tality, but to fearch into the records of the grave: there lie rich and poor, ftrong and weak, wife and foolish, holy and profane: the rubbish of ten thousand generations heaped one upon another, and this truth that all must die, written indelibly in their duft." "No man is fuperannuated in the grave that he is too old to enter into heaven, where the Mafter of the Houfe is THE ANCIENT OF DAYS. No man is bed-ridden with age in the grave, that he cannot rife. It is not with God as it is with man; we do, but God does not, forget the dead." Henry Stebbing's Serm. Vol. i. 187. Drayton, of Effex. Milton, Profe CHAPTER XXIV. Thoughtleffness corrected. "Forbear to judge, for we are finners all.- And let us all to meditation." "In the ordinary ftate of the world, we muft lay it down as a rule, that when God calls men to labour, by the ftation in which his Providence has placed them, there is as much of religion in working, as there is in hearing or praying;-nay, there is no religion in one without the other; for to what end ferves religion, but to lead us to our duty?" "Virtue, but poor, God in this earth doth place, Nor ceafing to purfue but with defpight: And feeming in moft miferable plight, Out of her power new life doth to her take, OW often have we to chastise our felves for opinions formed without fufficient confideration, and for conclufions arrived at without fufficient data! "His ufeful life," faid Milton Works, Vol. iv. of fome one, "was wafting away under a fecret affliction of an unconscionable fize to human 25. ftrength." And fo it has often happened, and the man we thought dull, and heavy,unfociable, uncommunicative, perhaps impracticable, was ftruggling with difficulties under which we ourselves should have shrunk, and facing hard duties which we could not have coped with. "And, but he's something stain'd With grief, that's beauty's canker, thou might'ft call him Such was the cafe with Arthur Coleman. Though he lived amongst us, yet he hardly made one of us. Perfectly civil to every one, and quietly alive to courtesy and kindness, he fought no intimacies,-indeed rather avoided them. Strictly honeft and punctual in all his dealings, his household was conducted on fuch a principle of economy that he got the imputation of stinginess,—but none ventured to say he was mean. quite above that. about him; There was fomething in him It was his way, faid those It was his "An effect of humour Which fometime hath his hour with every man ;" and fo, they took him as they found him, and in the end decided that he was a good fort of a man, but very queer, and fomething close, Tempest, Act i. Sc. ii. Julius Cæfar, A&t ii. Sc. i. Claud. Laud. even when his best friends were with him. All that ever transpired for many years was that he had been in business in a diftant county, and had not profpered, but that no reproach attached to his name. About a year before he left the neighbourhood he was vifited by a perfon far, apparently, above his own station. in life, and between the two there was,-what had never been seen in any other case, and was quite inconceivable,—a great friendship. Shortly after he left the Parish,-not without many little acts of kindness towards thofe among whom he had fojourned, and who had not all judged him mercifully, and it then turned out, that by the stricteft economy, and by the help of the Gentleman who had visited him, and who had been established as a locum tenens in the business during his retirement, he was enabled to pay off every debt with intereft. "Nec fama fefellit Juftitiæ videre pium, videre fidelem." When this was done, his fpirits feemed to revive, and he returned to his old home, to recover which, though apparently unemployed, he had been labouring filently all the while. As chefs-players play at a distance, so his fhrewd and clever head managed every thing, and the cause of his having fo many letters to write was explained. And I faid this is one instance among many of "THOUGHTLESSNESS CORRECTED," and I confidered the Sacred Text, "Judge not, that ye be not judged." Time, to fay nothing of Grace, is a great Adviser, as well as a great Chronicler. Those who are not particularly impressed with the foftening influences of the Chriftian Faith, as days roll on, fee great cause to alter their judgments on men and things. Experience even teaches them to be equitable, and the mind is biaffed when the heart is not foftened or mended. It is what we see continually,it is every-day life. Who that has lived long, and has held converfe with men, making man his study, has not often heard fuch remarks as this?" At first, I thought hardly of him,but I have learned to know that he had a principle to maintain, and that his motives were good. It was not neceffary that we should agree,—it was quite fufficient to agree to differ." The refult has conftantly been that John Jones and William Smith, fo long opponents in all Parochial matters, arrive at the happy conclufion that the Parish was never Matt. vii. 1. |