Atkins," how should we teach them religion? Why, we know nothing ourselves; and besides, sir," said he," should we talk to them of God and Jesus Christ, and heaven and hell, it would make them laugh at us, and ask us what we believe ourselves And if we should tell them that we believe all the things we speak of to them, such as of good people going to heaven, and wicked people to the devil, they would ask us where we intend o go ourselves, that believe all this, and are such wicked fel ows as we indeed are. Why, sir, 'tis enough to give them a urfeit of religion at first hearing; folks must have some re igion themselves before they pretend to teach other people. "Will Atkins," said I to him," though I am afraid that what you say has too much truth in it, yet can you not tell your wife she is in the wrong; that there is a God, and a religion better than her own; that her gods are idols; that they can neither hear nor speak; that there is a great Being that made all things, and that can destroy all that he has made; that he rewards the good and punishes the bad; and that we are to be judged by him at last for all we do here? You are not so ignorant, but even nature itself will teach you that all this is true; and I am satisfied you know it all to be true, and believe it yourself.' "That is true, sir," said Atkins; "but with what face can I say any thing to my wife of all this, when she will tell me immediately it cannot be true?"-"Not true!" said I; "what do you mean by that?" Why, sir," said he," she will tell me it cannot be true that this God I shall tell her of can be just, or can punish or reward, since 1 am not punished and sent to the devil, that have been such a wicked creature as she knows I have been, even to her, and to every body else; and that I should be suffered to live, that have been always acting so contrary to what I must tell her s good, and to what I ought to have done."-" Why, truly, Atkins," said I, "I am afraid thou speakest too much truth; and with that I informed the clergyman of what Atkins had aid, for he was impatient to know. O," said the priest, tell him there is one thing will make him the best minister n the world to his wife, and that is repentance; for none teach repentance like true penitents. He wants nothing but to repent, and then he will be so much the better qualified to instruct his wife: he will then be able to tell her that there is not only a God, and that he is the just rewarder of good and evil, but that he is a merciful Being, and with infinite good ness and long-suffering forbears to punish those that offend waiting to be gracious, and willing not the death of a sinner but rather that he should return and live; that oftentimes he suffers wicked men to go a long time, and even reserves damnation to the general day of retribution; that it is a clear evi dence of God and of a future state, that righteous men receive not their reward, or wicked men their punishment, till they

come into another world; and this will lea: him to teach his wife the doctrine of the resurrection and of the last judgment Let him but repent for himself, he will be an excellent preach er of repentance to his wife.”

I repeated all this to Atkins, who looked very serious all the while, and who, we could easily perceive, was more than ordinary affected with it: when being eager, and hardly suffering me to make an end—“ I know all this, master," says he, "and a great deal more; but I have not the impudence to talk thus to my wife, when God and my conscience know, and my wife will be an undeniable evidence against me, that I have lived as if I had never heard of a God or future state, or any thing about it; and to talk of my repenting, alas! (and with that he fetched a deep sigh, and I could see that the tears stood in his eyes,) 'tis past all that with me." Past it, Atkins?" said I; "what dost thou mean by that?". “I know well enough what I mean," says he; "I mean 'tis too late, and that is too true."

I told the clergyman, word for word, what he said: the poor zealous priest, I must call him so, for, be his opinion what it will, he had certainly a most singular affection for the good of other men's souls, and it would be hard to think he had not the like for his own,-I say, this affectionate man could not refrain from tears; but, recovering himself, said to me, "Ask him but one question-Is he easy that it is too late; or is he troubled, and wishes it were not so?" I put the question fairly to Atkins, and he answered, with a great deal of passion, "How could any man be easy in a condition that must certainly end in eternal destruction? that he was far from being easy; but that, on the contrary, he believed it would, one time or other, ruin him.” "What do you mean by that?” said I. Why," he said, "he believed he should one time or other cut his throat, o put an end to the terror of it."

The clergyman shook his head, with great concern in his face, when I told him all this; but turning quick to me upon it, says, "If that be his case, we may assure him it is not too late; Christ will give him repentance. But pray," says he, explain this to him; that as no man is saved but by Christ, and the merit of his passion procuring divine mercy for him, how can it be too late for any man to receive mercy! Does he think he is able to sin beyond the power or reach of divine mercy Pray tell him, there may be a time when provoked mercy wil no longer strive, and when God may refuse to hear, but that it is never too late for men to ask mercy; and we, that are Christ' servants, are commanded to preach mercy at all times, in the name of Jesus Christ, to all those that sincerely repent; so that it is never too late to repent.

I told Atkins all this, and he heard me with great earnestness; but it seemed as if he turned off the discourse to the rest, for he said to me, he would go and have some talk with his wife; so he went out a while, and we talked to the rest. I per

ceived they were all stupidly ignorant as t› matters of religion, as much as I was when I went rambling away from my father and yet there were noue of them backward to hear what had been said; and all of them seriously promised that they would talk with their wives about it, and do their endeavors to persuade them to turn Christians.

The clergyman smiled upon me when I reported what answe. they gave, but said nothing a good while; but at last shaking hi head, "We that are Christ's servants," says he, "can go n further than to exhort and instruct; and when men comply submit to the reproof, and promise what we ask, 'tis all we car do; we are bound to accept their good words; but, believe me sir," said he, "whatever you may have known of the life of that man you call Will Atkins, I believe he is the only sincere convert among them: I take that man to be a true penitent: I will not despair of the rest; but that man is apparently struck with the sense of his past life, and I doubt not, when he comes to talk of religion to his wife, he will talk himself effectually into it; for attempting to teach others is sometimes the best way of teaching ourselves. I know a man, who, having nothing but a summary notion of religiou himself, and being wicked and profligate to the last degree in his life, made a thorough reformation in himself by laboring to convert a Jew. If that poor Atkins begins but once to talk seriously of Jesus Christ to his wife, my life for it, he talks himself into a thorough convert, makes himself a penitent, and who knows what may follow?"

Upon this discourse, however, and their promising, as above, to endeavor to persuade their wives to embrace Christianity, he married the other two couple; but Will Atkins and his wife were not yet come in. After this, my clergyman, waiting awhile, was curious to know where Atkins was gone; and turning to me, said, "I entreat you, sir, let us walk out of your labyrinth here, and look; I dare say we shall find this poor man somewhere or other talking seriously to his wife, and teaching her already something of religion." I began to be of the same mind; so we went out together, and I carried him a way which none knew but myself, and where the trees were so very thick that it was not easy to see through the thicket of leaves, and far harder to see in than to see out; when coming to the edge of the wood, I saw Atkins and his tawny wife sitting under the shade of a bush, very eager in discourse: I stopped short till my clergyman came up to me, and then having showed him where they were, we stood and looked very steadily at them a good while. We observed him very earnest with her, pointing up to the sun, and to every quarter of the heavens, and then down to the earth, then out to the sea, then to himself, then to her, to the woods, to the trees. "Now," says the clergyınan, you see my words are made good; the man preaches to bar;

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mark him now; he is telling her that our God has made him and her, and the heavens, the earth, the sea, the woods the trees, &c."-"I believe he is," said I. Immediately we per ceived Will Atkins start upon his feet, fall down on his knees, and lift up both his hands. We supposed he said something, but we could not hear him; it was too far for that. He did not continue kneeling half a minute, but comes and sits down again by his wife, and talks to her again; we perceived then the woman very attentive, but whether she said any thing him we could not tell. While the poor fellow was upon hi knees, I could see the tears run plentifully down my clergy man's cheeks, and I could hardly forbear myself; but it was a great affliction to us both that we were not near enough to hear any thing that passed between them. Well, however, we could come no nearer for fear of disturbing them; so we resolved to see an end of this piece of still conversation, and it spoke loud enough to us without the help of voice. He sat down again, as I have said, close by her, and talked again earnestly to her, and two or three times we could see him embrace her most passionately; another time we saw him take out his han lkerchief and wipe her eyes, and then kiss her again, with a kind of transport very unusual; and after several of these things we saw him on a sudden jump up again, and lend her his ha ad to help her up, when immediately leading her by the hand a step or two, they both kneeled down together, and continued so about two minutes.

My friend could bear it no longer, but cries out aloud, "St. Paul! St. Paul! behold he prayeth." I was afraid Atkins would hear him; therefore I entreated him to withhold himself awhile, that we might see an end of the scene, which to me, I must confess, was the most affecting that ever I saw in my life. Well, he strove with himself for a while, but wa in such raptures to think that the poor heathen woman wa become a Christian, that he was not able to contain himself he wept several times, then throwing up his hands and cross ing his breast, said over several things ejaculatory, and by way of giving God thanks for so miraculous a testimony of th success of our endeavors; some he spoke softly, and I coul not well hear others; some in Latin, some in French; then .wo or three times the tears would interrupt him, that he could not speak at all; but I begged that he would contain himself and let us more narrowly and fully observe what was before us, which he did for a time, the scene not being near ended yet; for after the poor man and his wife were risen again from their knees, we observed he stood talking still eagerly to her and we observed her motion, that she was greatly affected with what he said, by her frequently lifting up her hands, laying her hand to her breast, and such other postures as express the greatest seriousness and attention: this continued about half

a quarter of an hour, and then they walked away; so we could see no more of them in that situation. I took this interval tc talk with my clergyman; and first, I was glad to see the particulars we had both been witnesses to, that though I was hard enough of belief in such cases, yet that I began to think it was all very sincere here, both in the man and his wife, however ignorant they might both be, and I hoped such a beginning would yet have a more happy end: "And who knows," said I, "but these two may in time, by instruction and example, work upon some of the others? "Some of them?" said he, turning quick upon me: "ay, upon all of them: depend upon it, if those two savages-for he has been but little better, as you relate it-should embrace Jesus Christ, they will never leave it till they work upon all the rest; for true religion is naturally communicative, and he that is onc made a Christian will never leave a pagan behind him, if can help it." I owned it was a most Christian principle t think so, and a testimony of true zeal, as well as a generous heart, in him. "But, my friend," said I, " will you give me leave to start one difficulty here? I cannot tell how to object the least thing against that affectionate concern which you show for the turning the poor people from their paganism to the Christian religion; but how does this comfort you, while these people are, in your account, out of the pale of the Catholic church, without which you believe there is no salvation? sc