w; but in all probability they would not, and an
ill-timed or injudicious admonition might forever repel them. We
must accept the doctrine of probabilities, and act in accordance
with it in this particular, as in all others.

Another brother had a puzzle to present for solution. He said that
he too had experienced the repugnance to which allusion had been
made; but what surprised him most was, that the more he loved a
person, and the nearer he was related to him, the more difficult he
found it to converse with him upon his spiritual state. Why is
this? "I should like to have this question answered," said he, "if
there _is_ an answer to it."

Mr. Beecher observed that this was the universal experience, and he
was conscious himself of a peculiar reluctance and embarrassment in
approaching one of his own household on the subject in question. He
thought it was due to the fact that we respect more the personal
rights of those near to us than we do those of others, and it was
more difficult to break in upon the routine of our ordinary
familiarity with them. We are accustomed to a certain tone which it
is highly embarrassing to jar upon.

Captain Duncan related two amusing anecdotes to illustrate the
right way and the wrong way of introducing religious conversation.
In his office there was sitting one day a sort of lay preacher, who
was noted for lugging in his favorite topic in the most forbidding
and abrupt manner. A sea captain came in, who was introduced to
this individual.

"Captain Porter," said he, with awful solemnity, "are you a captain
in Israel?"

The honest sailor was so abashed and confounded at this novel
salutation, that he could only stammer out an incoherent reply; and
he was evidently disposed to give the tactless zealot a piece of
his mind, expressed in the language of the quarter-deck. When the
solemn man took his leave, the disgusted captain said, "If ever I
should be coming to your office again, and that man should be here,
I wish you would send me word, and I'll stay away."

A few days after another clergyman chanced to be in the office, no
other than Mr. Beecher himself, and another captain came in, a
roistering, swearing, good-hearted fellow. The conversation fell
upon sea-sickness, a malady to which Mr. Beecher is