50 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER VII. 



WARM BREAKFAST AND WARM HEARTS. TRUE SELF-DENIAL. PRIMITIVE 



CHRISTIANITY. A LIVING FAITH. 



HEREFORD, June Ytih. 



HEN we came into the parlour, at half-past seven, we 

 found a breakfast-party met to greet us. Our host 

 had been to an early daylight prayer-meeting, and some busi 

 ness had detained him ; but his friends introduced each other 

 to us, and we went to breakfast without waiting for him. It 

 was a good, warm, respectable breakfast fit for a Christian. 

 English breakfasts in general are quite absurd; not break 

 fasts at all, but just aggravations of fasts, and likely to put a 

 man in any thing but a Christian humour for his day s work. 

 As for the better part of the meal, see C. s letter, (from which 

 I here extract) : 



&quot; I shall not soon forget those earnest, simple-hearted men. 

 In many circles one would be repelled by such constant use 

 of religious phrases, but in them it did not seem like cant at 

 al] rather the usual expression with them of true feeling. It 

 was a company too well worth considering. Opposite me sat 

 a middle-aged gentleman, who had been a major-general in 

 the East India service, and who belonged to one of the first 

 families in the kingdom. Yet he had given up his commis 

 sion and his position in society for the sake of doing good as 

 an humble Christian. His half-pay, too, he had refused, be 

 lieving it inconsistent for a religious man to receive money 



