The love feast is also a private meeting of as many members of the community as choose to attend; and they generally assemble from all parts within several miles of the place where the feast is held. They then alternately sing and pray, and some among them, who think that their experience, as they term it, is remarkable, stand up, and narrate all the transactions which they say have taken place between God, the devil, and their souls. There is a curious propensity to egotism in human nature which frequently shews itself in religious matters. Men love to talk of themselves: and the Romanist finds pleasure in the power of pouring forth all his feelings and thoughts to his father confessor, whenever he is strongly excited by passion: of this I have become aware from personal knowledge. Other enthusiasts enjoy no less satisfaction in talking of the interior conflicts they have sustained; for all ungoverned feeling loves to vent itself in speech, and the lover who talks of his mistress, or the penitent who talks of his sins, is for the time being in the same state of restless excitement. _Governed_ feeling, on the contrary, as far as my experience goes, is silent. In these Love Feasts those present have buns to eat, which are mutually broken between each “Brother and Sister,” and water to drink, which they hand from one to another. These meetings commence about seven o’clock, and last till nine or ten. Each society is divided into smaller companies called “classes” according to their respective places of abode. There are about twelve persons in every class, one of whom is styled “the Leader,” whose business it is to see each person in his class, at least once a week, to advise, comfort, or exhort, as occasion may require, and to receive what each is willing to give towards the support of the Gospel. It is expected that every member should continue to evince his desire of salvation by abstaining from “the taking of the name of the Lord in vain”; “the profaning of the Lord’s day, either by ordinary work thereon, or by buying and selling”; “drunkenness, buying or selling spirituous liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity; fighting, quarreling, brawling; going to law with a brother; returning evil for evil, or railing for railing; the using many words in buying or selling. {59a} The buying or selling uncustomed goods; the giving or taking things on usury, i.e. unlawful interest; the putting on of gold or costly apparel; the taking such diversions as cannot be used in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; the singing those songs or reading those books, that do not tend to the knowledge or love of God;—softness and needless self-indulgence, &c. {59b}