engaged, in connexion with some aged individuals, in visiting the neighbouring suburbs, holding meetings for prayer in private houses, and attending the chambers of the sick and dying. By these means, his talents were, at once, elicited, exercised, and improved; and in these and other exercises, he was rendered useful to many penitents and it was from one of these visits of mercy, with his mind more than ordinarily impressed by deep concern for the salvation of his parents and family, that he returned home, and, in the language with which the first chapter of the narrative commences, displayed the ardour and simplicity of his feelings, by exhorting his father and mother to "flee from the wrath to come," and exclaiming-" We must, indeed, we must have FAMILY WORSHIP!"

CHAPTER IV.

"The chamber where the good man meets his fate
Is privileg'd beyond the common walk

Of virtuous life, just on the verge of heaven:
Fly, ye profane! if not, draw near with awe,
Receive the blessing, and adore the chance
That threw in this Bethesda your disease:
If unrestor'd by this, despair your cure,
For here resistless demonstration dwells."

Young.

No sight can be more acceptable to a pious mind, than to behold an individual in the morning of life rescued from the delusive follies and ensnaring vices of the age, and, with an unremitting assiduity, devoting his time and talents to the glory and service of God. And such, now, were the circumstances and the conduct of Jairus. The Scriptures were regularly read, and family devotion was attended to: he had no longer to urge the entreaties which once he employed; on the contrary, if the usual hour for family-worship arrived unnoticed by him, he was reminded of it by his parents, and requested to engage in the service. Appearances now were in

favour of family religion. Order and regularity appeared even in indifferent things. His parents and other members of the household cheerfully and regularly attended, with himself, to hear from the lips of his spiritual father the words of eternal life.

He had just entered his nineteenth year, a season of life at which all the warmth and enthusiasm of feeling generally begins to attain its full vigour; when difficulties which would enervate an individual of threescore years serve only to fan the flame of desire, or excite the soul to all the activity of resistless ardour. A season, this, when the mind, sensitive and impressible, is soon affected by the plaintive voice either of want or woe: and when, unburdened by the cares of life and the disappointments and anxieties which fill up the chequered scene of this "mortal coil," and enjoying all the liberty of exemption from prior engagements, it seeks for exercises congenial with its own capacities and disposition.

It has frequently been found, in the experience of mankind, that the mind, diverted from its eager pursuit of one object, has tended with equal impetuosity towards its contrary both in nature and design: hence, Saul of Tarsus no sooner became a convert to the faith of Christ, than the same invincible spirit and the same unyielding zeal were displayed by him in the overthrow of that system which he had previously endeavoured to establish, and in the extension of that he had

L

in vain laboured to destroy. His exclusive glory was in the cross of Christ; and it was his highest ambition to suffer in his Master's service.

A leading principle, similar to that which influenced this great apostle, actuated the now regenerated Jairus, and, in his humble measure, he proved the prevalence of the same spirit. He was decidedly pious: and if the definition of enthusiasm, as given by the celebrated Doctor Zimmerman in his beautiful work on solitude, be correct, he had become an enthusiast, in his regard to religion. Enthusiasm," observes that author, " is a lively and transporting effervescence of the soul raised by the contemplation of objects whose novelty awakens attention: by its truth and grandeur it dilates the fancy and excites the passions, and prompts, while it empowers, to daring and extraordinary efforts. When inspired and actuated by a just enthusiasm, the mind does not abandon reason or nature, it only soars above the level, exploring new tracks of thought, and tempting to new sources of action. This elevation exposes the enthusiast to be misunderstood by calm and sedate understandings: it subjects him to the contempt of the witling, and the sentence of the dunce; while it renders him an object of wonder to the ignorant and vulgar, who either bow to him as a genius, or scoff at him as a lunatic.

"This exaltation of mind, however, courageously makes way through all difficulties and perils

with an address which is enabled to accomplish actions apparently impracticable: those, therefore, on whom its influence has been most powerful and manifest, have been regarded as inspired; that is, directed by the counsels and sustained by the energies of a superior nature. To this

quality it is that we owe every thing in human character and productions most elevated and transcendent."

Jairus had now long since given up the practice of writing on those subjects in attention to which he had previously taken so much delight. By this time, however, he had by him, in manuscript, as much as would have furnished materials for some octavo volumes,-the work of many hours, and which, during the silent period "when the sable goddess, from her ebon throne, in rayless majesty, stretches forth her leaden sceptre over a slumbering world," he had prepared. Although these papers contained nothing either subversive of morality, or even at variance with it, he now regarded their tendency as not directly promoting the glory of God; and he, therefore, with a degree of inconsiderate precipitancy, although, at the same time, with a commendable motive, committed the whole to the flames; determining, hereafter, to consecrate his body and mind to those subjects and pursuits of which God was both the author and the end. In connexion with nearly every denomination of Christians in the present day, there are stations