A clear, cold, bright winter’s day. I took a walk which I enjoyed. The air was sharp and the ground covered with a thin coating of snow but the distant hills were sharply defined in the landscape and the sun cast a cheerful glow over the scene.

I attended divine service all day. Mr. Frothingham preached. Luke 24. 29 “But they constrained him saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening and the day is far spent.” I am afraid I must have been musing for I utterly forget what the substance of the Sermon was. Matthew 2. 8 “And he said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when you have found him bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.” This was upon the old idea of Rochefoucauld, that hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue, exemplified in the speech and conduct of Herod.

Read a discourse of Dr. Barrow in continuation of the one read last week. The profitableness of Godliness, brought out into more particulars. It’s value as producing contentment and energy, hope and faith. I did not think the subject in this contracted view of it would have produced two Sermons. Dr. Barrow does not appear to me to see religion in its more noble forms. Evening continued and finished for the first time Faust. I have been much pleased with it, and intend to go over it soon again to be more master of it’s language.