of Legh Richmond respecting vain amuse

ments.

AN. " Serious, consistent Christians must resist these things: because the dangerous spirit of the world, and the flesh is in them all. They are the pomps and vanities of this wicked world. To be conformed to these seductive and more than frivilous scenes, is to be conformed to this world, and opposed to the character and precepts of Christ. They who see no harm in these things are spiritually blind, and they who will not hear admonition against them are spiritually deaf. Shun, my dear girls, the pleasures of sin, and seek those which are at God's right hand for evermore. You cannot love both."

I have felt a great desire to know why Friends are unwilling to let their children learn music.

Mo. It is one of the fashionable accomplishments of a vain and frivolous world, which instead of contributing to that frame of mind, in which the fear of the Lord is placed before our eyes, stirs up the animal passions and feelings, producing a tempera

ment much more likely to strengthen the kingdom of Satan, than congenial with the pure, self-denying Spirit of the Redeemer. The idle songs and immodest pieces set to music, and sung in gay circles, and which ought to excite the blush of shame, are some of those things which should not be named nor practised among Christians. The waste of time, in learning music, is moreover very great, while the objects of a substantial education are not promoted. A person taught the use of letters, is put into the way of acquiring the various branches of useful knowledge, and of improving his intellectual and moral character, but music with all its fascinations cannot enrich the mind, nor breathe morality into the heart. It is not the foundation of any solid comfort in life-the stimulus it affords the animal spirits soon evaporates, and leaves the mind even more destitute than before. It can give no rational encouragement, nor hope, nor prospect, nor furnish any stay in time of storm. As it is now cultivated, music leads into light and unprofitable company, fostering a desire for personal display and admiration, wholly at

variance with Christian modesty and sobriety. The zest it gives to festive parties and various vain amusements and exhibitions, is a strong inducement to visit those scenes of frivolity and corruption, which lead down to the chambers of death.

Lu. These objections, mother, apply to light music, and are sufficiently conclusive; but many religious persons use vocal and instrumental music for devotional purposes.

Mo. It is true my dear, and we do not condemn them, though we cannot unite with the practice. Not a few who have joined us from other denominations, became dissatisfied with singing hymns adopted by the congregation indiscriminately, however various their conditions and inapplicable to them. In some instances, it has been one of the earliest means of opening their eyes to the emptiness of a formal worship. Sounds exert a powerful charm over the senses, which may be readily mistaken for devotional feelings, while the heart remains unconvicted, and consequently when this evanescent sensation subsides, is found unchanged. The Apostle

Paul exhorted the Christians to be filled with the Spirit, "speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." Music, however, solemn its tones, cannot produce these spiritual songs and melody, which proceed from the quickening virtue of the Holy Spirit, but would rather interrupt and distract the attention, and we have no intimation in the New Testament, that it was used in the primitive Christian churches. I will tell you what a pious person of another profession, said to me. She rather blamed Friends, for excluding music from public worship. I asked her seriously, whether on being permitted to feel the divine presence, and to commune with the Father of Spirits she felt at such seasons, any disposition to sing. After a pause, she replied, "No: at such times quietness is all I desire." May we not then, I rejoined, conclude that that which seems in this state of mind, repugnant to our best feelings, is not calculated to call forth true spiritual devotion, and certainly not essential to divine worship; seeing "God is a Spirit."

FA. It will be seasonable now to conclude our evening with a portion of Scripture, and my mind has been dwelling at intervals on the last chapter of the Revelations.

Mo. Its sublimity and beauty are almost unequalled. Here is the Bible.

FA. 1. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as chrystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

2. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there, the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

3. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God, and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

4. And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

5. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign for ever and ever.