THE VILLAGE PASTOR.-No. XIV. cumbent or curate resident, it is a QUITTING the romantic but miserable cottage mentioned in my last paper, we pursued our road across the common in front of the building, until we came into a bye-road that shortly conducted us to another most enchanting piece of woodland scenery surrounding a farm house, which lay on our left, to which Erastus directed my attention and said, "There once lived a very pious female servant, whose exem. plary life and pious happy death I will one day acquaint you with. Of the inmates of that house, I know nothing, as they are beyond the limits of my parish, and have as little desire to receive a visit from me as I have of time to make them one."-Indeed, I replied, we appear to be a long way from any church; and I fear these scattered dwellings are excluded from almost all public means of grace, let them belong to whatever parish they may! "They are a considerable distance off from any church," said Erastus. "We have crossed and re-crossed the bounds of my parish two or three times already, and by and by when we have ridden a mile and a half further, we shall be on my own ground again. This intermixed state of their dwellings throws many of them in my way which do not properly beleng to me; and not unfrequently am I requested to visit their sick and afflicted. The old man we have just left is placed in these circumstances.' But," said I, "do the clergymen of these parishes approve of such visits and attentions?" "I fear not," said Erastus; " and this conviction frequently places me in very delicate and uncomfortable circumstances. Where there is no resident clergyman, I feel no hesitation in complying with such requests; but where there is an in shepherds of his flock we felt a high interest in the welfare of all the sheep of his pasture, whether of our own parish or not. But, alas! this is not so, nor in this part of the country is it likely to be the case." Our road now leading short round a corner, we, all at once, met an old man, who, partly alarmed, and partly desirious of avoiding us, hastened out of our way. Erastus, however, pulled up his horse; for he seldom passed any one in these bye-roads without saying something to them, and addressed the old man with a familiar "Good-day, father—I don't think I recollect you-do you live hereabouts ?" "I live, please your honour," said the man, "at Little "Are you in my part of the common?" "No, sir: I live just over the road in Hparish; I belong there." "Well, my friend," said Erastus, " you are far from my church, and still farther from your own; what do you do with yourself on the Sabbath-days?" The man made no reply. "Do you go to church?" "No, sir; it is a long way off, and I am an old man." "But, my friend, do you not get to the town now and then ?" "Yes, you into his presence, and says,' I encouraged and commanded you to keep holy the Sabbath-day, but you refused to obey; I set before you life and death, and bade you choose life that your soul might live, but you chose death; I promised to meet and bless you in my house of prayer, and to instruct, and sanctify, and pardon, and accept you, for my blessed Son's sake; yet you turned a deaf ear to all these invitations and commands, and caught at any excuse to absent yourself from my house and service;' what will you then say to all this?" The old man stood silent, and hung down his head, rather ashamed than pricked at the heart. Erastus was unwilling to leave him in this state, and again addressed him,—" Don't you think it was most wonderfully kind in God to feel for your poor soul in such a manner as to give his only begotten Son that you might not perish, but that, in flying to him by repentance and faith, your soul might live?" "To be sure, sir." " And don't you think heaven would be a most blessed place for your soul when it quits this old and infirm body ?" "Yes, sir." "And do you not think it a very melancholy thing that any man like you should care so little about that glorious heaven; should think so little of the love of God; should feel so little of the sufferings of Christ, as not to go a little way to seek and serve him? Is it not a distressing thing that a poor man should think more of his old clothes than of the salvation of his soul? that he should care more about foolish people laughing at or despising him, than he cares about the flames of hell and terrors of God's wrath?" To all this he made no reply. "How old are you, father?" "Almost four score, please your honour." "Then you cannot expect to live many months; I say not years, because it is extremely probable you will die before two more years have passed over your headand can you really make up your . sir; sometimes on week-days, to buy me a few things." "And why not endeavour," said Erastus, "to go the same distance on Sundays to get some good for your soul?" "I have no clothes fit to be seen in," replied the old man. "Ah! father," said Erastus," you would think it a very hard case, and truly it would be so, were God to shut out from his presence those who have not good clothes to wear. But since that gracious Being looks at a poor man's heart and his desires, and not at his old clothes; since he is as ready to hear the prayers of the poor and destitute as he is those of the rich and honourable, how much mercy are you putting away from yourself! how much good are you withholding from your own soul! Now, my friend, what excuse will you be able to make when he calls mind to be lost?" "Poor old man! hope he will 99 66 our or, they are so far off.' If, however, any thing is to be given away of a worldly nature, they are found able to double and re-double the journey; nor do they, for one moment, hesitate to appear in any assembly or concourse of their neighbours, on account of the poverty of their clothes." Erastus seemed much affected, and for some minutes remained silent, and then exclaimed, "Oh no: God must himself make bare his almighty arm-he must rend the heavens and come downor the hard and rocky heart of the sinner will not melt! Heaven has no charms, the Saviour has no beauty, for the young or for the grey-headed children of Adam, that they should desire him, until the Holy Spirit convinces of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.--Be it so, continued he, path of duty is before us. The Lord works by means in the conversion and salvation of most that are saved, and his command is, In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand,' &c. We then, my friend Aliquis, must press forward, and endeavour to abound in the work of the Lord. Then, whatever success or disappointment may follow our labours, as respects the objects of our attention and solicitude, we shall reap, if we faint not." "God grant," said I, "that we may reap the blessing of unmerited pardon and acceptance, through Jesus Christ.". To this Erastus had scarcely added his Amen, ere we came in sight of another cottage, which, from its appearance, seemed to bespeak all the comforts and peace of rural life. It was a substantial building, containing two tenements, and stood in the middle of a garden, surrounded with delightful scenery. "Are we going to yonder comfortable looking cottage?" Yes," said Erastus," and there we shall find all the uncomfortableness of rags, and filth, and ignorance, and wretchedness! I have known the inmates but a little while; my 2 U first visit was in consequence of a very urgent request to go and administer to the bodily as well as the spiritual wants of one of the two widows we shall find there, and who very much needed assistance for both." "But had she no regular medical help afforded by her parish?" I inquired. "Parish help," said Erastus, "is in these cases very often little better than no help at all. In the way that many parishes in this part of the kingdom pay for medical assistance, no man of respectability will undertake the office of parish doctor; and when poor and needy men enter into a contract for one quarter, or less, of the real worth of attending to the poor, they cannot afford, nor are they inclined, to do much for them. Hence the sick poor are put off, with being told, they live too far off; or, that they can receive no help from medicine; or, that they need only better living and better clothing. But better living and better clothing fall not to the doctor to supply; and good tonic medicines, which almost all the sick poor so much need, are articles which a poor parish doctor cannot afford to supply, were he disposed to do so. Hence my domestic practice is chiefly confined to clearing and regulating the stomach, and then administering such things as are calculated to invigorate the frame. I cannot boast of the profit of this part of my labours, but, thanks be to God, I can often rejoice in its success." "Yes," said I, "if the grateful testimony of your patients goes for any thing, I am sure your practice is very often successfulthey call you a great doctor.' Erastus smiled, and observed, "that they greatly over-rated his abilities and judgment, and often carried their mistaken partial opinion so far as to make it difficult, at times, for him to prevail on them to admit the attendance of skilful gentlemen of the faculty; nay, that few of them would, after all, take what these gentlemen prescribed, until he had seen and pronounced it very proper."--By this time we had reached the garden gate. A son of the sick woman's came and held our horses while we entered the mother's apartment. She was an untidy, middle-aged woman, and was then sitting in the chimney corner making lace. "Ann," said my friend, "I need not ask you how you are, for I see plainly that you are much better." "Yes, thank you, sir, I am a vast deal mended to what I was before I took your stuff. But I should like to have a little more of it, if you please." "O yes, that you shall; and I hope," said Erastus, "that you will soon be able to reach the church with a thankful heart for all your mercies." "I hope so, sir." "But, Ann, I must now be plain and faithful with you. When your bodily weakness was greater than it is now, your spirits were also much more depressed, and you had solemn views and strong fears as to another world. Now you are likely to regain your health and strength, I very much fear you will lose some of those solemn feelings which then possessed your mind; and perhaps go back into the world altogether." The poor woman began to weep, and said, she hoped not. "I hope not too," said Erastus, “but I have seen so many instances of this, that I cannot but fear and tremble when the sick penitent is again restored to health. One thing is certain, If you do not watch and pray, Satan, the world, and your own heart, will be sure to bring all this to pass which I have mentioned; and then the last state of your poor soul will be worse than the beginning. Pray to the Lord to deepen his work in your soul every day; to enable you to know more of your own heart, more of Christ, and more of the meaning of the Scriptures. Implore him, that, if he sees health and a smooth path would be dangerous to your soul, that he would scourge and afflict mercy and for good, rather than you, in 66 surrounding objects below, called "That's a leave you unchastised to perish." "But where is the old woman, your mother?" "She is in bed at my sister's end of the house," was the answer. Well, I shall go and see her," said Erastus, "therefore you may go and tell her so, and I will shortly follow you." Ann being gone, my friend said, "We have now to see the old widow, whose ignorance of Divine things and earnestness about her salvation are at once distressing and interesting. I do hope it was for good to this old woman that the Lord first brought me to this. house to administer to the daughter. You must, however, prepare to see and hear strange things, and therefore endeavour to keep your countenance." The instant we entered the other door, all the displays of a dirty, ragged house and family caught our eyes; and all this disgusting state of things was without any excuse. The woman, who was Ann's sister, was in good health, her husband in constant work, and part of her family able to bring in a little every week at lace-making, independent of what she herself earned at that business. But she was a dirty, illmanaging, slovenly creature; half choaked with snuff, and wholly hung about with ragged filthy clothes; while her skin was almost as foul as the furniture of her clay-floored room. The only object, not of a forbidding aspect, was a little, goodtempered looking girl, about nine or ten years old, who was at her lacemaking, and whom I found to be one of my friend's Sunday-school girls. This child gave my friend a welcome smile at his entrance, while her dirty mother appeared all confusion and alarm. You may go a fit of crying, stretched out both up stairs," said Erastus to the latter," and tell Ann and the old woman we shall follow as soon as it is quite convenient." While these two women were busied in making things somewhat better overhead, Erastus, leaving me to make what observations I chose on the to your poor old grandmother. You know, my dear, that she cannot read." "No, sir; she never could read." "Now, my child, how much you ought to love your blessed Saviour for providing you with friends and learning! It is a great calamity not to be able to read God's word. I hope you will grow up a good girl, and one day go to heaven." Here we were addressed by the child's dirty mother with "Please to go up stairs, sir." Erastus led the way, and I followed. No sooner did the old woman get sight of him than she burst into her withered arms to their full extent, and exclaimed, "Heavens above bless you! Heavens above bless you! you have saved my life, and I hope you will save my soul too." Erastus advanced to the bed side, took hold of her hand, and, having seated himself on an |