ttle dignity of character, and they are to me among the most irksome
of mortals. Mr. Charless, while not deficient in dignity of manner,
when occasion called for it, was truly dignified in character. The one
he might drop for a little while, the other he never dropped. The
children, with whom he might sport or familiarly talk, respected him
just as much as if he had the manner of a Judge on the bench, and then
they loved him far better; and there was to me in these occasional
overflowings of a genial nature, this return of youthful feeling in
mature manhood, this sympathy with children, something very beautiful.
It showed how large his heart was, how little he been soured or soiled
by contact with the world, how broad, and healthy and true a nature God
had endowed him with. The very same large humanity that disposed him
to enter into the sports of children led him also to help the widow, to
befriend the friendless and soothe the sorrowing.

I have said nothing yet about your grandfather's religious
character, and yet this was by far his greatest excellence. He was
truly and sincerely pious. By which I mean he truly loved, trusted in,
and obeyed Christ. But, although I am a preacher, I do not intend to
write you a sermon, and I hope you will not take it as so intended, in
what I am about to say to you of the religious character of Mr.
Charless. I esteem it by far your greatest loss, in his death before
you were old enough to understand him, that you are deprived of the
means of learning something about true religion as it was exemplified
in him.

Most young people, if not pious themselves, have an idea that
religion is in its nature gloomy, or at least that it would interfere
with the happiness and vivacity of youth. I know this, for I once
thought and felt so myself. And it is just to correct this that I so
much regret that you did not know your grandfather Charless; you could
not have known him without knowing that he was truly pious, nor could
you have helped seeing that he was a happy man, and that his religion,
yes, his religion, so far from interfering with, promoted his happiness.
You may meet with other examples, but you will rarely find one so
striking as his. And I hold, as a matter of fairness, that religion
should be judged by just such examples. I know that there are truly
pious persons who are not attractive, who are melancholy, or who are
sometimes even repulsive in their characters. Do you a