same time what a
blessed religious family my reverend instructor and I were settled in.
He said he rejoiced at it, but he made a rule of never lodging in any
particular house, but took these daily, or hourly, as he found it
convenient, and that he never was at a loss in any circumstance.

"What a mighty trouble you put yourself to, great sovereign!" said I,
"and all, it would appear, for the purpose of seeing and knowing more
and more of the human race."

"I never go but where I have some great purpose to serve," returned he,
"either in the advancement of my own power and dominion or in thwarting
my enemies."

"With all due deference to your great comprehension, my illustrious
friend," said I, "it strikes me that you can accomplish very little
either the one way or the other here, in the humble and private
capacity you are pleased to occupy."

"It is your own innate modesty that prompts such a remark," said he.
"Do you think the gaining of you to my service is not an attainment
worthy of being envied by the greatest potentate in Christendom? Before
I had missed such a prize as the attainment of your services, I would
have travelled over one half of the habitable globe."--I bowed with
great humility, but at the same time how could I but feel proud and
highly flattered? He continued: "Believe me, my dear friend, for such a
prize I account no effort too high. For a man who is not only dedicated
to the King of Heaven in the most solemn manner, soul, body, and
spirit, but also chosen of him from the beginning, justified,
sanctified, and received into a communion that never shall be broken,
and from which no act of his shall ever remove him--the possession of
such a man, I tell you, is worth kingdoms; because, every deed that he
performs, he does it with perfect safety to himself and honour to
me."--I bowed again, lifting my hat, and he went on.-- "I am now going
to put his courage in the cause he has espoused to a severe test--to a
trial at which common nature would revolt, but he who is dedicated to
be the sword of the Lord must raise himself above common humanity. You
have a father and a brother according to the flesh: what do you know of
them?"

"I am sorry to say I know nothing good," said I. "They are reprobates,
castaways, beings devoted to the Wicked One, and, like him, workers of
every species of iniquity with greediness."

"They must both fall!" said he, with a sigh and melancholy look. "It is
decreed in th