Mentor, compatible with no worldly circumstances: and of consequence, no worldly circumstances can offer a sufficient excuse for a disregard to it. The wretched EGENO could urge his labour and poverty-but how ineffectually? Look at his fellowlabourer MENTOR, and learn how weak and frivolous such an apology. MENTOR was of the same occupation with EGENO; worked in the same shop, and earned the same wages: MENTOR too was a married man, and had children. Thus far there was a similitude: but in other respects, where can that similitude be found?-Diligent and punctual, MENTOR was never absent a day from his business, unless detained by sickness or some other necessary avocation; ever found in his duty, while EGENO kept holiday, and wasted his important time in drunkenness and riot. Fearing God, and anxious to please him, MENTOR never refrained his feet from the church, and was a regular attendant at the blessed supper of the Lord; strictly observing the Sabbath, and spending it as became a Christian, a husband, a father while EGENO's temple was the alehouse, and his devotion only oaths and impiety. : Mentor. Go to the places of their abode, and mark the contrast there also: you have viewed that of EGENO-miserable scene of poverty!—At MENTOR'S little dwelling all was neat and clean, and wholesome. He had procured a small house, with a good piece of ground, which he carefully cultivated with his own hands, when he returned from his work in the evening; often rising an hour or two before the time of labour in the morning, to do the business of his garden, and to take care of his crops, which paid him well for his toil. His wife, industrious and cheerful, contributed her part with gladness: her children were brought up with every notion suitable to their station; and she omitted no opportunity to aid her husband's honest efforts by her frugality and pains. An aged mother dwelt under the same roof with them, and owed a comfortable subsistence to the pious affections of her laborious son. It pleased God to extend the life of this useful and worthy, though mean and unnoticed man, to a happy length; for he lived to close his aged mother's eyes, and to pay the last duties of filial Mentor. regard to her:-he lived to see two of his sons capable of maintaining themselves in the world with decency and comfort; and treading-distinguishing felicity of a parent!-in the steps of their father's sobriety and virtue: sons, to whose care he could with confidence leave his wife, as their religion had taught them that a peculiar blessing ever attends those who delight to honour their parents, and "to rock the cradle of declining age." How pleasing, how instructive, to attend the death-bed of such a Christian! Oh, ye great and ye vain, ye children of voluptuousness and pomp, how doth the death-bed of such a Christian reproach your follies, and condemn your visionary view!-on that bed I saw him.-True, no consultation of physicians was held on his account; no damask decorated his apartments; no carpets his floors; vessels of silver and gold were wanting to convey the little nourishment he took-but ah! what wretched comforters are these, when the languishing body declares the fatal moment of eternal separation from this world approaching! How much more excellent Mentor. the consolation arising from the testimony of an approving conscience! The more a man leaves behind him, the more reluctantly he dies: to die is an easy matter to the poor; and to a good man, what matters it whether he die on a throne or a dunghill? The only misfortune at the hour of death is to find oneself destitute of the supports of true religion! MENTOR was not destitute of these: "I am arrived, sir," said he, "at that period for which I was born, and for which I have been long preparing and blessed be God, I do not find any terrors in the approach of death! Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ! I am thankful to the good providence of my heavenly Father for all things ;but how shall I express my thankfulness for his exceeding love in the precious gift of his Son! Oh, what a support is he to sinful creatures, like us, in this hour especially! Blessed, for ever blessed be God, for his inestimable gift of redemption through the blood of the Lamb, offered up for the sins of the whole world!" Rejoiced to see him thus triumphant over death, Poor Man. I congratulated his felicity, and remarked the vanity of worldly stations, when God distributes his spiritual favours thus freely to the low as well as the high, to the poor as well as the rich. "True, sir," said he, "this is a sweet reflection to the poorer and meaner sort of us: it hath often refreshed my soul, and stopped every tendency to murmuring and complaints, which are too apt to arise in our naughty hearts, at the sight of the rich, and their plentiful enjoyments. And it was a pleasing thought often to me in the midst of my labour, that my divine and glorious Saviour stooped to a mean and toilsome employment, and condescended to work with his own hands; setting us an example, and thus alleviating, to the true Christian, all the weariness of fatigue and daily pains. I am sure the recollection of this has given me new life and spirits when I have been almost worn out, and ready to sink down with labour. And when I have considered all his loving kindness toward me, which he has shewed in so many instances, I have always with joy persevered in my duty, and thought myself happy that I had a being to praise |