ble, a circumstance which contributed to the establishment of her religious credit even with some discerning people. She soon, however, began to feel much complacency in the idea of her superior proficiency, and having always had some turn both to disputation and self-conceit, she now made use of the doctrines of religion as her means of indulging freely her old dispositions. Not that she is to be regarded as a mere hypocrite. She deceives herself much more than other persons. I do not even affirm, that she has been in no respect benefited by her change; any state is preferable to that of total indifference to religion. Moreover, I admit that she does not now take in vain the name of God as heretofore. She has a little enlarged her almsgiving. She subscribes towards the propagation of the gospel among the heathen, and when she listens to a sermon on Christian benevolence, she now drops a dollar into the plate, instead of her former shilling. She has separated herself from a number of dissipated friends, and seems to have renounced the more fashionable kind of life for ever.

I should have deemed the last mentioned change a far better evidence of her piety, if she had possessed much natural taste for the society and employments which she has aban.doned. Mary once hinted to me, that Caroline never was remarkably well received among the higher circles, and added, that she remembers to have been present in a select company, when Caroline seemed to experience much mortification, under the consciousness of being unable to bear her part in the conversation. I have heard, on the other hand, that when the new convert was thought to be passing over to the persons whom she has since joined, she experienced a degree of attention and respect, as well as of Christian kindness, which must have been very gratifying to one not accustomed to find herself the object of peculiar notice. Motives, therefore, of a nature not clearly religious, might lead her to cross over to a new party; to which, if we suppose her to be joined, it is obvious that she would naturally adopt some of their restraints. The habit which we all have of accommodating our practice to that of those by whom we are surrounded, together with the disposition which we feel, to act up to the general expectations which are formed concerning us, seem to me to be very nearly suffi

cient to account for as much improvement in Caroline as I can clearly perceive to have taken place.

I would, however, merely suggest my doubts respecting her character, and would do it with a view of urging her to some very serious self-examination. I admit, indeed, that there are not only strong and thriving Christians, but such as are less vigorous and flourishing. I allow it to be possible to build on the right foundation, though the superstructure may not be so spacious or so lofty as were to be wished. I admit that the scripture speaks even of those who are to be saved as by fire. But let Caroline seriously consider, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord: that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature that if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Then let her look into her conduct; and still more, let her scrutinize her heart. The tree is to be known by its fruits let her carefully examine whether the fruits of the spirit are to be recognised in her, and let her suspect that the marks and evidences, on which she places her chief reliance, may be little or nothing more than the result of party spirit, or of a regard for her character among her religious friends, or her favorite ministers. I understand that the stricter part of her new acquaintances entertain the same apprehensions of the unsoundness of her principles, which I have ventured to express, and are becoming less and less cordial in their attachment to her. A few of the more faithful and discerning among the body, having found some well-intentioned hints offered by them to be not very kindly, or patiently received, and to be construed into indications of their own defect of light or want of grace, are now retiring silently, but with regret, and are giving place either to more obsequious and accommodating persons, or to those who largely participate in her religious errors. She nevertheless assumes her present friends to be a most select body. She even deems them to be of the highest order of Christians, and their views of doctrine to be orthodoxy itself. It is, however, rumored, that some small doctrinal, and chiefly metaphysical, differences, as well as a few other circumstances, are beginning to produce private feuds and subdivisions even in this little sect. Christian unity and charity seem to be ill understood among them; zeal in

their eyes is set at variance with love, and a few important tenets, in some degree perverted, and urged in a bad spirit, are put for Christianity itself.

These persons, it is true, have escaped from the kind of corruption which is most general in our days; but they have not been on their guard against the dangers impending from another quarter. They have not been aware, that amidst much freedom from dissipation, much separation from indiscriminate society, much hearing of sermons, and much zeal for doctrines, there may subsist censoriousness, uncharitableness, unsubdued tempers, the love of disputation, a habit of pronouncing rashly on the spiritual state of others, a disdain of order, disrespect for superiors, civil and ecclesiastical, religious vanity and egotism, pride and self-conceit; in short, that a whole class of sins may be practised by us, and our religious credit be, nevertheless, maintained in our own estimation, and in our own little world.

(The character of Susan hereafter.)

THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT.

It is related of the Rev. John Wesley, that he was once stopped by a highwayman, who demanded his money. After he had given it to him, he called him back, and said, "Let me speak one word to you; the time may come when you may regret the course of life in which you are engaged. Remember this: The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." He said no more, and they parted. Many years afterward, when he was leaving a church in which he had been preaching, a person came up and asked him if he remembered being waylaid at such a time, referring to the above circumstances. Mr. Wesley replied that he recollected it. "I," said the individual, “was that man; that single verse on that occasion was the means of a total change in my life and habits. I have long since been attending the house of God and the Word of God, and I hope I am a Christian."

CONNECTION BETWEEN SIN AND MISERY

EXEMPLIFIED BY A WICKED FAMILY.

THERE lived in the town of W, and county of L—. one LB- a substantial farmer. He was an abandoned profligate, and his wife a sullen and perverse enthusiast. They had three sons, who, as well as their parents, are remembered in the neighborhood with some degree of horror; and no wonder, for their crimes and calamities were of no common magnitude.

In the first place, a travelling pedlar, whose wares were of sufficient value to tempt unprincipled avarice, was traced to their house, and never heard of more. A neighbor, who was supposed to have known too much of the manner in which the other disappeared, was found dead in an outhouse of the B's; and another, who was formidable to the family on a similar account, received a draught of warm beer, and died in a few hours after having drank it, with every appearance of poison.

In the second place, the conduct of the sons was such as might be expected from such examples. The oldest enlisted as a private soldier, deserted repeatedly, and fell a sacrifice at last to the necessary rigor of military discipline. The next was apparently, and, perhaps, really religious, for a season; he was temperate, retired, zealous in his profession, exact in his attendance upon the ordinances of his sect, and in private so devout, that he sometimes spent whole nights in prayer. In all this his sincerity or the contrary can only be known to the searcher of hearts. Humanly speaking, however, his walk and conduct seemed to point him out as an example of the power of grace, which sometimes delights to display itself in triumphing most signally over education, example, and hereditary propensities to particular sins, as well as over the general corruption of our nature: but an unhappy marriage, with all the circumstances of inquietude and temptation which attend it; such as an home rendered unpleasant, the hours of devotion interrupted by family discord, and the spirit of it em

bittered by irritation, and on the other hand, too welcome a reception in houses of public resort, a growing fondness for company, and oblivion of care purchased by intemperance, notwithstanding the charitable remonstrances of his former friends, so far effaced every trace and sentiment of religion upon his heart, and left him apparently so given up of God, that he committed a murder upon one of his companions on a Sunday evening, for which he was tried, condemned and executed.

It ought to be added, that the shock occasioned by the dreadful situation to which he had reduced himself, appeared to revive his religious impressions; and the self-abhorrence, humility, and resignation, manifested by him from the time of his surrendering himself (which he did voluntarily) to the moment of his execution, were such, that the minister who attended him, expressed, in a sermon preached soon after, a comfortable hope of his salvation.

The third brother, who long survived both the rest of his family and their property, became the subject of an awful visitation of Providence: for having long made a practice of begging as a dumb man, he was really struck dumb by a sudden attack of the palsy while in the very act of imposture; and in this state he continued nearly to the time of his death, when he partially recovered the use of his speech, which, however, he did not employ to glorify God either for his judginent or deliv

erance.

The following observation, without which the story would be incomplete, is not intended to countenance a superstitious, though sometimes, perhaps, a salutary, persuasion of the common people, that after great transgressions-"Men cannot thrive in the world:" but in this particular instance the fact is certain, that the estates of the family, which for persons in their condition of life were not inconsiderable, gradually mouldered away without any appearance of gross mismanagement or waste, and their collateral descendants, in whom something of their ancestors' propensities is either observed or suspected, have long since been reduced to indigence. O. U. J.