4. On dress, company, and amusements.

For your own sakes, as well as to enable you to be good servants, carefully avoid all loose, idle company; alehouses, taprooms, dramshops, and every temptation to drunkenness; cardplaying, adventuring in lotteries, betting, and all kinds of gaming.

Beware of giving way to the love of dress, of company, and of amusement. It will lead you into many unnecessary expenses; and many temptations. Dances, races, and fairs; playhouses, in towns; and wakes, or feasts, in the country; have been the means of ruining many young people, who once seemed prudent and good.

Let your dress be neat and clean. Never be seen ragged, nor even with the smallest hole in any part of your dress. But in buying clothes, do not go beyond what you can prudently afford; and what is proper for situation." I have seen," says a clergyman, "a daughter willing to wear mean clothes, that her aged mother might have some to wear and I have seen such conduct highly blessed."

your

Be not fond of increasing your acquaintance. To visit your family and friends, and your poor, sick neighbours, when you have leave, and a suitable opportunity, is very proper: but most other kinds of visiting are to be avoided; they will lead you to neglect your business, and often put you to an expense which you cannot prudently afford. Take care with whom you make an acquaintance: people are generally the better or the worse for the company they keep. Have no visiters, not even your own relations, at your master's house, and especially never treat them at his expense, without his, or your mistress' express leave.

Be careful of your money. Lay up as much as you

*

can, against the time of need. Put out your savings to interest; but not without the advice of your master and mistress, or of some other persons who are well experienced in such business. Many young people for want of care in this respect, have put their money into improper hands; and thus, lost the benefit of their wise savings. If you can write, and cipher, keep, in a little book, a regular account of all you receive and spend. Examine it, and cast it up, very carefully, at the end of the year. Compare the amount with your money on hand. Consider whether, in the year to come, you may not, properly, lessen some of your expenses, and increase your savings.

Spend your leisure time in an innocent, prudent manner. Part of it may be agreeably and usefully filled up by reading. If any good books were given to yoù at school, or by any of your kind friends, before you went to service, take them with you: value them, as long as you live, for the sake of the persons who gave them to you, and for their own sakes; and often read in them. You may, very pleasantly and usefully, employ some part of your leisure, on Sundays, and other days, in learning by heart, a hymn, or a few verses from the Psalms, and other parts of the Bible; and in calling to mind the hymns, and texts from Scripture, which you learned before you went to service. Now and then, to repeat some of these when you are at your work, will make the time pass on very pleasantly; will give you useful subjects to reflect upon;

* SAVING-BANKS, which are established in many places, and which, it is to be hoped, will become still more general, afford to working people, and especially to young persons in service, an easy, a safe, and a very advantageous means of placing their savings at interest.

and will help to keep out vain and wicked thoughts. You may also very properly repeat a few lines, or a short hymn, when you lie down at night, and when you awake in the morning, or are rising and dressing: this practice has been found very edifying to many excellent persons. If you have learned writing and accounts, and wish to improve yourselves in them, write every now and then in an evening, when your work is done, a few lines either from the Bible, or some other good book, on a slate, or in a neat copy-book; and do a sum or two on a slate. Such amusements will cost you little; and they may, at some time or other, turn to great profit. At any rate, they will prevent you from running into mischief, as some people do, merely for the sake of employment, or of passing away the time. A walk in the fresh air, especially in fine weather, is very amusing, anl good for the health and spirits. But be careful when you take a walk either for pleasure, or business, to avoid, as much as possible, all improper companions: their conversation, and to be seen in company with them, will do you more harm, than the walk itself can do you good.

5. On religious duties.

Whenever you have an opportunity, regularly attend public worship every Sunday, with seriousness and reverence. If ever you go on that day, to visit your friends, or take a walk with them, remember that though the sabbath is a day of rest, and of relaxation from business, it is also a day to be kept holy and to be used, chiefly, in glorifying the great Creator and Redeemer; and in preparing ourselves for a better world, by prayer and meditation, by godly reading and conversation, and by a serious examination of our con

duct, and the state of our minds, especially during the week that is passed. What a pity, and what a shame, it is, that any persons should ever make it a day of mere, idle gossiping, and wandering about; of loose talk and behaviour; or of tippling at alehouses! At the same time, you must not, under pretence of keeping the sabbath-day holy, refuse to do any necessary work: such as, making fires and beds; preparing victuals for the family; milking cows; feeding cattle; tending sick people, and young children. "The sabbath was made for man," says our blessed Saviour; "not man for the sabbath." It was made to do good to men; not to afflict or punish them, or deprive them of any real comfort. No work ought to be done on Sunday, which is not absolutely necessary. Contrive to do as much as you properly can the day before, in order that you may have the less to do on the sabbathday. Whenever you are prevented by sickness, or by any necessary employments, from attending the public worship of God, on the Lord's day, keep the day holy, in the best manner your situation will allow. Pray to the Lord; worship him in the secret of your own heart; meditate upon his holy Word, even if you are not able to read it, or hear it read. "Families," says an excellent lady," may be so ordered, that every one may go to church in turns; and if there is any service in which this is not allowed, I would advise the servant of Christ, to leave such a master, and to seek for one who fears God."

If you have an opportunity of attending family worship and instruction, be thankful for so great an advantage; and endeavour to improve from it, By your constant and willing attendance, show that you are

desirous to give what encouragement you can, to your masters and mistresses, to continue so excellent a

practice.

Neglect not private prayer. If you have not an opportunity of praying to your heavenly Father in secret, (which most persons may contrive to have,) be not ashamed, or afraid, to kneel down, and pray, every morning, and every evening, in the presence of your fellowservants, or of any one else; even if you should think they neglect prayer themselves, and deride you for doing your duty. You stand much in need of Divine assistance, to guide you safely through all the sorrows, trials, and temptations, you must meet with, in the world and particularly to enable you to fulfil a Christian servant's duty, which is very important; and often, even in sober families, very difficult.-Matthew Henderson, a servant, who was executed at Tyburn, in the year 1746, for murder, sorrowfully owned that he had long neglected private prayer; that he had forsaken God, and been a stranger at the throne of grace; that, therefore, God had given him up to his own heart's lust, and suffered him to follow his own imaginations; and that he had no help from above in the needful time of trouble and temptation.

Diligently read the Bible. Learn by heart, and treasure up in your memory, the texts in Scripture, especially the following, which teach a servant's duty; and rest not till, by Divine assistance, you are able to observe the instructions, and to lay hold on the promises, contained in them,

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Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; not with