction to my desires.

"During this interval, my religion, such as it was, having neither opposition nor encouragement to support it, gradually expired, going out as a lamp without oil, or dying away as a body without nourishment, being actually starved to death; so that after awhile there remained of it nothing more than that kind of shame which always attends persons who are sensible of having relinquished principles which they have been known to support with warmth and credit to themselves. Sometimes, indeed, at this period, certain recollections of former days, or the sight of my Bible, or of my Theophilus' hymn-book, would excite in my mind some degree of compunction; on which occasions, I never failed try

'ing to console myself by a renewal of certain lately neglected forms, when my Bible would be again taken from the shelf, and the dust wiped from the cover of my manual. But these momentary feelings of regret became gradually weaker, shorter, and less frequent, till, after awhile, they almost ceased to recur at all.

"The month of October at length arriving, the absent families returned to town, and elegant equipages of every kind rolled through the streets. One morning, my aunt reported at breakfast that Mr. Hawkins was expected that very day; my uncle's head servant having seen the housekeeper, who had been sent before to prepare every thing for the reception of the family, and to take off the covers of the new drawing-room furniture. 'And Betty tells me,' added my aunt, addressing her daughters, 'that Mrs. Beverley says, if you wish to see the new furniture and Miss Hawkins's picture, which are just come from town, she will be ready to show them to you at ten o'clock: but you must not be later on any account, lest the family should suddenly arrive.'

"My female cousins instantly acquiesced in this proposal, expressing their thankfulness to Mrs. Beverley: on which, Geoffry remarked, that he wondered his sisters should think of going into a house at the invitation of a servant; a house, too, where they did not visit.

"If we did visit there, Geoffry, there would be no need,' replied my cousin Kitty, 'to go on such an invitation.'

"Need!' returned Geoffry, 'what need can there be in the case? Go to a cabinet-maker's shop, if you want to see fine furniture.'

"Yes; but we can't see Miss Hawkins's picture in a cabinet-maker's shop,' replied Kitty.

"And you are so fond of Miss Hawkins,' returned Geoffry, with a sneer, 'that you cannot live without seeing her picture ?'

"O said my cousin Jane, 'but I want to see how she looks on canvass.'

""You may see how she looks in artificial colours whenever you see her at all,' returned Geoffry, laughing. "For shame, son,' said my aunt; 'I am sure the young lady uses no such things.'

"Does not she? returned Geoffry, finishing his speech with a whistle, which set the whole company into a loud burst of laughter.

"The conversation then diverged from Miss Hawkins to her father's kitchen and stable; and in this part of the discourse my aunt displayed as intimate a knowledge of the inhabitants and arrangements of the kitchen, as my cousin Frank did with those of the stables. Dull and utterly uninteresting as this kind of conversation may appear to a cultivated mind, not to say any thing of a renewed one, it possesses a kind of fascination for ordinary minds, which can only be accounted for by the extremely degraded state of human nature. That same being who cannot see God in his works, who neither fears him on account of his power, nor honours him for his greatness, is ever ready to pay a kind of idolatrous worship to such of his poor fellow-creatures as may be attended by any little circumstances of more than ordinary splendour; and the narrower his views of life, the more forward we see him in his petty acts of adulation: insomuch that in the eye of the cottager the village squire is probably a greater being than the crowned head in the opinion of the courtier. True religion is, however, the only principle which sets these matters in the proper point of view; and while we are instructed thereby to give all men the honour due unto them, we are preserved from those little meannesses by which the great are injured and the poor degraded. But enough of this at present.

“After breakfast my cousins prepared for their visit to Mr. Hawkins's housekeeper, and I requested permission to accompany them.

“As we were about to turn into Mr. Hawkins's premises, through certain iron gates in the front of the house, I observed an elderly gentleman in black approaching. My cousins, who also saw him, instantly pronounced him to be a stranger; but another glance convinced me that he was no stranger to me, but my old friend and pastor, Mr. Barret. On making this discovery I started, and retreated within the gates. I leave it to the reader of this narrative to judge of the feelings which induced me to shun this good man, whom a few VOL. II.

I

months before I should have received as a father. I saw a glimpse of the black coat of this excellent person, as he passed by the iron gates, and congratulated myself that I was not at home if he should call at my uncle's.

"We were received with a kind of condescending politeness by Mrs. Beverly, and carried round every apartment in due form. I had only come to see the picture, and wished to see nothing else; but my cousins appeared interested in every thing, and examined even the texture of the curtains, and the form of the bell-ropes. At length, we were introduced to the drawing-room; and there I saw a very showy, full-length portrait of a kind of Amazonian lady, which, although declared by every one to be very handsome, did not meet my ideas of female beauty. However, by the time I returned home, what with the conversation of the housekeeper, and the importance which my cousins had given to every thing relative to Miss Hawkins, I was filled with an idea of her great consequence, and an assurance that there must be something very extraordinary about her.

"Mr. Barret, according to my expectation, had called at my uncle's during my absence; and I was not sorry to hear my aunt say, that she had seen him a short time afterward going out of town in the stage-coach.

"The week following our visit to Mr. Hawkins's house the annual races took place; and though I did not go out on the occasion, yet, as our house was in one of the most public streets, such scenes of vanity were displayed before my eyes as I had never witnessed before. I spent each day at the window, and became acquainted with the colour and arms of every carriage which went to the course; my aunt being my instructress, for my cousins were otherwise engaged in the various amusements which so gay a season supplied. "There,' my aunt would say, 'there is Lord L- 's carriage: it is not new; it has been at these races twice before. Lady Di Bellamy's is next: it has been to town to be repaired and painted; any one would take it for new; it looks very handsome! but the old lady herself is a shocking fright, even with her flaxen wig and false teeth. Betty tells me that she is painted both red and white; for Betty's aunt's cousin's husband is footman there. And now comes Mr.