individual I allude to was one of three brothers, sons of a wealthy merchant, who resided in a maritime town, not far from London. The three young men were exceedingly talented, and exulting in a conscious superiority, affected originality in all their opinions, and became philosophers on their own account. When the subject of religion began to be discussed in the town, they entered eagerly into it: the pride of human intellect added to the natural enmity of the carnal heart arrayed themselves in fierce opposition to the humbling doctrines of Christianity, and at last the three brothers openly declared themselves infidels.

'At this time,' said the gentleman who was relating to us his history,' when my brothers and I were glorying in having emancipated ourselves from the trammels of superstition and priestcraft,—for so we called religion,-there was residing in our family, as head clerk and manager of my father's affairs, a man of the most decided piety. Every thing was entrusted to his care, and truly I may compare him to Joseph in Potiphar's house, for all his undertakings prospered. A blessing seemed to attend whatever he was concerned in; when other people's vessels were lost, or cargoes damaged, ours arrived safely into port, and my father, though notoriously a man of pleasure, and neglectful of his affairs, increased rapidly in wealth and consideration. This excellent person was as faithful and zealous in his heavenly Master's service, as in that of his earthly one; and I never can help thinking that to his prayers, under God, we were indebted for the mercy afterwards extended to us. Our profane conduct and infidel principles were very grievous to him, as may be sup

posed. He never neglected an opportunity of admonishing us, and boldly professed his sentiments in the midst of our jeers and scoffs. These were not spared we desired no better amusement than to torment him, and all that our youthful ingenuity could devise was resorted to, to annoy and try his temper. Ridicule, nicknames, caricatures; persecution of every kind and in every place was kept up unceasingly; even at his meals he had no peace. The way in which he bore all this, the forbearance, the love he returned to his tormentors, struck me then many a time with astonishment; and how often since I have glorified God for enabling him to shew forth such a consistent and attractive example of true religion. One day when we were more than usually bitter in our taunts and sarcasms, his wife, unable to bear it any longer, rose from the table in tears: I overheard her afterwards entreating him to refrain from speaking any more to us on religious subjects; saying that he exposed not only himself, but the cause, to insult. 'Well,' he replied, perhaps you are right; but, my dear, you know we can pray for them still; we must redouble our efforts in that way, now that no other is left.'

"This worthy man, after living some years in my father's employment, fell sick and died. His last act, a few minutes before he breathed his last, was to write to us. I shall never forget his letter; and never shall I forget the morning when it was brought in and laid on my desk-I was engaged in composing a pamphlet against Christianity, and one of my brothers was in the same room, reading. I took up the paper, on which were traced, in nearly illegible characters, these words: 'I am departing for that world

about which we have so often spoken. Before I go I write to bid farewell to my three dear young friends, and to express my hope that when I see them again it may not be on the left hand of the Judge.' I threw the letter over to my brother, and took up the pen, though my hand was shaking violently, to go on with my pamphlet; but I never wrote another word of it. There was, I remember, a very long pause, and my brother was the first to break silence.

"Well,' he said, 'poor

is gone! we shall have to go too some day, I suppose.'

"Yes,' I answered, and after all, it is a bad thing to be obliged to take the leap in the dark. It might be worth our while, at all events, to try and find out whether there be any truth in what he has been telling us.'

"That evening, after nightfall, my brother and I sallied forth and provided ourselves with a Bible, a copy of Paley's evidences, and two or three other works of the same stamp. It pleased God to bless our study of them. The brother who was with me when our poor friend's letter was brought in was the first to become a Christian: a fortnight afterwards he was thrown from the top of a coach and killed on the spot. The mercy that had just interposed in time to save his immortal soul was not lost upon the survivors; and now the ardent desire to endeavour to repair the mischief we had done in our native town, by the diffusion of our infidel principles, took possession of us. We posted printed notices on the walls, stating that on a certain day, at a certain place, we would deliver a lecture to the people on an important subject. Hundreds assembled to hear us, and in the evening it was reported that the young gone mad.'

-s had

This was the first step in the useful career of the narrator of the above. What has become of his remaining brother I know not, but he himself selected Ireland as his field of action, and established himself there, because,' he used to say with a good-humoured smile, 'I thought you wanted to be looked after a little.' He has learned the Irish language,no easy task for an Englishman, and I have heard him preach in it to the poor people, and seen the. tracts he has written for them in their native tongue. This truly excellent man is in the constant habit of making short journeys on foot, or in humble conveyances, in order to bring him in contact with the igno rant peasantry, and talk to them about their spiritual concerns, in the accents they love so well. In short, his time, his talents, his property-all are now devoted, with the most self-denying zeal, to the service of Him whom he once derided and despised.

May all to whom the Lord has vouchsafed any measure of light, however faint and feeble, be ena- › bled to let it shine before men to his glory. May that light increase more and more unto the perfect day, until at last it shines like the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever in heaven.

DECEMBER, 1837.

2 L

M. F. D.

THE JESUITS.

IN a scarce old book, written by Dr. Du Moulin, chaplain to Charles II, and published in 1664, appears the following relation, with a great deal of corroborative matter. The subject is one, at this juncture, deserving of most serious and earnest attention. No person in possession of his right faculties, who allows himself to consider what is passing around us, can doubt that the present is a time of extraordinary effort on the part of these pernicious characters, to regain their long lost ascendancy here. They are even now at work: disguised, and in most cases unsuspected. They are in the senate and in the pot-house club: in the established church; through every order of dissent; and in the weekly assemblages of avowed infidels. They are in the public meeting, the social party, and often in the privileged circle of chosen friends, like the undetected enemy in the garden of Eden. They wield the pen of literature in all its branches: actually presiding over more than one periodical work. We have need to pray against being ignorant of their devices: we have need to put up, as individual members of the Protestant churches, that supplication which Elizabeth in the plenitude of her worldly wisdom, expunged from the litany where her blessed brother, Edward VI. had placed it; 'From the tyranny of the