What if they meet at night for the purposes of prayer and praise? Is this so very disgraceful an employment ? What if they devote some of the hours usually given to rest, to the offices of religion? Is this so very heinous an offence? Did not the first Christians likewise so offend?

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Who visit the sick, and in prison, if the Methodists do not? Who clothe the naked, and feed the hungry, if the Methodists do not? Who circulate religious tracts, and smooth the poor man's death bed, if the Methodists do not?

My friends, let us not be led away by men, who affecting religion without cant, would impose upon us religion without devotion, or any other visible effect: religion whose votaries have scarcely any distinguishing marks, by which we may know them from the worldlyminded, the lax, the thoughtless, and the ambitious. When men professing sound doctrine, and with no interested motive to stimulate them, encounter difficulties, despise trouble and ridicule, and renounce sensual indulgences for religion's sake, we may depend upon it that they are in the right way.

We shall be told that the preachers are interested; and if men who labour for the good of others, with a degree of zeal which almost wears them out, be unworthy of their hire, they are interested. That they are generally illiterate, i. e. ignorant of school learning, I readily grant ; but they address illiterate hearers. As it relates however to that knowledge which it is most important to possess, the knowledge of the Scriptures, I will venture to affirm, that their censurers would gain little by a comparison with them.

I know that there are rogues and hypocrites amongst them, and that their enemies extend to a whole sect the demerits of a few individuals; but in what sect are there not rogues and hypocrites? I know that there are sects claiming to be called Methodists, whose doctrines are entirely different from Methodism. I know, that a silly,

infatuated, (I should hope for her own sake deranged woman, (whose insignificance, if her imposture was less successful, would defend her from notice,) has imposed upon many weak heads, and caught many itching ears; and that, in spite of her lying predictions, she is still leading captive" the credulous and unthinking. But let us not condemn the sound for the unsound.

I am no Methodist; I have no Methodist connexions; no Methodist associates; I am, and I trust always shall be, a sincere member of the Church of England; but I will not have my understanding imposed upon, by a call to censure a large body of men, whose doctrine is sound, and whose lives, as a body, are irreproachable.*

Let us look into our own hearts. Is not this excessive vigilance against religious zeal, to be referred to that dislike which we all feel, to be reminded of our own imperfections, omissions, and remissness? Let us judge in this matter as we do in others, and we shall be infinitely more afraid of doing too little, than too much; of falling into indifference, than of rising into fanaticism.

But the world is leagued to tolerate one extreme, and to reprobate only the other. Moreover, he who avoids. the former evil is, by exquisite injustice, almost inevitably charged with incurring the latter.

What then shall the young Christian do? There is formed against him a combination of the lax, thé proud, the vicious, and the worldly minded; who have all determined to affix on him some hard name, if he serve his Maker with more consistency than themselves. If he give an eighth part as much time to religious considerations, as he does to his worldly profession, or his . amusements; by one or all these classes, he shall be called

There is a charge, but it is as yet an unsubstantiated charge, brought against the Methodists, of having caused the late disturbances in Yorkshire! When proofs are brought forward, their validity will, no doubt, be examined. Meantime, let us withhold our censure from a sect, whose distinguishing characteristic is the love of peace, and order.

a Saint, an Enthusiast, a Zealot, or a Methodist. Nay, there is a set of men, with whom to be called by the least offensive name that we can hit on to express our meaning, is enough to condemn him; and with them, to call a man religious, or even serious, is to set upon him the mark of proscription, and to make him the fit subject, often of ridicule, but always of contempt and avoidance. Who can withstand a combination so powerful, so murderous ? Unless the youthful candidate for the favour of his God, have more than a common share of stability, and independence of character, he lives but to become a sacrifice to popular opinion; to have his hopes destroyed by the malevolence of the envious, or the desperation of the profligate; his bright prospects obscured by the thick fog of infidelity.

But let us, my friends, act a more generous part; and if we will not ourselves live like rational beings, and consistent Christians, let us not deter those who would do so.

For what may be the consequence, if we thus unite to sanction and promote the evil in question? May it not in time be enough to stamp a man ridiculous, that he should talk about his soul, his immortal state, his Makes, or his Redeemer; or even that he should introduce such a word as virtue into common conversation? Let us not add to the folly and guilt of irreligious conduct in ourselves, the cruelty of encouraging it in others; the selfishness of wishing, that if we are ourselves in a scrape, all other men may be comprehended in it.

Far be it from me to think of fanaticism, but with dread. Religious zeal however, and fanaticism, have no more a necessary connexion, than courage and rashness; they may be distinct from each other, as wisdom from folly; though the modern advocates of what they call ra tional religion, allow no mean between wild speculation, united with absurd practice, and cold, dull, mere morality. But thus much I will venture to affirm, that the wildest religious devotee, who ever went to the extremes of fanaticism, (provided he have not actually infringed

those leading doctrines of the Gospel, which it makes absolutely essential to salvation, as did a Ravaillac, or a Fawkes) is in more hopeful case, than those cold moralists, who, allowing to religion no share in their hearts, make it merely a convenient instrument to confirm them in moral conduct; an appendage to morality. Where an all-benevolent God is the Being who claims our service, I had rather be a glowing, though extravagant devotee, than one of those abortive productions of religion, who content to dwell in decencies for ever," feel no warm affections towards their Maker; no lively apprehension of his presence; none of that holy awe, and devotion, which we ought to feel, when standing before so great a Being; none of that ardent love which we ought to feel for so great a Benefactor; none of that warm aspiration which we ought to manifest, after the joys of heaven. Shall we burn to emulate the conquests of heroes, whose deeds are blazoned in the page of history; and shall wẹ not long to emulate his triumphs, and catch his spirit, who got the victory over death, and hell? Shall we melt with sympathy at the fate of Socrates, sacrificed by an ungrateful people; or Regulus, self condemned to suffer for his country; and shall we not sympathize with his sufferings, who died that we might live? Shall the spark of enthusiam be kindled within us, when we read the apophthegms of ancient sages; and shall our hearts not burn within us, when we study in that book which has brought life, and immortality to light? Shall we long to wander over that classic ground which the ashes of poets, philosophers, and wits, have made sacred to learning, elegance, and refinement; and shall we not glow with ardent desire to reach those ethereal plains, where faith is swallowed up in certainty, and hope in fruition? Let us direct our cares to that point where the greatest danger exists. "We know," says Dr. Johnson, that a few strokes of the axe will lop a cedar; but

..

I what arts of cultivation can elevate a shrub ?"

To conclude: enthusiasm in religion, is like "the

mighty wind of heaven," which wafts the merchant's vessel to her wished for port. Without it, she could never reach her destination; but unless the pilot's ski!! to direct, and the sailor's activity to execute, be both employed to keep her in the proper track; the same impetus, which with a right direction, would have carried her to the haven where she would be," may drive her past recal, on the rocks of destruction.

CHAPTER IV.

On Duelling.

IN treating of, and inculcating that spirit of pure Chris

tianity which suffereth all things," it cannot be out of place to offer some remarks upon the crime of duelling.

The most plausible argument which has ever been urged in defence of this vice, is, that it is self-defence, and that upon this ground, viz. that to withhold a challenge when we have been insulted, or not to accept one when it is sent us, is to exclude ourselves from the advantages, and delights of society. Now in the first place, it is not to exclude ourselves from the society of those whose company is really desirable; and in the next place, if it were so, this would no more authorize it, than the contempt in which a chaste man is held in the world, would warrant fornication.*

*I will not take upon me to say, that not to have licentious intercourse with women is accounted as contemptible in the fashionable world, as to refuse a challenge; but it is accounted so contemptible, that scarcely any men are found bold enough to confess or to defend it. It is held