THE HEART/'s-EASE. 211 



None with more prayerful fervency bade God- 

 speed to the departing warriors who were about to 

 wield their spiritual sword in distant climes : none 

 rendered them higher honour, or more triumphant- 

 ly dwelt on the glories of what he firmly believed 

 to be the crown of genuine martyrdom, when they 

 yielded their lives beneath the pressure of their 

 sacred burden ; but he deprecated in himself, and 

 detected in others, that excitement of feeling which 

 too often takes the name of missionary zeal, when 

 wrought upon by touching descriptions of spiritual 

 darkness and moral degradation among the dwellers 

 in far off lands, while carelessly passing the abodes 

 of our own countrymen, as completely prostrated 

 beneath the power of Satan, as are the savages of 

 foreign woods. I never beheld a person so anxious 

 to strip religion of all encumbering romance : and 

 to bring its divine energies into unfettered action 

 in the streets of London. And why there partic- 

 ularly ? Because his calling was there: because 

 in his daily walks from one office to another, he 

 passed through lanes and alleys, "where Satan's 

 scat is," and being possessed of but limited means 

 as to time and money, he considered himself bound 

 to use them where God had seen fit to open a field. 

 The little Heartsease looks and breathes of blue 

 skies, and verdant fields, and fragrance-fraught par- 

 terres ; but to me it pourtrays a different scene, 

 bringing before me the densely peopled courts and 



