Southern Christian Advocate

A Curious Conscience. A wealthy planter of one of the South Western States, returning from the North last autumn, took with him from New England two young men to labor for him as mechanics. One of them was a professor of religion. The planter, (who, though not a professor of religion is a respecter and supporter of its ordinances,) observed after a few weeks, that this young man, instead of attending church with the family, and otherwise demeaning himself as a pious person, wandered off on the Sabbath. On inquiry, he found that he was beginning to learn to play cards, and to drink ardent spirits. One Sabbath afternoon, he called him to come into his library, and expostulated with him as to his course. The young man replied that no person but his employer knew that he was a professor of religion; that when he came to the South he thought it best not to appear as such, to avoid remark and as he had, on leaving New England, been told by his minister that it was contrary to the rules of his church, for its members to commune with slaveholders, he had not sought connection with the church. Here is a genuine illustration of the power of error and the fruit of unsound instruction. A New England professor of religion could not commune with slaveholders, but he could and did drink ardent spirits, stay away from church, and play cards on the Sabbath. He was afraid of being choked with a gnat, but he had no trouble in swallowing a monstrous camel. N. Y. Observer.