f Fox's leathern breeches."

The confessions of Carey, made in the spiritual humility and
self-examination of his later life, form a parallel to the Grace
Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, the little classic of John Bunyan
second only to his Pilgrim's Progress. The young Pharisee, who entered
Hackleton with such hate in his heart to dissenters that he would have
destroyed their meeting-place, who practised "lying, swearing, and
other sins," gradually yielded so far to his brother apprentice's
importunity as to leave these off, to try to pray sometimes when alone,
to attend church three times a day, and to visit the dissenting
prayer-meeting. Like the zealot who thought to do God service by
keeping the whole law, Carey lived thus for a time, "not doubting but
this would produce ease of mind and make me acceptable to God." What
revealed him to himself was an incident which he tells in language
recalling at once Augustine and one of the subtlest sketches of George
Eliot, in which the latter uses her half-knowledge of evangelical faith
to stab the very truth that delivered Paul and Augustine, Bunyan and
Carey, from the antinomianism of the Pharisee:--

"A circumstance which I always reflect on with a mixture of horror and
gratitude occurred about this time, which, though greatly to my
dishonour, I must relate. It being customary in that part of the
country for apprentices to collect Christmas boxes [donations] from the
tradesmen with whom their masters have dealings, I was permitted to
collect these little sums. When I applied to an ironmonger, he gave me
the choice of a shilling or a sixpence; I of course chose the shilling,
and putting it in my pocket, went away. When I had got a few shillings
my next care was to purchase some little articles for myself, I have
forgotten what. But then, to my sorrow, I found that my shilling was a
brass one. I paid for the things which I bought by using a shilling of
my master's. I now found that I had exceeded my stock by a few pence.
I expected severe reproaches from my master, and therefore came to the
resolution to declare strenuously that the bad money was his. I well
remember the struggles of mind which I had on this occasion, and that I
made this deliberate sin a matter of prayer to God as I passed over the
fields towards home! I there promised that, if God would but get me
clearly over this, or, in other words, help me through with the theft,
I would certainly for the