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straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel? We are continually acting by signs; and, if there is any sin, it is not in the sign, but in the thing signified. We are composed of soul and body; our ideas are supplied through the medium of our senses; and, as long as we inhabit this earthly tabernacle, do what we will, signs will have a certain influence upon us. Let a man try to imitate anger by his gestures, and he will quickly find a sentiment of anger steal upon him. If he be admiring a beautiful picture or landscape, let him clasp his hands, or raise his eyes, and immediately that admiration will wax stronger, Suppose, then, the same person engaged in devotion, to uncover his head, and to fall upon his knees, will add humility and profound reverence to his adorings. Hence the Apostle commanded us to "glorify God in our bodies;" for they are the temples of God, and the vessels of his grace. Does the SPANIEL rejoice inwardly at his master's return? Does he not testify his joy by his fawnings and his gestures? Do the feathered quire express their exhilaration in the opening spring, but by straining their little throats in melody? External homage, then, is the lesson taught by nature. But if the Quaker has attained such an height of spiritual abstraction, as that he feels equal religious veneration in sitting uncovered before God, and equal religious joy in rot moving a muscle or a limb, with what he w21

experience in laying aside his arrogant covering, and lifting up his hands and eyes to the great God and Father of the universe; let him, at least, forbear to wound the prejudices of his weaker brethren, who cannot fail to be shocked with such bold familiarity with the Deity. This was happily expressed by one of our old divines, who seriously, though quaintly, complained that a sect had recently sprung up, who seemed, by their external deportment, as if they wished to show that they were "Hail fellow, well met, with the Almighty *"

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Every man, praying with his head covered," says St. Paul," dishonoureth his head," 1 Cor. xi. 4; "but let the head of the woman be covered." The reason for both injunctions is plain, To uncover the head is the customary outward testimony of respect in men; but, in the softer sex, it yields to the superior duty of feminine delicacy.

These observations recommend, in an inferior degree, a man's standing uncovered before his earthly superiors.

With respect to bowing in adoration, is it not written, "O! come let us worship, and bow down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker?" Psalm xcv. 6. The woman with the issue of blood; Jaïrus; the man which had devils; Simon Peter; Mary, the sister of Lazarus, all fell down at the feet of

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Jesus and, whether we consider him in his divine or human capacity, the gesture enjoins, in the one case, the worship of the body to God; and, in the other, the external signs of respect towards. man. In this world we shall do well, in regulating our worship, to imitate the mode of adoration to be practised in the next. Now, the elders fall down before the Lamb. Rev. v. 8; and xix. 4.

The Quakers make a conscience of great particularity in dress. In dressing, it ought, doubtless, to be the chief object of a Christian to study that attire which shall court no notice whatever. The singularity of the Quakers' dress every where attracts notice; and let the Friends of both sexes look well to their own hearts, whether this dress be not the effect, or this notice the cause, of pride. One hat differeth from another hat in magnitude; but is there not danger lest this dif ference be but a difference in ostentation; and thus, that the greater apparent glory of one-hat, like the greater apparent glory of one star, as distinguished from another, may only prove the former to be nearer to the earth?

The Quaker dislike to superfluities in dress would, nevertheless, in other respects, be worthy of all admiration, if we did not observe in the shops of Quaker milliners and haberdashers, no want of disposition to minister to the luxury of worldlings, by furnishing these superfluities which

they themselves consider as sinful. On this prin ciple, I cannot see wherefore a procuress might not justify her criminal dealing, provided she took care to preserve her own chastity inviolate *.

If the Quakers, in their condemnation of games and sports, censure these amusements as occasioning a waste of time (and that seems the chief reason assigned by Barclay), recreations may be instanced, which are exposed to the same objection, and yet are certainly not criminal. "And there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and both Jesus. was asked, and his disciples, to the marriage." Here was displayed our Lord's beginning of miracles, in changing water into wine. The first wonder wrought by our Saviour was designed to promote the innocent hilarity of an evening, in which time may strictly be said to have been wasted. In one sense, however, it was not wasted; but in that sense, neither is it wasted by a moderate use of games and other pastimes. The mind returns to its serious occupations, with renewed strength and spring, after moderate and innoxious relaxation. To enjoy, contentedly, the blessings and recreations of this life, and to lift

* To pursue the Quaker principle consistently, dress should only be employed for the homeliest accommodation of nature. A Quaker female has no tassels and fringes, no jewels and embroidery; but she has the costliest silks and muslins that can be procured. Therefore, let her abhor herself, and repent in sackcloth and coarse linen.

the heart in gratitude to the Giver of good, is to convert them into a means of grace. Cheerfulness is itself an act of religion: it is the emanation of a resigned, a placid, and a heavenly disposition. Even mirth, the broadest, in its season, is harmless, if it be unmingled with malice, and pass not into wild transports. A game is harmless in its season (for to every thing there is a time), if it involve not avarice, jealousy, cruelty, pride, contention; if it banish not a sense of duty, and quench not the latent but living principle of religion. This is indeed the rule by which all recrea→ tions are to be tried. To the pure, all things are pure. If thou canst follow thine amusement, and not forget thy steadfastness, follow thy amusement. If thy mind be weak, and amusement creates in it a disrelish for the return to serious habits and to the duties of thy station; be it sportive or grave, be it loud or noiseless, be it a game or not a game, to thee it is sinful.

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St. Paul, in addressing the Corinthians, compares steadfastness in the Christian course to the exertions of these who "run in a race." The people of Corinth had been in the habit of witnessing the Isthmian games; and therefore to them the comparison was happily proposed. But had St, Paul disapproved in every instance of this amusement, it is not very likely that he would have converted it into a similitude, or spoken of it without some disapprobation.

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