r. Barlow, smiling, "hours are so altered that I believe if
the church were to new model the calendar, she would say that dinners
ought to be placed among the _moveable feasts_. An hour earlier or later
would accommodate the difference, liberate your servants, and enable you
to do a thing right in itself, and beneficial in its example."

Mr. Flam not being prepared with an answer, went on with his confession
of faith. "Doctor," said he, "I am a better Christian than you think. I
take it for granted that the Bible is true, for I have heard many men
say, who have examined for themselves, which I can not say I have ever
had time or inclination to do, that no opposer has ever yet refuted the
Scripture account of miracles and prophecies. So if you don't call this
being a good Christian, I don't know what is."

Dr. Barlow replied, "Nothing can be better as far as it goes. But allow
me to say, that there is another kind of evidence of the truth of our
religion, which is peculiar to the real Christian. I mean that evidence
which arises from his individual conviction of the efficacy of
Christianity in remedying the disorders of his own nature. He who has
had his own temper improved, his evil propensities subdued, and his
whole character formed anew, by being cast in the mold of Christianity,
will have little doubt of the truth of a religion which has produced
such obvious effects in himself. The truths for which his reason pleads,
and in which his understanding, after much examination, is able to rest,
having had a purifying influence on his heart, become established
principles, producing in him at the same time holiness of life and
peace of conscience. The stronger evidence a man has of his own internal
improvement, the stronger will be his conviction of the truth of the
religion he professes."

"There are worse men than I am, Doctor," said Mr. Flam, rather
seriously.

"Sir," replied he, "I heartily wish every gentleman had your good
qualities. But as we shall be judged positively and not comparatively;
as our characters will be finally decided upon, not by our superiority
to other men, nor merely by our inferiority to the divine rule, but by
our departure from it, I wish you would begin to square your life by
that rule now; which, in order that you may do, you should begin to
study it. While we live in a total neglect of the Bible, we must not
talk of our deficiencies, our failings, our imperfections, as if these
alone sto