Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 1).djvu/218

 repentance, and never-ending regret, that will mix itself in his most earnest devotions, render those acts of religion, which should communicate joy and cheerfulness to the mind, cold, gloomy, and mechanical; whilst the good, the active, the benevolent mind, performs his sacred duties with delight, from conviction and choice diffuses blessings to all around him, and by precept and example animates others to the practice of religion and virtue, which his conduct renders both easy and pleasant."

"If I may judge from the expression of your countenance," said Ferdinand, "your advice is not the declamation of an unimpassioned man, who has forsaken the world from choice, but the warnings of a feeling heart, desirous of saving others from equal regret and misery with himself."

"You have observed justly, I will not deny," answered the Father: "Many are the victims in this house to pride, impatience, and avarice, sacrificed by their friends, or driven by the impetuosity of their own pas-