The works of the Rev. William Thom, late minister ... - waughfamily.ca

LETTERS, TRACTS, ^C, 233great many feats to the citizens, and have rrtade alittle money that way. And yet we have been determinedto take this new ftep by reafons very cogentand fubilantial.I. One reafon of our being defirous to have a cha-that we may thereby be refcued from that un-pel, is,eafinefs, and even difgrace, ujider which we have hithertolaboured. To intermix with thA mob in achurch is difgracefully bringing ourfeives to be, infome fort, on a level with them *, it creates in peoplea belief that we need, ?.nd ought to be in earneit toreceive the fame inflru^tion they are gaping for ; abelief v/hich, though we are at all proper pains toguard againft, yet it Hill remains in fome weak minds.And whether we drive to drive out that notional belief,by a fmiling cheerfulnefs of behaviour during thefervice, or by llceping, or by ftaying av»'ay from church,ftill we are fuiferers j. for either we go to church a-Sundays, or we ftay at home ; if we go, v/e eithergive attention, or we laugh, or we fail aileep : If wegive, or feem to give attention, the people imaginewe are as ignorant and fuperftitious as they are ; andbelides, we weary ourfeives, and hurt our own tem--per : If we laugh, we oiTe.'xi the congregation 5 t\v.:ycall ita contemptuous laugh, a haughty difdain of theminifter, and a manifefl fneering at the orthodoxy ofhis doctrine: If we ileep, we offend them alfo, andbefides give no marks of our fuperiority *, for ileepingin church is a vulgrir thing, prad^ifed by the very beggarsand burn-bearers. Again, if we ftay away fromcliurch, we rnuft either ride in the fields, or walk inthe college-garden, or flay in our rooms : If we rideibroad, the people who know and obferve us imaginewe are profane ; if v/e w:ilk in the college-garden,they make the fame conclufion ; if we ftay in ourrooms, vv'e mufl either read plays or our own fyttems;if our fervants. catch us reading plays, they whifperto every body that we are gracekfs ; if we read out