more than those who are good, moral, and prudent; and thus prefer such as are unserviceable to the public, before such as are serviceable. Private duties of charity are also of several kinds, such as paying wages to workmen, returning borrowed money, observing agreements, keeping pledges, and other transactions of a like nature, some of which are duties grounded in statute law, some in civil law, and some in moral law. These duties, also, are discharged from different motives by those who are under the influence of charity, and by those who are not; by the former they are discharged faithfully and justly, for the law of charity requires that a man should so act in all his dealings, with whomsoever he may have any connection; but these duties are discharged in a totally different manner by those who are not influenced by charity. Then there are convivial recreations of charity, which consist of dinners and suppers and social intercourse. Every one knows that dinner and supper parties are in general use, and are given to promote various ends; by many on account of friendship, relationship, mirth, gain, recompense, and for party purposes of corruption; among the great they are given on account of their dignity; and in the palaces of kings, for the display of splendor and magnificence. But dinners and suppers of charity are given only by those who are influenced by mutual love grounded in a similarity of faith. Among Christians in the Primitive Church, dinners and suppers had this end alone in view, and were called feasts, being instituted that they might meet together in cordial joy and friendly union. At table, the guests conversed together on various subjects, domestic and civil, but particularly on such as concerned the Church; and as these feasts were feasts of charity, their conversation on every subject was influenced by charity, with all its joys and delights. The spiritual sphere which prevailed on such occasions, was a sphere of love to the Lord and toward the neighbor, which exhilarated every mind, softened the tone of every expression, and communicated to all the senses a festivity from the heart; for from every man there emanates a spiritual sphere, derived from the affection of his love and corresponding thought, which inwardly affects those in his company, particularly at the time of convivial recreations.