the youth was expected to be present. He was not, however, once asked to attend at meeting; but regularly took his place in the parish church. At this time he was wholly destitute of any concern respecting his eternal safety: he had no idea at all of his native depravity: such was his spiritual blindness, that he could repeat the ten commandments every Sabbath, without once suspecting that he had broken any of them, even in the thoughts or wishes of his heart; and, by a necessary consequence, atonement by the blood of the great Sin-offering, and regeneration of heart by the divine Spirit, appeared to him as doctrines of no value he had, however, good natural sense, and could perceive that the righteous is, in many instances, "more excellent than his neighbour."

The name of Methodist was then hardly known; and Presbyterian was the general térm with which an ignorant multitude thought fit to reproach almost all persons of serious godliness. Amongst these, the master of the youth was well known; and he shared largely the scourge of the persecutor's tongue. His servant, who had often, in other instances, united in similar revilings, was now convinced that his master, at least, merited better treatment he saw him upright, gentle, temperate, benevolent, and devout; and the youth said to himself, "Surely, a bad religion could not make so good a man." This conviction wrought so powerfully on the mind of the servant, that he exceedingly wished to know more perfectly what his master's religion was; but Vol. I. No. 12.

X X X

he had said to his father, and he held his promise sacred, "I will never enter the meeting-house at." This engagement held him to his church; but his desire to attend, for once, where his master worshipped, still increased; and he believed he could, without a breach of promise, stand in the porch of the meeting-house. He did so. It was a summer's day, the doors were opened, the minister pleaded with earnestness, the youth's attention was caught, and the arrow of conviction reached the destined mark. He said, and it was the first time he had made the confession, "I am a lost sinner;" but he soon added, " To me is the word of his salvation sent." The change in his character was sudden, but decisive. He had heard the voice of the good Shepherd, and could no longer be happy, whilst excluded from his fold. As became a son, both dutiful and pious, he wrote to his father, saying, "I faithfully regard my promise, not to enter the meeting-house at

as the condition of my present residence; but I cannot any longer remain here, unless you remove that condition, and allow me to attend where, I believe, my duty to God and my eternal interest direct me." On the receipt of this letter, the father, highly alarmed and enraged, commanded his son instantly to return home; yet he was obliged, out of regard to his master's interest, to send, for the present, a younger son in his room; from whom he exacted the same promise which he had received from his brother.

The converted youth, with

mingled joy and sorrow, now sought the paternal roof, and met an angry parent with submission, and ardent prayer to God for direction in his new and trying situation. The next Lord's day morning his father, seeing the son preparing to walk, inquired what was his design: the son replied, "Father, I revere your authority; you know I have ever obeyed you; and, in one instance, I fear I carried that obedience too far, by placing your authority above that of my Heavenly Judge my promise extended only to one place, and I am going this morning to the meeting-house at B- : it is the nearest place in which I can unite with serious Christians, and hear the doctrine which I think necessary to my eternal salvation. In this instance, I hope you will allow me to act for myself: in all others I am still ready to obey your commands." To this address the enraged father replied, "If you go to any meeting, my house shall be no longer your home." "I hope it will," the son replied, and respectfully withdrew. He avoided that day to see his father again; and the next day he silently resumed his usual occupation. But religion was now the pleasure and business of every day to this pious youth. Often he would protract the evening walk with a brother or a sister on his arm, to whom he told, with heart-felt joy, the hope which glowed in his breast for another and a better world, where He dwells who bore the curse for guilty men. At home, the winter's evening was employed in religious converse; and Dr. Watts' psalms and hymns, which he had brought

with him, agreeably allured a family fond of music, and banished from their dwelling the vain and trifling village-song. This change, of course, became the wonder and the reproach of the whole village. Had the family become abandoned to every vice, the circumstance would probably have excited little surprise or regret; but to hear of religion on any day but Sunday, was a new thing to these poor villagers, and as disagreeable as it was strange; even the children at school learned to revile as they passed the door, the whole of the family where the heavenly stranger had taken up his constant abode.

The work was of God, and none could hinder it. In a few months the pious youth had the happiness to discover a decided change of character in a brother, and in two sisters; and they, determining to share the reproach of the cross, accompanied their brother to his usual place of wor ship. Frequently, on their return, they were all four of them shut out of doors by an offended father; and thus would have remained without shelter, had not their mother (a tender parent, and now beginning to be a pious one) often crept silently down the stairs, at dead of night, to readmit her banished children. The father, poor unhappy man, would have felt far less sorrow in following his children to the grave, than in seeing them thus take their whole delight in prayer and praise, and holy converse; though it was evident to all impartial observers, that every moral virtue, and every tender attachment to himself, were, by their religion, abundantly heightened and enlarged. How dread

ful are the effects of a deep rooted prejudice against evangelical truth!

New events increased the unhappy father's grief, and the joy of his pious children. The son, who had replaced his elder brother, now informed his father that he must, if he stayed at C****, have liberty also to hear what he believed to be the gospel of salvation. The father replied with anger, you must use your own pleasure, for I have no other son whom I can trust to replace you." Steady perseverance gained on the father's opposition; he saw that his children, though they were dutiful to him, had learned, that to love father or mother more than Christ, is to be unworthy of him." The neigh bours too became less violent in their reproaches, when they perceived that they were patiently endured. Truth prevailed, and opposition gave way. The elder children carefully instructed the younger; all had liberty to attend serious and godly preachers. Devotion and a godly life silenced the objections of one parent, whilst the other, together with all her ten children, evidently partook of that grace which bringeth salvation.

The writer of these lines saw the aged mother about the year 1774, six weeks before her death; she was then eighty one; venerable in form and countenance; her dignity was that of a saint just about to commence the song, "Unto him that hath loved me," &c. This old disciple retraced, in the preceding history, the dealings of God to her and hers, in a manner which fixed an indelible impression on the writer's mind,

though he was then but eleven years old. years old. A few days after this interview, she was admitted into the joy of her Lord.

The father, who died some years before, had regularly attended the means of grace with his family. One of the sons died in youth. The other five were esteemed and highly useful Christians in several of the midland counties. One of the daughters is still living in the county of Gloucester, and possesses, in advanced life, all the ardent piety of her long deceased parent. An immediate descendant of one of the younger brothers is pastor of a Christian Society within a few miles of the village of C****, and sometimes preaches, he hopes with success, hard by the house of his ancestors, which he never views without saying, "Lord, I adore thy ways to bring me near to God." Thy ways are in the great deep, and thy footsteps are not known.” Thy counsel shall stand, and thou wilt do all thy pleasure."

The preceding narrative may lead us to reflect, 1. On the injustice of the charge so often urged against godly ministers and serious Christians, as dis turbers of the peace of society. When the lamb is to be worried, the wolf wants not a pretext. Ever since our divine Master dwelt on the earth, his doctrine has excited violent opposition from the ignorant, the prejudiced, and the vicious; but shall we, on this account, censure Christianity? As well may we blame the innocent traveller for exciting the avarice and the cruelty of the robber. In the religion of Christ all is meek, peaceful, and benevolent: its opposers

render it the occasion of reproach and bitter contention; but the cause of these evils is in themselves; and with them will finally rest both the blame and the punishment.

2. The pastor who, in his own residence, or during his own life, gathers but little fruit from his labours, has often by them enriched distant churches and succeeding generations. Let ministers recollect this in the hour of discouragement, nor ever decline from their Master's work, since a single discourse, addressed to an unexpected hearer, has often proved as a fountain opened to circulate the highest of all blessings through channels too numerous, complex, and extensive, to be traced with accuracy, till knowledge shall be rendered complete in a better world.

3. In the commencement of a religious course, how necessary is it to unite the meekness of wisdom with unbending fortitude! Had the pious son been deficient in meekness, he might have fled his father's house, or have violently resented the harsh treatment which he received. On the other hand, without fortitude to sustain persecution, he would have resigned, to present interest and ease, all the unspeakable advantages and consolations of religion; but combining these virtues, though the trial was hard, the result was happy.

4. Let it not be forgotten that the holy life and gentle manners of a pious master first silenced, in his servant, objections to religion, and then induced him to attend a gospel ministry. Too

often, we fear, is this case reversed; and thus the way of truth is

AN EMINENT CLERGYMAN IN
SWITZERLAND.

[From the Eclectic Review.]

Basle, 28th Nov. 1804. Ir the late revolution has produced no actual reformation, it has at least impressed on the minds, both of the government and the clergy, truths of which all had before been comparatively ignorant. The statesman could not remain insensible, that such a religion as Christianity was necessary to the maintenance of good order, and to the accomplishment of the most important purposes of civil society: and the clergy, if not deluded by the intoxication of licentious freedom, could not but discern that the prosperity of the church was most intimately connected with that of the civil government and that the dissolution of the latter must be attended with the most dangerous consequences to the moral and religious character of the people. May the practice of these useful lessons demonstrate, that they have not been inculcated in vain!

The respectable clergy of the Canton of Zurich, at least, have afforded a profitable pattern to