MRS. DORMER.

All this is certainly true, and built on the plainest declarations of the Holy Scriptures. But why should my dear Miss Newman suspect Mrs. Philmund of being so very defective in this comprehensive feature of the Christian character? With respect to the spirituality of mind and will which the law of God peremptorily demands, we are all, even the most devoted among us, very defective; for in reviewing the extensive scope and inflexible nature of the divine law, as requiring truth in the inward parts, 1 even St. Paul acknowledged, I am carnal, sold under sin, and exclaimed, 0, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?2

MISS NEWMAN.

But you will observe that the apostle also says, That which I do, I ALLOW not for what I WOULD, that do I not; but what I HATE, that 2 Rom. vii. 14-24.

1 Psalm li. 6.

do I.

To WILL is present with me: but how to perform that which is good, I know not. 1 Now, though the apostle certainly felt, what every genuine Christian in this state of imbecility must feel, that great imperfection was attached to the spirituality of his views and affections; yet the bias of his soul was certainly heavenward; his deviations from the mark of the prize of his high calling were involuntary, selfcondemned and opposed; and, you may be assured, were not permitted to break out into any gross, repeated, or allowed acts of conformity to this present evil world.

MRS. DORMER.

Still I am at a loss to know what it is in the conduct of our amiable friend Mrs. Philmund, which produces that concern about her which you have expressed. Do tell me.

1 Rom. vii. 15-18.

MISS NEWMAN.

As I think you will give me credit for the purity of my motives, I will tell you the cause of my fears; and the more readily because I hope that you will see some favourable occasion of remonstrating with our dear friend thereon, if you should think them founded. I am so young that there would be an impropriety in my appearing to censure the conduct of one who is in every respect so greatly my superior. But you, as an old professor, and as Mrs. Philmund's equal in age and talents, may very properly, in the spirit of Christian love, introduce a conversation with her on the subject; which I trust would be received according to its intention, and be productive of benefit. To speak my mind then, I do fear that dear Mrs. Philmund has not sufficiently discovered the opposition that subsists between the spirit of the world and the spirit of Christianity; and that the company she keeps, both at her own house and at the houses of others, chosen as it is without any necessity; and the scenes of vanity and dis

sipation of which she is voluntarily a frequent witness, are calculated to carnalize the affections, and depress that elevation of soul which is the characteristic of a child of God, and which is maintained with great difficulty, without any exterior obstacles, through the constant tendency of our innate corruption to its own centre of attraction. I speak in general terms on the subject through a sense of delicacy;-there is no need of descending to particulars.

MRS. DORMER.

I clearly understand you.

But do not your

views lead to unnecessary preciseness and an offensive particularity of conduct?

MISS NEWMAN.

Young and inexperienced as I am, I feel really afraid to speak on a subject, concerning which the practice of a great many respectable professors runs counter to the convictions of my mind. I allow that the views I have stated lead

to a particularity of conduct which is offensive to the world, because it condemns them; and to the god of this world, because it is hostile to the interests of his kingdom: but not offensive, I think, to HIM, who says of all his disciples, They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world; and who tells them, that therefore the world will hate them: nor, I should suppose, to those among his professing followers, who have set their affections on things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. 2

MRS. DORMER.

Would you wish, my dear Miss Newman, that our friend Mrs. Philmund should banish herself and her daughters from society? that she should exclude them from all company? or that they should never be seen except at church? Would not this be the part of an unkind parent, and prejudicial in its consequences to their future conduct and respectability in life?