words: "Let love be without dissimulation; abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good; be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honour preferring one another." Then he quoted from St. John "God is love;" and dropped some very wise and rich remarks, how God, our God in Christ, being love, needed no other happiness than what he possessed in his own infinitely lovely existence; and that we were proportionably happy in the enjoyment of our existence also, as we existed in him. He observed that the highest indulgence to a gracious mind was to confer that happiness on others, in loving them and doing them good, as through the pardoning love of Christ such infinite good had been done to us by our regeneration and conversion to him. That self-love was the natural principle on which all mankind acted in their fallen state; that the grace of the Holy Spirit was commu. nicated to crucify and mortify this hellish principle in man, and to implant in him another principle perfectly supernatural, a most solemn and sacred love to God for his own sake, and a most merciful and tender love to man for God's sake. He strongly remarked how contrary a spirit of tyranny and orpression was to the spirit of Christianity; that sin turned men into monsters, rendered them " implacable, unmerciful, and without natural affection;" that the grace of the gospel on the contrary turns monsters into men, not only directing them to be loving, gentle, and merciful among themselves, "in distributing to the necessities of the saints, and in being given to hospitality;" but constraining them to go beyond all this, even "to bless our very persecutors while we could recompense to no man evil for evil; but, if possible, as much as in us lay, to live peaceably with all men;" therefore the Christian, instead of avenging himself, chose rather "to give place

unto wrath." If therefore even "his very enemy hungered, he would feed him, if he thirsted he would give him drink;" thus instead of being overcome of evil, he was directed like, his Lord and Master" to overcome evil with good." Thus he went on with the chapter, impressing the same tempers and graces on the family as were then before them in the Bible. He then observed how the reverse of all this was exemplified in the horrid business of the slave trade; that the whole of its establishment was founded on the "mammon of unrighteousness," on a selfish love of the world; and that the result of this infernal traffic could not be otherwise than what it really was, a regular system of wholesale licensed thievery and murder; that instead. of supposing the principles of Christianity could for a moment allow such a hellish commerce in human blood, directly as we are made by the power of the gospel what we should be by the letter of the law, we are blessed with the spirit of universal love. We are meek, merciful, loving," pure in heart,"— "blameless and harmless, the sons of God." The furious lion is softened into the lamb, and all that is venomous and evil, as in the serpent kind, is powerfully extracted from our natures by the blood of the everlasting covenant," whereby we "draw near. to God," and are constrained to live to his glory.

66

Next he dropped some delicate hints on the bles-sedness of this religion, as it brought down such happiness into families, by making them experience a little heaven in themselves and their houses. The Farmer, Henry, and Miss Nancy felt the application, for they could "sc to their seal that God was true," in the glorious influences of the power of converting grace upon their own hearts.

After the chapter had been thus read and expounded, the following hymn, just before, com-

posed by Mr. Lovegood, was given out, and Thomas Newman pitched the tune:

Now let the efforts of our praise
Arise to him who reigns above;
In whose essential holiness
Dwells the eternal flame of love.

Jesus, our God, thy love we sing,
Unknown to sinners of our race,
Till thy compassion brought thee down
To save us by thy wond'rous grace.

Then what is heav'n but as we find
In thee is all we wish to be;
And what is hell in man, dear Lord,
But as he is devoid of thee?

Then where is heav'n but in the soul,
Who dwells in thee supremely bless'd,
And where is hell but on the shore
Where mercy finds no peaceful rest?

Soon may this love and mercy reach
The swarthy tribes of Afric's shore;
Those slaves of sin thou canst set free,
And bid them go and sin no more.

We blush with holy shame that men
Who bear thy sacred name, our God,
Should dare one single man enslave,
Or shed one drop of human blood.

Kindle the flame of love divine
In some kind heralds of thy grace;
And bid each distant clime receive

The gladsome news of heavenly peace!

After the hymn, Mr. Lovegood offered up a very appropriate prayer, first for themselves and the family, blessing God for the grace already given, and praying for further vouchsafements where still needed for the rest of the company then present; for the

people of his ministerial charge; for the further spread of the gospel; for the king and government; and for those objects of human woe who had been made the subject of their conversation.-Soon after this the company withdrew; and if the reader be not tired in reading, he must exercise his patience in waiting the return of Mrs. Worthy from Lancashire, before the subject of the slave trade be reassumed in another dialogue, and then concluded. In the interval, however, the reader will find in the two next dialogues a more minute account of the family of the Littleworths than was at first designed.

DIALOGUE XI.

THE HISTORY OF THE FAMILY OF THE LITTLEWORTHS, WITH THE CHARACTER OF RECTOR FILLPOT, AND MR. MEEK, HIS WELSH CURATE.

TH

HERE lived in the town of Ruckford, about fifteen miles from Mapleton, a Mr. Nathaniel Steadyman, who had united himself to Farmer Littleworth's family by marrying his younger sister. His occupation was that of a Currier, in which line he did a considerable deal of business, and was in general esteem among his neighbours for his candour and integrity.

The family of the Littleworths, however, were unfortunately educated. In point of religion they were tutored in all the high church notions of the day; so that the least deviation from the established church, was, in their esteem, more to be dreaded than a thousand deviations from the common rules of morality; insomuch, that even cursing and swearing was a much smaller offence than attending a conventicle, and scarcely any offence at all, provided people exercised their profane talents against the Dissenters. Report also says, that old Mr. Simon Littleworth, with all his family, used to drink the Pretender's health after dinner, and that it was well he did not lose his life in the rebellion in the year 1745, for entertaining and encouraging the rebel army when in the North, against the present family upon the throne, by whom our civil and religious