religion, even though so young, was giving countenance to such vanities. Still you remained unconvinced; he grew very angry, but at length permitted you to go, if you were satisfied that in so doing you did not sin against your own conscience.”

"And I remember," said Charles, "I went and met some friends from a distance whom I could not see at any other time; but I remember, too, that I held down my head as I went up the village, as if afraid to look any one in the face, and expecting to hear some one ask, ' What you also, Charles, at Vanity Fair!' I passed up half the street when a farmer met me whom I avoided! but he stopped me with the exclamation, What, Charles, so you have come after all Mr. Bredwell said-you got the day, well done!' I felt this a most keen reproof, and I most earnestly wished myself again at Ringdell, Mr. Bredwell's dwelling; and returned punished enough in mind for this self-indulgence, and resolving to go against Mr. Bredwell's advice no more; and I have always found his admonitions worth attending to,' Guard the outworks, in order to keep the citadel safe.""

“Mr. Ruby, his curate," said Mr. Hadley, " is not so particular; for all the wake he is generally at some party of religious friends, who think they do well in improving the feast into a holy festival by reading and expounding the word of God, singing hymns to his praise, and prayer for continued mercies. "Yes," said Charles, "I have frequently met him at their feasts, and harvest homes, and Christmas feasts, the life and soul of the company, entertaining them with improving anecdotes, starting religious subjects of discussion or descanting on the most interesting news of these eventful days, or conversing over the sermons he had preached. And there enthroned in his great chair and smoking his pipe, I have admired his

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social disposition, which made his hearers his companions, and thought he was more following the precepts of holy writ to talk of divine things with his spiritual children as he sat by the fire or walked by the way, or, like our Lord among his disciples, asking Children, have ye understood all these things?' and thought he was doing more good by making religion the companion of the fireside, and the grand subject of their thoughts and conversation, than by keeping at an awful distance from these social parties, and condemning them all as the pomps and vanities of this wicked world."

"Our old friend Ruby," said Mr. Hadley," resembled Rowland Hill in this respect, who says, Why should the devil have all the best of the tunes?" So said Mr. Ruby, 'Why should the world have all their social meetingswhy should not we enjoy them also for a good purpose, and thus secure our hearers from the temptation to levity and excess of folly, by mingling with them, and finding them something to delight them of an intellectual, moral, and religious nature.' "The chief danger," said Mr. Hadley, "is to carry this familiarity to excess, and lest a minister who is disposed to conviviality should cast the mantle of benevolence over a failing, and render himself too secular and worldly by overstepping the line, and lower himself in the eyes of those who should look up to him with reverence"

"To-morrow, Charles," said Mr. Hadley, "is my birthday; and I always keep it by taking a walk to Enfield, my birth-place. I shall be happy to have you as my companion; we will set off early, and breakfast half way, at my friend Ashfield's." Charles most gladly accepted the proposal, and they parted for the night.

When retired to his bed-room, Charles, according to custom, began to ruminate on the great metropolis, where

he had arrived, the scenes of temptation and of iniquity, and therefore began to brighten his Christian armour, that it might be proof against assault, and to sharpen his sword to fight the Christian warfare if assailed. He looked into the diary, which he always carried with him, to see what incidents aforetimes had suggested principles of action, and given birth to holy resolutions. His eye met the following reflections, which, as they shed so much light upon the mind and habits of Charles Mortimer, I will here copy from his manuscript.

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CHAPTER XI.

CHARLES'S DIARY.

"Nov. 4, 1798.-Yesterday I completed my eighteenth year, and this day commence my nineteenth. What a series of mercies, of ingratitude, and of failings does my life disclose. Though I have been rebellious the good Lord has followed me with mercies and loving kindnesses-he has raised me from sickness which brought me to the margin of the grave, and protracted the brittle thread of life to this moment. What do I not owe to him! May I devote the remainder of my days to his service, that when my pilgrimage through the wilderness of this earth shall be terminated, I may be admitted into the Canaan above to spend a glorious eternity in perfect felicity with the sacred triune God. As Newton says of the new year, so may I say of my birth-day, I have entered upon another year, so have thousands, perhaps millions, who will never see it close.' Alarming thought! What will be the world with all its amusements, possessions, and delights,' when I come to leave it: and how uncertain its tenure! Whatever schemes may be formed, knowledge acquired, or advantages possessed, they will all vanish like the baseless fabric of a vision and leave not a wreck behind,' when the monster death appears to throw down the mortal tenement. In a hard winter at Petersburgh there was built a

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palace of ice! What a wonder had it been possible to preserve it! But in the returning spring the sun melted it all away, and left not a vestige of this laboured workmanship-sic transit gloria mundi.' Thus soon will this earthly tabernacle be dissolved-thus soon will the world itself vanish. Lord prepare me for this great crisis, that I may rise to a building in the heavens when this on earth shall fail me!

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May I never be so occupied with plans, expectations, and pursuits, or enjoyments in this life as to forget that eternal world of light and joy. The whole world itself cannot be put in competition with an immortal soul; what would it profit me to gain all the world if I lost my soul! This life must soon end: the next will last for ever. What folly then to choose a portion here and to make this my rest. Lord, may my grand aim and labour be to secure a good hope for the world to come, and my study in the world that now is be, to obtain thy favour and promote thy glory."

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"These,' said Charles, were the resolutions which bethe year; now let me look at my diary during its continuance, and observe the gleanings which I have made which may conduce to my preservation in this practical stage of human life.' He read on, and his attention was particularly riveted to the following reflections.

"Nov. 12.-The motto which an English lord has on his coat of arms, let me propose as my perpetual object— Ut prosim, 'that I may profit.' Let me look up to God to teach me what good I may do to others and to myself. Let it be my daily study to improve in knowledge and goodness, and to use all the means and advantages bestowed with an eye to this great end of them all. Let me consider myself as a sinner by nature and practice-that the fountain of my heart was poisoned at the fall, and that