Fine morning. I did not attend Divine Service today, but went with my Wife to Medford to Mr. Brooks’. Found the family consisting of himself, his son Gorham and his Wife very well. Dined and spent the day. The house seems to go through as many phases as it has new Tenants. They were pleasant. Took a walk down the bank of the Canal.1 It is picturesque, but the Country still has a bleak look. Not a leaf to be seen and the grass barely turning. Mr. Shepherd and P. C. Brooks Jr. came in the Afternoon. We left just after tea and got home shortly after Sunset.

I read a long Sermon of Massillon’s upon the Passion of the Saviour. John 18. 37. “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” He considered it, 1. as a manifestation of the obstinacy of the world to oppose the truth, 2. as the greatest evidence of that truth. His divisions are again subdivided. I think the first portion of the Sermon exceedingly powerful. It shows a keen insight into the weakness of human nature, and the precious sophistry which is perpetually employed to cover its indulgence. Nothing else but the Connoisseur.