Showery and cool. Exercises in the usual way. Evening at the Mansion.

I passed a portion of my morning as usual in my lessons to my daughter Louisa who is thus receiving the rudiments of religious instruction.

Attended divine worship and heard Mr. Lunt from two texts 16 Judges 28.29.30 and 23 Luke 32.33.34. The verses are too long to transfer, but the idea proposed was a striking one and for aught I know original. A contrast between Samson as the perfect physical man with Jesus Christ as the incarnation of moral excellence; between the complete developement of the natural passions of man under the rudeness of the primitive age and ritual law of the Jews, and the full influence of the spiritual nature as displayed in the doctrine of the new dispensation, between the death of revenge and the death of forgiveness. The view taken was masterly but short as could not be otherwise during the period of a sermon.

Afternoon, Acts 10. 15. “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.” The opening of Christianity to the Gentiles and the destruction of the exclusiveness of the Jewish system. Mr. Lunt is fond of contrasting these at all times. But his discourses always contain thought.

Read a sermon of Dr. Clarke from John 21. 22. “Jesus saith unto him, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me.” A sensible discourse upon needless curiosity and the investigation of merely trifling points of doctrine. Read some of Tucker’s Light of Nature finishing the first volume. I am not much inclined to metaphysical researches, but do not desire to be wholly unacquainted with them. They improve the capacity of attention which is perhaps the most indispensable quality for effective mental action.

Mr. Campbell and I. H. Adams here for a short time. They leave tomorrow for New York. We passed an hour at the Mansion.