Page 62 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

READING LESSONS. 61
thing in the senseless, unmeaning mummeries cus­ tomary at this season, which seems to me but ill adapted to do honour to the solemn st and vigil which we this night celebrate. And apart om this mere .silliness, or the evil which they occasion to ignorant minds, I con ss I cannot understand how a Christian can esteem it a rational amusement to invoke the aid of an evil spirit even in jest. I know that similar practices have ever been regarded by the Church with horror. One ct, however, cannot be denied, that an evening could be spent quite as amusingly, and much more pro tably, without them.
3. "I spent this night twelve months," he contin­ ued, "in the house of a respectable mily in another county, and will tell you bow they passed it. The master and mistress had their kitchen crowded with their poor neighbours. They had no snap-apple, nor nuts, nor beans ; but they had a good re, and good books, and they .read something that was at the same time amusing and instructive, either om the history of the Church, or the wonder l lives of missionaries in various parts of the globe ; or else they conversed eely on some point of Christian doctrine or morals, and sometimes gave interest to the subject by anec­ dotes and stories; and I assure you, many went home
from that Hollandtide a great deal better instructed in their religion and its duties than when they came, and by no means discontented, either, on the scor of amusement."
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G. GR FIN.