The weather grows cooler. I read some heads of d’Israeli and attended divine service. Mr. Frothingham preached in the morning from 1. Corinthians 5. 11. “With such an one no not to abide.” A communion Sermon upon the fashion of exclusion which has become 66prevalent in Churches, of all not exactly agreeing in points of faith. The text distinctly alludes to certain descriptions of men as unfit to join in the Ceremony, and I understood the Preacher as admitting the justness of the exception subject however to great mildness in the judgment of character. He thought it necessary to apologize for the extent of his doctrine which I thought not a little remarkable.

Afternoon Mr. Ripley from Luke 24. 29 “Abide with us: for it is toward evening.” He seems to me to be a very dull preacher. This was an allusion to the meeting of two disciples with Jesus at Emmaus and then an allegorical application of the text to the dark vicissitudes of life in which the presence of Jesus might be most welcome. Mr. Ripley appears to me to have very little faculty for his profession. He is no Speaker and I should doubt if he possessed a spark of that without which preaching is a lump of ice.

Read a Sermon of Barrow in continuation of that read last Sunday and finishing the other heads. “Giving thanks always unto God for all things.” “Always” he treated much in the same manner as in his Sermon on Prayer. For all things gives an opportunity for alluding to leading points. A good practical discourse.

Evening at home. Read aloud to Mr. Brooks from the last Westminster Review an article upon the subject of our Banking disputes1 in which it is difficult to decide which is most predominant, error or ignorance. The one is positive as it contains very false theories in currency and banking, the other only negative as it does not comprehend the truth. I afterwards read d’Israeli which is a pleasant but a most exceedingly idle book. For it requires no action of the mind. This is too much the case with all my reading.