friend years ago, you may find has now forgotten you, and will perhaps wonder at the liberty you take. Human friendships are very uncertain things and open hearted Christians who are apt to love and esteem every man, who at any time has shewn them respect and kindness, but too often ascertain to their disappointment and grief, that a few years will make a great difference in the feelings of a quondum friend, as in the affairs of love and courtship, there is sometimes jilting. A man turning off an amiable and confiding girl, because he has found a rich one,* so in personal friendships, one man discards a friend from intimacy, because the friend continues poor, and he has become wealthy and keeps his carriage. Such conduct, we regret to say, is not confined to what we in our imagined religious superiority call "the world."

Quietly withdraw then from every man who does not want you. Let him enjoy his wealth and greatness, to his heart's content, and you enjoy your Bible, with your littleness and your God, with a good conscience. Maintain ministerial dignity; the dignity of preserving mental power; the dignity of walking to your country appointments, if obliged to walk through thunderstorms in summer, and snow drifts in winter, if possible. The dignity of being "in labours more abundant " The dignity of not making

*Shame on the cruel things that do it. To the great honour of the Wesleyan Conference, jilting is punished with severity, and in some gross cases with expulsion.

such a fuss about a slight cold, or indisposition, as to make it a plea for not preaching. The dignity of keeping your temper when rude persons insult you. In brief, the dignity of suffering well, and doing all the good you possibly can. This is your dignity, and you may keep this up without the small politeness of a man milliner, a draper's apprentice, or a waiter at an hotel. These latter things are good and commendable enough to answer their purposes― specially where they are a compliment to other people's dignity, but with regard to you, they are so diminutive, that you may safely dispense with them. Neither do you want the lilliputian dignity, which consists in a demure look, an elegant black walking stick, and a prim clerical costume. All this is very harmless, and highly prized by little people who attach great importance to externals. Your dignity is in usefulness, direct and indirect, in having the mind of Christ, and in Evangelical labour; and you may preserve all this under the disadvantages of ‘a shocking bad hat,' a seedy coat, and clumsy shoes, when you cannot afford anything better.

Politeness is a good thing, therefore be polite; be obliging, be affectionate, accommodating, forbearing, and courteous. You cannot, in mean apparel, and with those little absences of mind, which your inward anxieties will now and then occasion, observe all the little niceties or punctilios of that variable thing called etiquette. You may attend to every thing that is rational about it, when you know what it is,

but don't be hampered with it. When it incurs expense which you cannot afford, avoid it; look upon it as nonsensical, and although through the want of a fashionable suit, and little decorations, some highborn dame in a party, may be wondering in regard to you, 'who that person is?' never mind, let her ladyship wonder till she is tired of it. While God knows who you are, and what you are, and approves of the way you take, all is right with you now; and if you prove faithful to him, all will be right with you for ever. Patience is a quality you will ever need, that you may bear injustice without revenge; and moral courage you will find to be indispensable in attacking those bad qualities in others by which you have been injured. Deceit is one of them. "The deceitful man," says old Humphrey, "plays different parts; to-day he is a friend, and to-morrow your enemy. His language before your face and behind your back never agree; the one is all fur, and the other all talon; the words of his mouth are smoother than butter, but war is in his heart; his words are softer than oil, yet are they drawn swords. There is something so mean and pitiful in deceit, that it deserves to be shot at as a target, and exposed to general ridicule." I quote this little bit, not because the sentiment is new, but because old Humphrey justifies that severity which I have used in exposing the pranks of the censorious, unjust, and deceitful. I must say, however, to the credit of human nature, and judging from observation, that deceitful persons

are not numerous, as compared with others.

Some may doubt this, but I believe that close attention will ascertain the fact that the very large majority of any man's aquaintance deal uprightly with him. The Psalmist, Psalm cxvi. verse 11, says, "I said in my haste, all men are liars." "Pressed on all sides with dangers, from which I fled as fast I was able," (says Dr. Patrick, in his Paraphrase,) "I concluded it was vain to rely on the friendship and help of men; for they, whom I trusted, proved so false and treacherous, that I had reason to think the rest would deceive and fail my expectation, when I was in the greatest need of them."

Let us never say anything in haste, where the character of our fellow-mortals is concerned; nor on account of injuries from the few suspect the many. The enormous turpitude of a propensity to deceive, and the serious mischiefs often resulting from it, justify great severity in its reprehension, and hence the holy scriptures are righteously terrible in its condemnation. "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." (Rev. xx. 10.) "And all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." (Rev. xxi. 8.)

And I should like to see in what way the perpetrators of such a sin would make out that they are as pure and holy as their Psalm singing and grave countenances

66

would lead us to suppose them to be. It's a very fine thing to talk about errors and mistakes, and not meaning any harm to our brother." But why do those who very rarely make mistakes in money calculations, and who have pre-eminent talents for business; who are perfectly at home in arithmetic and bookkeeping, whether in the financial departments of the Church of England, or those of other churches -make such mistakes in the fixing of ministers ? It may be said, "We cannot help it; they would not have you here or there-they had heard about your eccentricity." Then why did you not exert your authority, and force your brother upward instead of downward? Such things, you know, you have done for others—why not for him?

I cheerfully give my tribute to your general excellencies as to character and qualification. I can sincerely rejoice in the high positions some of you so honourably maintain. I can be pleased at the justice, respect, and kindness you shew to others; but from your own individual, favourable, (and repeated) verbal, and written testimonies to me, (whatever you may have said of me), I can shew that no favourable result has ever occurred to me at all corresponding with the compliments I have received. I began my itinerant ministry in 1825, and while very many much younger men have been raised to honours, I am now, in 1859, on the same level as in 1825. Changes for the better have, it is true, come over many minds who once took distorted

H