Will. Aye, here it is! here it is! I will come to him! I will pray to him!

[He kisses the place with great affection, and receives comfort from it.]

Notes on the Second Dialogue.

The impressions of the serious discourse mentioned in the first dialogue, that this young man had with his comrade, were so great that they could not be concealed.

Note.-A change wrought in the heart will infallibly show itself in the conversation.

The master and mistress being good people themselves, received impressions of the alteration in the boy, suitable to the nature of the thing; but the rest of the servants dreamed nothing of it.

Note.-The symptoms of conversion are easily discovered by those who know the working of the Spirit of God, while they are perfectly invisible to others.

By the agony the boy was in at the reading the comminations of the scripture against sin, without the promissory part may be observed.

That mere convictions of sin drive to despair: but nei ther direct to, nor inquire after a remedy.

That comforting scriptures generally want explaining : terrifying scriptures explain themselves.

Here it may be worth observing,

1. The benefit of religious conversation, even among young children, and the great duty of making our society instructing to one another.

2. The advantage of placing children in religious fa

milies.

If this poor child bad not fallen into such a family as this, the temptation he was under to despair, might, in all probability, have prevailed over him; and either have led him

to give over his inquiry after religious matters, or, if God had not restrained him, have driven him to extremities, such a distraction, and, perhaps, self-destruction, as is often the consequence too in like cases; for " a wounded spirit

who can bear?"

Observe the poor child's fear of its being too late for him to find mercy, or be accepted.

If it might be too late for him, what have they to fear who run on to grey hairs in an impenitent state! Well might his mistress observe, that his too late was sooner than her early; and so it is with many.

From the good woman's applying the scriptures to him for comfort, observe how the scriptures are to be read.

1. With serious seeking God for the assistance of his Spirit to open our understandings, that we may understand the scriptures; for without his teaching, all our reading will be in vain.

2. With a due comparing one text with another, that the scriptures being their own just expositor, may reconcile the truths of God, as they ought to be understood.

3. For want of this, we rob ourselves of the comfort of the scriptures, pass over those things prepared to heal and restore the soul, and fill our hearts with distracting doubts about our own state, which are always harder to be resolved and removed, by how much they seem confirmed by the mistaken authority of the scripture.

Observe. The good woman finding the boy had received comfort from that blessed promise of our Lord, and that he was affectionately expressing his resolution to cast himself at the feet of Christ, crying out I will come to him; and in a kind of rapture, kissing the words which he had showed him, she wisely withdrew; believing it was a happy juncture, in which the child ought to be left alone, that he might give himself full vent, with fervency and earnestness to call upon God; and though this causes the dialogue to break off sooner, and more abruptly than it, might have done, yet it is conceived, as much is here set

down, as may answer the design of it, viz. the instruction

of others.

Ending these notes with this observation for the reader's information-That as far as this account is really histori cal, and points at any particular family, this boy or young man came to be eminent for piety, and religious life, in the place where he lived; and being settled in that country, was a very useful instrument in the propagating Christian knowledge, and supporting the interest of true religion in all the country around him, and perhaps is living still.

THE THIRD DIALOGUE.

The young lad who had been so happily instrumental in the conviction and conversion of his comrade, had thereby rendered himself so agreeable to the good people, who, as I said before, were master and mistress of the other lad, that they could not but be very willing to converse a little with him themselves; and, to that end, caused their apprentice, who called him brother, to bring him to their house; where, in time, he became very intimate, and they were much pleased and diverted with his pretty discourses, which were always about religion and serious things.

Among the rest of his discourse, he never forgot to bemoan himself for bis being placed in a family of no religious order, without the worship of God in it,-and where he' had neither public opportunity to serve God, nor private retirement for the discharge of his duty.

The good people encouraged him to bear it, and seri ously advised him not to let the sense of his own duty wear off, or to allow himself in the omission of private prayer to God, whatever obstructions he met with for want of retirement and opportunity; and invited him to come over to

then house, as often as he could, at their hours of familyworship, and join with them.

This he not only gladly accepted, but constantly attended, and did it so avowedly, not regarding how it might interfere with his master's hours, and his own conveniences, that his master took offence at his being so often out of the way; and not knowing the least of what occasioned his absence, complained to his father of it, as if it had been some wicked course he had followed; telling him, that his son did not behave himself so orderly; that he was out of his business unseasonably; that he must have some bad haunts, for that he generally went out every morning very early (being then winter), long before day, and in the evenings was absent often at supper; that on the Lord's day evening he was never to be found, and the like; and therefore desired his father to take some care about him, that if he went on he would be ruined. He farther acquainted his father, that the boy had appeared very melancholy and discontented; that he had often asked him if any thing ailed him, or if he was not well, and he always answered yes; that he asked him if he did not like his business, and still he answered yes, very well; so that he knew not what ailed him, and desired his father to talk with him, for if he carried it thus he could not bear it, but must send him home again.

The father, who knew his son to be a sober, religious child, and partly knew the reason of his discontent, was not at all surprised at that part of his master's complaint, which related to his appearing melancholy and dissatisfied. But the other part of his discourse alarmed him a little, about being out of the house at unseasonable hours, and giving no account of himself; and therefore readily promised to talk with his son, and examine him about it, that his conduct might be rectified.

Accordingly he finds an opportunity to talk with the lad, and lets him know all his master had laid to his charge, charging him to tell him the truth of the whole matter.

The boy, not at all surprised, told his father the whole case very honestly-how that his master had no such thing as family-worship in his house; but that they lived all like heathens there, pursuing the world as if it was their heaven, without the least regard of their duty to God, or any thing that was religious. "And you, Sir," says the boy to his father, " having always instructed me in other things, and taught me to live after another manner, it was very uneasy to me, as I have formerly hinted to you: but I have of late made myself a little easy, by getting an acquaintance in Mr.'s family, an honest clothier, whó lives over against our house, who are very good people, and who constantly go to prayers every morning at six o'clock, and every evening at eight or nine, and I get up every day to go over there to prayer with their family, and every Lord's-day, I go thither in the evening, where the good man reads to his family, and examines his children and servants, and then prays with them. While at our house, all the evening is spent in feasting and visiting, or idle discourse, not at all to the business of the day. This is the whole case."

When the lad had ended his discourse, and the father was assured of the truth of it, he took his son in his arms, and kissed and embraced him very affectionately, and

said

"The blessing of God and thy father be upon thee, my dear, that has made so good a use of só unhappy an omission of mine. It was my sin, my dear, and an inex cuseable error in me, to put thee out to a family where the name of God is not called upon, and the worship of God not regarded; by which I run the venture of thy soul's good, and of having all the pains I had taken in teaching and instructing thee in the ways of God, and in the knowledge of religion, lost and abused; and had it been so, thy ruin had been at my door, having regarded only the trade, and the prospect of worldly advantage, in placing thee there, not the good of thy soul; but, since