any things of good report: if there be any virtue; if there be any praise ;" shall we defend conduct, which so grossly outrages them all?

If it be allowable in ald age thus to trifle away life, it is doubly allowable in youth; for if any be called on to be ready with that account of good deeds, and selfdenial, which, as we have seen, all must produce who hope for reward, and would escape punishment; surely it is those, who are next in the list of candidates for immortality. Sixty years experience, Senex, should have taught you to discriminate better; should have made you a judge of more important things than plays, and operas; and, if you do know these better things, be persuaded, happy shall it be for you, if you will do them. If you do them not, you must be prepared to offer to your judge some better excuse for the omission, than that you found the attractions of the theatre very great; or thought them, even in the degree in which you yielded to them, innocent. For as much knowledge of the Scriptures as you might have got by reading them once through with attention, would have taught you a very different belief. You could not seriously have read those many texts which call on you to follow your Saviour in self-denial, and godly simplicity; to be found watching when your Lord cometh, having your "conversation in heaven;" you could not see the Ephesians enjoined, not merely to forego voluptuous, and selfish indulgences, but to work with their hands the thing that is good," that they might "have to give to him that needeth," without feeling. that you were flying directly in the face of holy writ, and that the last thing in the world which you were about, was serving God in holiness, and righteousness before him." I do believe, that if plays were acted on a Sunday you would not go to them; at least not for a time. But why? There are not more duties to be performed on a Sunday than on any other day; we are

* Eph. iv. 28.

called on that day to serve God in a different mode, but not more entirely than on others: for it is the indispensable duty of every day to be holy, and whatsoever we do, to do it unto God." There is not, I believe, a text in the whole Scriptures, which forbids us in so many words to play on a Sunday, and we only refrain from playing, because we know that it is inconsistent with that particular mode of holiness, which we are called to on that particular day. But we are called to be holy on all days,

How, Senex, would you receive the honour which the Lord, through the mouth of Moses, directed the young to pay to the aged? Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man." (Lev. ix. 32.)

Should you not blush at a mark of respect, which you must be conscious that you so little deserved ? Should you not feel that such attention offered to old age so undignified as yours, was a mere mockery; and would not those who offered it, feel ashamed of the part they were acting?

But to see the matter in its full blaze of absurdity, we have only to take it thus. If it be allowable for one old man or old woman, to go to the play three times a week; it is, cæteris paribus, allowable for all old men and women to do so. And thus we have only to fancy all the grand-fathers, and grand-mothers in England who can afford it, thrice a week, at the play, to see on what foundations their arguments rest, who defend such conduct in one; to see how certainly such reasoners go to defend a practice, which if it were once general, would soon overthrow all order, morality, and dignity amongst men. A theatre thrice a week filled with Octogenaires (and who would not give up his place to his grand-father?) must, I think, make us weep with pity for poor human nature, and feel ashamed of our share in it: but there would be nothing wrong, or lamentable, or indecorous in all this, if it be not wrong, and lamentable, and indecorous, for Senex to go three times a week to the play.

To conclude the chapter. Fancy not then, my friends, that ignorance of the sufferings of your fellow-creatures,

excuses your not relieving them, for your ignorance is wilful, and wilful ignorance of what it is our duty to know, is an unpardonable crime. You ought to know the distresses of your brethren, and you might know them, if you gave yourself but half as much trouble to find them out, as you give yourselves in the search after pleasure. And are you not ashamed of selfishness so gross? Will you claim, or expect the title of social and benevolent beings, whilst you expend more both of time and money on your own individual pleasures, than on the absolute wants of all your fellow-creatures united? You are indeed social, as cows, and pigs, and sheep, are social; that is, you are gregarious. But so long as there remain any within your reach absolutely wanting those things for support, the means of obtaining which you are lavishing on your own idle pleasures; so long you are selfish contempti ble beings, and social is the last title which you ought

to claim.

CHAP. III.

On Enthusiasm in Religion.

ENTHUSIASM is a word, which Englishmen have de

termined, shall, in its general acceptation, signify laudable ardour; but as applied to religion, ardour not laudable. Now the meanings of words are assuredly arbitrary, and men have an undoubted right to attach to them what significations they please; but it is not a little unfortunate for the cause of religion, that the above mentioned distinction should exist. For the young especially, bearing in their

recollection, the sense commonly attached to enthusiasm, and hearing it in religion loudly condemned, learn to think, that there is something very shocking in religious ardour; that to be very earnest in the service of God, must be a dreadful evil. Nemo vir magnus, sine afflatu aliquo divino, unquam fuit," says Cicero; and we are all of us I believe, ready enough to allow in the present day, that there is little chance of a man's making much progress in any science or profession, unless he enter into it with enthusi

asm.

He who does not so begin, commonly ends in apathy; and there is generally much more fear that men should fall short of the mark, than that they should go beyond it; that they should want spurring, rather than restraining.

But in religion it should seem, if we may judge from the outcry that is made against enthusiasm, and the little that is said about laxness and indifference, the grand fear is, that we should go too far; that we should serve God too intensely. And so great has been the watchfulness of the world to prevent this danger; so vigilantly have men raised barriers against the incursions of fanaticism; that they have scarcely left us a word by which to express laudable ardour in religion. To have zeal, is to be a Zealot to have sanctity, is to be a Saint; to be serious, and sober-minded, is to be a Methodist.

But is it really possible to serve God too intensely, or too exclusively? Surely not; we may err in the mode, but can never exceed in the degree. We may act like fools and madmen'; we may be visionary fanatics; but we can never be too entirely devoted to God. We may fix upon silly forms and methods of devotion; but we can never give ourselves up too wholly to our Maker's service, for our whole lives. ought to be a scene of continued devotedness to him. The most indifferent actions ouglit to be performed in such a spirit, if it be in him that "we live, and move, and have our being," and to him that we must render an account of our actions.

If the cry were really against fanaticism only, who

would be found to defend her cause? does she now hold empire?

But over whom

Or where shall we find

her power holding out against that of lax indifference?

We shall be told that the Methodists are fanatics. By what shall we judge them such? How does Scripture direct us in the inquiry? "Ye shall know them by their fruits," says our Saviour. What fruits then has Methodism produced? Wild heats of imagination? Dangerous flights of speculation? But if this be the case, then also does the Church of England lie open to the same stigma, for both hold the same doctrines. The Methodist faith, as explained by one of their preachers, is a firm belief of the Trinity; of the divine nature and atonement of Christ, and the absolute necessity of good works to receive the benefit of that atonement; a benefit, say the Methodists, attainable alike by all who observe the prescribed terms, without any distinction, partial predestination, or election. Thus far then, i. e. in their faith, the Methodists are not fanatics, unless the members of the established church be also such.

In what then does their fanaticism consist? Do they forsake the duties of their callings, and neglect the necessary offices of social life, for idle religious ceremonies, and unmeaning formal observances? But there are no

workmen more clever in their respective branches, and none, generally speaking, so assiduous as Methodists. And if I am called on to prove what I assert, I refer the reader to the Colliers of Staffordshire, and the Cornwall Miners; formerly perhaps the most profligate and idle bodies of men, amongst the lower class of this kingdom. What are they now? Orderly, sober, devout, industrious. We still indeed hear swearing, and see drunkenmess, idleness, and debauchery amongst them; but they are not Methodists who swear, drink, and are idle.

If then the Methodists be fanatics, would to heaven that there were many more, not only almost, but al together such fanatics as they are !

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