vehement--then louder--bewailed his lost state--deplored his keeping
aloof from the means of grace--feared that the example of his old, and
sinful, and blasphemous father, and his most profligate mother, had
rendered his heart impenetrable to all visitations of conscience or
religion--if conscience he ever had, or religion he ever heard; both of
which, he, the humble and sinful suppliant, doubted. What then was his
state? Oh! how could a charitable or truly religious heart bear to think
of it without being deeply affected"--handkerchief here applied to the
eyes, and some sobs--a nondescript sound from Darby, accompanied by
a most pathetic shaking of the sides--evidently as much affected as
M'Slime.--The prayer was then wound up in a long, heavy, dolorous
cadence, which evidently proceeded from a strong conviction that he who
prayed was laboring against all hope and expectation that the humble
"mean" then adopted would be attended by any gracious result--the voice
consequently quavered off into a most dismal sound, which seemed, as
it were, to echo back a doleful answer to their solicitations,
and accordingly Solomon rose up with a groan that could not be
misunderstood.

"You see, O'Drive," said he, "we have received no answer--or rather
a bad one--I fear his is a hopeless case, as, indeed, that of every
reprobate and castaway is; and this distresses me."

"Mr. M'Slime," said Darby, "will you excuse me, sir--but the thruth
is, I never properly knew you before." These words he uttered in a low
confidential voice, precisely such as we might suppose a man to speak
in, who, under his circumstances, had got new convictions. "I'll appear
next Sabbath, and what is better, I think in a few days I'll be able to
bring three or four more along wid me."

"Do you think so?" said M'Slime, a good deal elated at the thought; for
the attorney was only playing his game, which certainly was not the case
with the greater number of the new reformation men, who were as sincere
in their motives as he was hypocritical in his exertions. "And what are
their names, Darby?"

"I feel, sir," replied O'Drive, "that it's my duty as a Christian,
brought out of the land of cordage--"

"Bondage, Darby."

"Of bondage, to do all I can for the spread o' the gospel. Their names,"
responded Darby, rubbing his elbow with a perplexed face; "don't you
think sir it would be better to wait awhile, till we'd see what could be
done with them privately?"

"No