Peter Lacy came, with his wife, in good time for the morning prayers. Susan looked very smart, and held up her head; but Mary did not seem a bit less happy than she did. Mary had no gay stuff gown, but one of plain blue check; with a black bonnet, which looked new because it was carefully kept, and not tossed about and dirtied. She learned from her Bible that pride is hateful to God, and that the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is what He loves, and fitter for a Christian woman than the plaiting the hair, and putting on of rich apparel. “Indeed it is melancholy,” she would often say, “to behold a poor body, made from the dust of the earth, and returning to it again, pampered and puffed up, as if it was a great thing in the sight of God; while the immortal soul is left neglected; and, if found unprepared to meet the Judge at the last day, together with the naked, shivering body, will be sentenced to be cast into the lake of eternal fire.” They soon set out for prayers, and the two eldest boys went with them. Lacy could not help observing how devoutly Connor and Mary joined in the whole service: he looked and wondered; he could not feel as they did, nor pray like them, but he wished to do so; nor was he disappointed in the end:—God, who sees the heart of man, and knows all his thoughts, will answer the humble prayers of a soul that begins to feel his own sinfulness, and the want of a Saviour; the effect of the Holy Spirit’s influence on those that seek Him. All this time Susan was looking about her; but though there was not so smart a gown in that place, very few minded the pattern. In his sermon, the clergyman spoke like a father to his children. Among other things, he told them in particular, “how sinful and how ignorant they were by nature, and how useless all endeavours of their own to please God must be, unless they come to Him by his Son,” (John xiv. 6.) through whose blood alone they could be cleansed from all sin, and clothed in the wedding garment of the Saviour’s righteousness.—That they must be taught of God to feel the plague of their own hearts, and loathe sin. That being brought to a sense of their lost state, and to an entire dependence upon the merits of their Saviour, and upon them alone, for pardon, they should, seeking the blessing humbly in God’s appointed way, receive the gift of a new heart; their former inclinations and sinful ways being exchanged for godly desires and holy pursuits, and they should become “new creatures.” For, “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Cor. v. 17.