his design to Attalus, and exhorted him to prepare to flee on the ensuing night. The intrepid slave at midnight silently drew the fleetest horses from the stable; unbarred the ponderous gates; and excited Attalus to save his life and liberty by incessant diligence. They both escaped in safety. Attalus with tears of joy, gratefully delivered Leo, with his whole family, from the yoke of servitude, and bestowed on him a farm where he might end his days in happiness. and freedom.

The grandfather embraced

We are apt to speak with a sort of compassionate contempt of heathens, and yet there are pious servants among them. Lady Duff Gordon, in her letters from Egypt, writes, that when she was ill she heard her servant Omar outside her door praying, "O God, make her better," "Oh, may God let her sleep," as naturally as we should say, "I hope she will have a good night." carries us back to the fields of Bethlehem, when the farmer Boaz approached his reapers with the salutation, "The Lord be with you;" and they answered, "The Lord bless thee."

This

Some servants have exercised a very prejudicial influence. They have scared infants by stories of ghosts and goblins, and have made them nervous and superstitious all their life long. A more enlightened class of nurses, by a simple and happy piety, have influenced their young charges most beneficially. The spectacle of a truly religious servant is sublime, because her interest is above earth and the earthly, and she seeks only the spiritual

* P. 78.

welfare of those committed to her care. This explains the influence and authority which even an illiterate Christian has, when in earnest.

Servants are often like Martha, cumbered about much serving; and their religion suffers in consequence, unless they are alive to the danger and strive against it. If not, they will find by experience how the little cares of life drive away the noble anxieties of the soul; how the gnats drive away the lions.

The following words of advice are offered in the kindliest spirit to all engaged in domestic service :—

1. Do not flatter and spoil the children.

2. Do not tyrannize over them.

:

3. Be a peacemaker among the other servants.

4. Beware of acquaintances and friends that are selfintroduced.

5. Do not misspend holidays, and employ to your ruin that which is set apart for innocent recreation and improvement.

6. On Sundays go to the house of God and worship Him. If you devote the hours of the Lord's day to pleasuring, you forfeit the Great Master's blessing.

A servant who acts according to these principles will, both in life and death, be "most highly valued and deeply lamented."* It is a fine trait of the grand impartiality of the Bible that it chronicles the death of Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, and tells us that she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth," the oak of weeping."

* Not infrequent notice of a servant's death in the newspapers.

CHAPTER XI.

RELIGION.

RELIGION is that instinct of human nature which feels that there is a God, and that He ought to be worshipped, and that his laws ought to be obeyed. It is as much an essential part of our nature as memory or hope. It will never die out. Not all the fires of revolution could consume, nor could torrents of blood quench the religious principle.

The amount of religious feeling in the world is regulated as exactly as the rainfall, or the force of the wind. Scandals prevent the excess and are the ne nimis of God. On the other hand, we may be well assured that though iniquity abounds, religion will never be neutralised. The million tons of fresh water poured daily into the sea do not take away its saltness. Atheists fancy that religion depends on some human craft; and it was apparently on this hypothesis that St. André threatened a Vendean peasant: "I will have all your steeples pulled down, that you may no longer have any objects by which you may be reminded of your old superstitions." The answer was conclusive: "You cannot help leaving

L

us the stars, and we can see them farther off than our

steeples."*

It is with the religious feelings and all their modifications as it is with the structure of insects, not easily understood by reason of their minuteness and the minuteness of their parts. Our emotions are often so subtle, so ethereal and refined, that they elude the naked eye of common sense and demand the scrutiny of an illuminated philosophy.

Natural religion is the basis of revealed religion, and its potent auxiliary. There is no place where its voice is not heard. Nature has many preachers upon whom a bishop's hand has never passed. The lark-does not he preach joy? The bee-does not he preach diligence? The ant-does not he preach providence? The dog-does not he preach fidelity? These were ordained by God. Nature's preachers have been limited to the recommendation of morality, but morality is always enhanced in value when it is enamelled with religion.

With regard to spiritual things, there are degrees of light. A man devoid of natural religion is in the dark; a man partially illumined is in the twilight; and a man full of the Holy Spirit is in the daylight.

God comes to us with mercy, laying aside his awful

* An American author relates an interview with Ewald. The great German scholar complained that the Bible was not studied freely. He said: "The more you study it, and the more freely, the more excellent it appears. He laughed about men fearing for religion, lest it failed."-" Life of Theodore Parker," i. 218.

majesty, as Hector put off the helmet which terrified his child. This manifestation is made to us through Christthe greatest theoretical and practical teacher of religion. His life was spotless, without sin; his words were full of wisdom and understanding. If a cathedral were to fall and bury in its ruins many saints, or if a senate-house should fall and bury in its ruins many statesmen, they would not cover one-millionth part so much of piety or wisdom as the God-man's grave has covered. It is not strange, therefore, and it is not uncommon to hear infidels speak well of the gospel of Christ. The world has been so · filled with the odour of the evangelic ointment that the very wasps have been allured by its fragrance; and even bad men give their secret suffrage; and, as it were, vote by ballot in favour of the Gospel.

His religion was eminently sober and compatible with the duties and business and life of the world. Now the sober differs from the fanatic Christian as the stratified differs from the unstratified rock. The one is the result of a regular and orderly formation; the other has been molten with volcanic fire. At the same time it may be observed that while it is wise to avoid a wild and unhealthy fanaticism, sobriety is not free from danger, for it often passes into apathy, and in certain high places it is fashionable to exclude all feeling and affection in religion. A humble, homely man is far more susceptible of Divine influence than a fastidious man of the world, just as the grass and the leaves are drenched with dew, while a piece of polished metal lying on the same spot will be almost dry.

The advantages of religion are incalculable. It points