ht, Squire," said Mr. Hopewell, "to go. That which has to
be done, should be done soon, for we have not always the command of our
time. See your friend, for the claims of friendship are sacred; and see
your family tomb-stones also, for the sight of them, will awaken a train
of reflections in a mind like yours, at once melancholy and elevating;
but I will not deprive you of the pleasure you will derive from first
impressions, by stripping them of their novelty. You will be pleased
with the Scotch; they are a frugal, industrious, moral and intellectual
people. I should like to see their agriculture, I am told it is by far
the best in Europe.

"But, Squire, I shall hope to see you soon, for I sometimes think duty
calls me home again. Although my little flock has chosen other shepherds
and quitted my fold, some of them may have seen their error, and wish to
return. And ought I not to be there to receive them? It is true, I am no
longer a labourer in the vineyard, but my heart is there. I should like
to walk round and round the wall that encloses it, and climb up, and
look into it, and talk to them that are at work there. I might give some
advice that would be valuable to them. The blossoms require shelter, and
the fruit requires heat, and the roots need covering in Winter. The vine
too is luxuriant, and must be pruned, or it will produce nothing but
wood. It demands constant care and constant labour; I had decorated the
little place with flowers too, to make it attractive and pleasant.

"But, ah me! dissent will pull all these up like weeds, and throw them
out; and scepticism will raise nothing but gaudy annuals. The perennials
will not flourish without cultivating and enriching the ground; _their
roots are in the heart_. The religion of our Church, which is the same
as this of England, is a religion which inculcates love: filial love
towards God; paternal love to those committed to our care; brotherly
love, to our neighbour, nay, something more than is known by that term
in its common acceptation, for we are instructed to love our neighbour
as ourselves.

"We are directed to commence our prayer with "Our Father." How much
of love, of tenderness, of forbearance, of kindness, of liberality, is
embodied in that word--children: of the same father, members of the same
great human family I Love is the bond of union--love dwelleth in the
heart; and the heart must be cultivated, that the seeds of affection may
germinate in it.