ence. I see that it corrects many smaller degrees of sin, which, if indulged, evidently trains the lips to utter stronger and stronger expressions.

Sir, I have thought it to be like the sin of drinking. Men begin by little and little, till they can't do without stronger and stronger and they get from one liquor to another till they end in dry drams, and so consume away their own life. I know well how blasphemy works, and it had better never be begun, lest it shouldn't stop till it comes to that point that will not be forgiven, and so eternal death be sealed.

You seem to have impressed your lesson well on your boy.

God in his infinite mercy has blessed my prayer and my endeavour.

What plan have you pursued with him to fasten it so upon his recollection?

I've watched over him, Sir, in two ways-one, because he's my child, and I desired to bring him up for the Lord, and for his own eternal happiness-and the other, because he's my child, and the curse of his father might come down upon him! O my God! he exclaimed in a fervent ejaculation, I beseech Thee, visit not my sin upon my child, but shew

mercy on him, since thou hast shewn it to me, in turning me from my transgressions.

How did you watch him?

One thing, I've never suffered him to use words such as children generally doGood la-My goodness-Bless me-I'll be bound-I'll warrant-By my wordor other foolish sayings that may be thought nothing but fun. I never would let him pretend to be amazed, and struck with wonder, and so use great swelling words, for if you notice the way in which they say them, and the swearing tone of their voice, you may know they come of evil, and they prepare the Tongue for worse and worse. Especially when they hear other words, they soon imitate them. I always stopt him if he was going to say any thing more than plain Yes or No; and never let him make great words of surprise at any thing he saw or heard. It's a bad children do so; to let way poor so that at last they'll say, or do nothing, without taking God's Name in vain: and many a child of three or four years old, no sooner begins to speak for itself, than it takes the language of its wicked father, and shews the truth, that the sin of the fathers is visited on the children unto the third and fourth generation.

You seem to be disengaged to day; would it trouble you, if, as you are laid up, we were to ask you to tell us a little more of your history? I think it would be edifying to us all, to learn how God dealt with you, in converting you from the error of your ways, and giving you such a clear and conscientious feeling of your duty to your child.

A simple story's soon told, Sir; and as I am bound to glorify God in His Goodness, I will tell you with pleasure, if you'll have patience to listen. My wife's gone to take some needle-work home, and won't be back yet a while, and my boy's at school for the day.

CHAPTER IX.

JOHN looked round upon his guests to observe if they were comfortably seated, and upon our all declaring that we were quite at ease, he began his story.

My father, sir, was a weaver in a small market town, and my mother, who had been brought up in a better kind of fashion, used to earn a good deal by her needle, and they were both so bent upon working hard to get a good and plentiful livelihood, that they left me and my brother pretty much to ourselves. I oft try to trace the beginning of my sin, and though I'd be sorry to say anything disrespectful or undutiful of my parents, I believe the first seeds of blasphemy were laid in my early childhood.

We had a neighbour who was much given to the sin of swearing, and he had. three boys and a girl that used to be our playfellows from morning to night, so that Jem and I were used not only to hear him use the most dreadful oaths, but they were continually repeated in our

ears by our playmates. There's something in the sin of the heart which loves to hear and see what's kindred with it, so we soon became as bold and wicked in the transgression as any of them. I remember very well, the first oath I ventured to use before my father, surprised him, he said, "Hey lad! what dost swear for?" But I saw him wink and smile at my mother, and it was plain they thought it as spirited as I did myself. That look, sir, did away all the good of his word, for I saw he did not think it wrong. Now, sir, if my father had but enquired out where I'd learnt such a word, and had stopped our acquaintance at once, I might ha' been saved a deal of sin and shame; but he didn't think about the nature of it, and never knew perhaps the curse of God upon it.

Instead of being checked, I felt encouraged; and I grew so fond of swearing at length, that I never spoke the commonest thing without taking the Lord's name in vain. I seized any new form of oath I heard as greedily as a hungry man would take his morsel, and soon became in my turn an inventor of curses, and it would have surprised any one to have heard