cause every deed that he performs, he does it with perfect safety to himself and honour to me."—I bowed again, lifting my hat, and he went on.—"I am now going to put his courage in the cause he has espoused, to a severe test—to a trial at which common nature would revolt, but he who is dedicated to be the sword of the Lord, must raise himself above common humanity. You have a father and a brother according to the flesh, what do you know of them?"
"I am sorry to say I know nothing good," said I. "They are reprobates, cast-aways, beings devoted to the wicked one, and, like him, workers of every species of iniquity with greediness."
"They must both fall!" said he, with a sigh and melancholy look: "It is decreed in the councils above, that they must both fall by your hand."
"The God of heaven forbid it!" said I. "They are enemies to Christ and his church, that I know and believe; but they shall live and die in their iniquity for me, and reap their guerdon when their time cometh. There my hand shall not strike."
"The feeling is natural, and amiable," said he, "but you must think again. Whether are the
