“Well, then, can you tell me what sort of people they are, and what their characters and habits?”

“O yes, I can assure you that they are the best set of people in the world.  They are esteemed, loved, and respected by every one:  I never heard any thing but good of those I knew, and they always appeared to me to conduct themselves irreproachably.”

[Illustration:  PETER BAYSSIERE]

I continued to question your mother on the manner in which the protestants brought up their children; how they treated their servants, strangers, and the poor.  I asked if domestic harmony prevailed among them, and how they conducted themselves as parents and children, brothers and sisters.

All her answers tended to convince me that pious protestants lived under the influence of the word of God; and at each disclosure she made, (though unconscious of the value I attached to it,) I said to myself, “This is the morality of the Gospel.”

Satisfied on this point, I turned to another: 

“How do the protestants spend their Sabbaths and festivals,” I asked, “separated as they are from each other and their church?  Do they ever assemble for prayer, or do they live without worship?”

“O, no! they don’t live without worship; they have their divine services; they are at too great a distance from their minister and each other to meet every Sunday, but they have a church in the country where they assemble many times in a year, I believe once a month; and at other times they meet for prayer at their own houses.”  “Oh! then they have a church near Libos?  I should very much like to know,” said I, “how they conduct their worship, and what they do at their church?”

“I can tell you perfectly,” replied your mother, “for I was present at one of their assemblies.  There is nothing grand or striking in their churches; they contain neither altar, chapel, images, nor any ornament whatever, but consist simply of four whitewashed walls.  At the lower end is a pulpit, like that used by our priest, in front of which is a table, and around it are seats occupied by the elders.  The rest of the church is fitted up with benches, placed in order, on which the congregation seat themselves as they enter.

“I observed that most of them, before they sat down, leaned upon the back of the seat before them, and seemed to be in the act of prayer.  Their service was as simple as the building, devoid of ceremony.  When the congregation had assembled, one of the elders ascended the pulpit and prayed aloud in French; then he gave notice that he was about to read the word of God; and having requested their attention, he did read, for some time, from a great book, which they told me was the Holy Bible.  He then offered prayers, and preached a sermon, which gave me great pleasure at the time, but which I now forget.  I well remember that throughout the service there was no noise nor disturbance of any kind in the church, and one feeling seemed to pervade the whole:  this struck me forcibly.”