d arguments
more palpable and less theoretic. Surely, said I to myself, if religion
be a principle, it must be an operative one, and I would rationally
infer that Christianity were true, if the tone of Christian practice
were high.

"I began to look clandestinely into Henrietta's Bible. There I indeed
found that the spirit of religion was invested with just such a body as
I had wished to see; that it exhibited actions as well as sentiments,
characters, as well as doctrines; the life portrayed evidently governed
by the principle inculcated; the conduct and the doctrine in just
correspondence. But if the Bible be true, thought I, may we not
reasonably expect that the principles which once produced the exalted
practice which that Bible records, will produce similar effects now?

"I put, rashly perhaps, the truth of Christianity on this issue, and
sought society of a higher stamp. Fortunately the increasing external
decorum of my conduct began to make my reception less difficult among
good men than it had been. Hitherto, and that for the sake of my wife,
my visits had rather been endured than encouraged; nor was I myself
forward to seek the society which shunned me. Even with those superior
characters with whom I did occasionally associate, I had not come near
enough to form an exact estimate.

"DISINTERESTEDNESS and CONSISTENCY had become with me a sort of
touchstone, by which to try the characters I was investigating. My
experiment was favorable. I had for some time observed my wife's
conduct, with a mixture of admiration as to the act, and incredulity as
to the motive. I had seen her foregoing her own indulgences, that she
might augment those of a husband whom she had so little reason to love.
Here were the two qualities I required, with a renunciation of self
without parade or profession. Still this was a solitary instance. When
on a nearer survey, I beheld Dr. Barlow exhibiting by his exemplary
conduct during the week, the best commentary on his Sunday's sermon:
when I saw him refuse a living of nearly twice the value of that he
possessed, because the change would diminish his usefulness, I was
_staggered_.

"When I saw Mr. and Mrs. Stanley spending their time and fortune as
entirely in acts of beneficence, as if they had built their eternal
hope on charity alone, and yet utterly renouncing any such confidence,
and trusting entirely to another foundation;--when I saw Lucilla, a girl
of eighteen, refuse a young nob