she would make them understand it also. It is in a good degree owing to the want of religious knowledge in teachers, that there is so little religion in the world. Unless the Bible is laid open to the understanding, children may read from Genesis to the Revelation, without any other improvement then barely learning how to pronounce the words. Mrs. Crew found there was but one way to compel their attention; this was, by obliging them to return back again to her the sense of what she had read to them, and this they might do in their own words, if they could not remember the words of Scripture. Those who had weak capacities would, to be sure, do this but very imperfectly; but even the weakest, if they were willing, would retain something. She so managed, that saying the catechism was not merely an act of the memory, but of the understanding; for she had observed formerly, that those who had learned the catechism in the common, formal way, when they were children, had never understood it when they became men and women, and it remained in the memory without having made any impression on the mind. Thus this fine summary of the Christian religion is considered as little more than a form of words, the being able to repeat which is a qualification for being confirmed by the bishop, instead of being considered as really containing those grounds of Christian faith and practice by which they are to be confirmed Christians.

So

Mrs. Crew used to say to Mrs. Jones," Those who teach the poor must indeed give line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, as they can receive it. that teaching must be a great grievance to those who do not really make it a 'labor of love.' I see so much levity, obstinacy, and ignorance, that it keeps my own forbearance in continual exercise; insomuch, that I trust that I am getting good myself while I am doing good to others. No one, madam, can know till they try, that after they have asked a poor untaught child the same question nineteen times, they must not lose their temper, but go on and ask it the twentieth. Now and then, when I am tempted to be impatient, I correct myself, by thinking over that active proof which our blessed Savior requires of our love to him, when he says, Feed my lambs.'"

6

Hester Wilmot had never been bred to go to church, for her father and mother had never thought of going themselves, unless at a christening in their own family, or at a funeral of their neighbors, both of which they considered merely as

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opportunities for good eating and drinking, and not as offices of religion.

As poor Hester had no comfort at home, it was the less wonder she delighted in her school, her Bible, and her church; for so great is God's goodness, that he is pleased to make religion a peculiar comfort to those who have no other comfort. The God whose name she had seldom heard, but when it was taken in vain, was now revealed to her as a God of infinite power, justice, and holiness. What she read in her Bible, and what she felt in her own heart, convinced her she was a sinner; and her catechism said the same. She was much distressed, one day, on thinking over this promise which she had just made (in answer to the question which fell to her lot), "to renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful Justs of the flesh." I say, she was distressed on finding that these were not merely certain words which she was bound to repeat, but certain conditions which she was bound to perform. She was sadly puzzled to know how this was to be done, till she met with these words in her Bible: "My grace is sufficient for thee." But still she was at a loss to know how this grace was to be obtained. Happily, Mr. Simpson preached on the next Sunday from this text, "Ask, and ye shall receive," &c. In this sermon was explained to her the nature, the duty, and the efficacy of prayer. After this, she opened her heart to Mrs. Crew, who taught her the great doctrines of Scripture, in a serious, but plain way. Hester's own heart led her to assent to that humbling doctrine of the catechism, that "We are by nature born in sin" and truly glad was she to be relieved by hearing of that "spiritual grace by which we have a new birth unto righteousness.' Thus her mind was no sooner humbled by one part, than it gained comfort from another. On the other hand, while she was rejoicing in "a lively hope in God's mercy through Christ," her mistress put her in mind that that was the only true repentance, "by which we forsake sin." Thus the catechism, explained by a pious teacher, was found to contain "all the articles of the Christian faith."

Mrs. Jones greatly disapproved the practice of turning away the scholars because they were grown up. Young people," said she, "want to be warned at sixteen, more than they did at six, and they are commonly turned adrift at the very age when they want most instruction; when dangers and temptations most beset them. They are exposed to more evil by the leisure of a Sunday evening than by the business

of a whole week: but then religion must be made pleasant, and instruction must be carried on in a kind, and agreeable, and familiar way. If they once dislike the teacher, they will soon get to dislike what is taught; so that a master or mistress is in some measure answerable for the future piety of young persons, inasmuch as that pięty depends on their manner of making religion pleasant, as well as profitable."

To attend Mrs. Jones's evening instructions was soon thought not a task, but a holiday. In a few months it was reckoned a disadvantage to the character of any young person in the parish, to know they did not attend the evening school. At first, indeed, many of them came only with a view to amusement; but, by the blessing of God, they grew fond of instruction, and some of them became truly pious. Mrs. Jones spoke to them one Sunday evening as follows:→ My dear young women, I rejoice at your improvement; but I rejoice with trembling. I have known young people set out well, who afterwards fell off. The heart is deceitful. Many like religious knowledge, who do not like the strictness of a religious life. I must therefore watch whether those who are diligent at church and school, are diligent in their daily walk; whether those who say they believe in God, really obey him; whether they who profess to love Christ, keep his commandments. Those who hear themselves commended for early piety, may learn to rest satisfied with the praise of man. People may get a knack at religious phrases, without being religious; they may even go to frequent places of worship as an amusement, in order to meet their friends, and may learn to delight in a sort of spiritual gossip, while religion has no power in their hearts. But I hope better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though I thus speak.""

What became of Hester Wilmot, with some account of Mrs. Jones's May-day feast for her school, my readers will be told in the next part.

PART II.

The New Gown.

HESTER WILMOT, I am sorry to observe, had been, by nature, peevish and lazy: she would, when a child, now and then slight her work; and, when her mother was very un

reasonable, she was too apt to return a saucy answer; bui when she became acquainted with her own heart, and with the Scriptures, these evil tempers were, in a good measure, subdued; for she now learned to imitate, not her violent mother, but "Him who was meek and lowly." When she was scolded for doing ill, she prayed for grace to do better; and the only answer she made to her mother's charge, “that religion only served to make people lazy," was to strive to do twice as much work, in order to prove that it really made them diligent. The only thing in which she ventured to disobey her mother was, that when she ordered her to do week-day's work on a Sunday, Hester cried, and said, she did not dare to disobey God; but to show that she did not wish to save her own labor, she would do a double portion of work on the Saturday night, and rise two hours earlier on the Monday morning.

Once, when she had worked very hard, her mother told her she would treat her with a holiday the following Sabbath, and take her a fine walk to eat cakes and drink ale at Weston fair; which, though it was professed to be kept on the Monday, yet, to the disgrace of the village, always began on the Sunday evening.* Rebecca, who would, on no account, have wasted the Monday, which was a working day, in idleness and pleasure, thought she had a very good right to enjoy herself at the fair on the Sunday evening, as well as to take her children. Hester earnestly begged to be left at home, and her mother, in a rage, went without her. A wet walk, and more ale than she was used to drink, gave Rebecca a dangerous fever. During this illness, Hester, who would not follow her to a scene of dissolute mirth, attended her night and day, and denied herself necessaries, that her sick mother might have comforts; and though she secretly prayed to God that this sickness might change her mother's heart, yet she never once reproached her, or put her in mind that it was caught by indulging in a sinful pleasure.

Another Sunday night, her father told Hester, he thought she had now been at school long enough for him to have a little good of her learning; so he desired she would stay at home and read to him. Hester cheerfully ran and fetched

*This practice is too common. Those fairs which profess to be kept on Monday, commonly begin on the Sunday. It is much to be wished that magistrates would put a stop to it, as Mr. Simpson did at Weston, at the request of Mrs. Jones. There is another great evil worth the notice of justices. In many villages, during the fair, ale is sold at private houses, which have no license, to the great injury of sobriety and good morals.

her Testament. But John fell a laughing, called her a fool, and said, it would be time enough to read the Testament to him when he was going to die, but at present he must have something merry. So saying, he gave her a song-book which he had picked up at the Bell. Hester, having cast her eyes over it, refused to read it; saying, she did not dare offend God by reading what would hurt her own soul. John called her a canting hypocrite, and said he would put the Testament into the fire; for that there was not a more merry girl than she was before she became religious. Her mother for once took her part, not because she thought her daughter in the right, but because she was glad of any pretence to show her husband was in the wrong; though she herself would have abused Hester for the same thing, if John had taken her part. John, with a shocking oath, abused them both, and went off in a violent passion.

Hester, instead of saying one undutiful word against her father, took up a Psalter in order to teach her little sisters; but Rebecca was so provoked at her for not joining her in her abuse of her husband, that she changed her humor, said John was in the right, and Hester a perverse hypocrite, who only made religion a pretence for being undutiful to her parents. Hester bore all in silence, and committed her cause to Him "who judgeth righteously." It would have been a great comfort to her if she had dared to go to Mrs. Crew, and to have joined in the religious exercises of the evening at school. But her mother refused to let her; saying, it would only harden her heart in mischief. Hester said not a word; but, after having put the little ones to bed, and heard them say their prayers, out of sight, she went and sat down in her own little loft, and said to herself, "It would be pleasant to me to have taught my little sisters to read: I thought it was my duty, for David has said, 'Come, ye children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.' It would have been still more pleasant to have passed the evening at school, because I am still ignorant, and fitter to learn than to teach; but I cannot do either without flying in the face of my mother; God sees fit to-night to change my pleasant duties into a painful trial. I give up my will, and I submit to the will of my father; but when he orders me to commit a known sin, then I dare not do it, because, in so doing, I must disobey my Father which is in heaven."

Now, it so fell out, that this dispute happened on the very Sunday next before Mrs. Jones's yearly feast. On May-day all the school attended her to church, each in a stuff gown