I went after, and engaged in. It was with a gentleman that manufactured gunpowder. I agreed for eleven shillings per week in the summer, and ten shillings in the winter; and procured a readyfurnished room in an old thatched house on Ewell Marsh, if with propriety it might be called a furnished room, at two shillings per week. I was obliged to pawn all my best clothes in order to defray the remaining expenses which attended my wife's lying-in, owing to my being out of employment; and to hire a cart to carry my personal effects, which were but few, to Ewell. When the cart set us down on Ewell Marsh on the Monday morning, and I had paid the hire of it, I had the total sum of tenpence halfpenny left, to provide for myself, my wife, and child, till the ensuing Saturday night! But though I were thus poor, yet I knew God had made me rich in faith; and these words came on my mind with power; 'He multiplied the loaves and fishes to feed five thousand men, besides women and children.' We went on our knees, and turned the account of that miracle into a prayer, beseeching the Almighty to multiply what we had, or to send relief another way, as his infinite wisdom thought most proper. The next evening my landlord's daughter and son-in-law came up to see their mother, with whom I lodged, and brought some baked meat, which they had just taken out of their oven, and brought for me and my wife to sup along with them. These poor people knew nothing of us, nor of our God. The

next day in the evening they did the same; and kept sending victuals or garden stuff to us all the week long. We had not made our case known to any but God; nor did we appear ragged, or like people in want; no, we appeared better in dress than even those who relieved us: but God sent an answer to our prayer by them, who knew not at the same time what they were about; nor did I tell them till some months after. While we were at supper I entertained them with spiritual conversation. After supper I went to prayer with them, and prayed most earnestly for them. And God answered it; for he sent the woman home deeply convicted that night: nor did her convictions abate till she was brought to see Christ crucified in the open vision of gospel faith, and to receive peace and pardon from Christ for herself. Some time after this, God began to work upon the husband also; and then I related the fore-cited circumstance; at the hearing of which he told me how it was impressed on his mind that I was in want of victuals; and his wife found fault with him for thinking so, and bringing it to me, saying, 'The people are better to pass than we are.' But he contradicted her, and insisted on her doing as he desired.

It pleased God sorely to afflict this poor man some few years after, during which time I was enabled to restore him fourfold. He left a testimony for God with his dying breath, and I believe he is in eternal glory. His widow is this day a servant to Mr. Linsey, a tallow-chandler in Lam

beth Marsh, on the right-hand side of the road which leads from Westminster-bridge to Clapham. Her name is Ann Webb.

I found that the small pittance of eleven shillings per week, as I paid two shillings for a readyfurnished lodging, would amount very slowly towards the getting my clothes out of pawn, which with the interest, amounted to near forty shillings, and which I was loth to lose. It came into my mind to search my Bible, to see if any instruction for faith could be got about this matter. I turned promiscuously to these words, "There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes; but what are they among so many?" I asked my wife if she had ever ate barley bread. She said, 'Yes, in Dorsetshire.' I told her I never had eaten it, but the poor Saviour and his Apostles had; and I supposed it was because, speaking after the manner of men, they could get no better food. And, as God saw it necessary to keep us in a state of deep poverty, it ill became us to complain, or to refuse the meanest diet, seeing he had blessed us with an assured hope of heaven hereafter. She said she was willing if I was. So she went to a farmer to ask him to sell her a bushel of barley. His reply was, that he sold his barley by the quarter, or load, to malsters, for making malt; and should not trouble himself with measuring such a small quantity. So she went to a corn-chandler in Ewell, and asked for the same article; whose answer was, 'I have only the refuse of the barley, or

tail corn, which I sell for swine and fowls.' My wife told him that would do; but did not inform him for what use it was intended. This was ground at the mill, and was very cordially received by us; as the love of God which we enjoyed in our hearts, more than counterbalanced all the poverty we laboured under: for I well knew it was decreed by God himself that his people should have tribulation in this world, but in Christ Jesus they should have peace. And love made the yoke easy, and the burden light; for, if at any time a murmuring thought entered my mind, it was soon quelled by considering that Christ lived on the alms of his poor followers, and that he was worse off than either the foxes or the birds; as it is written, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." This has often made my bowels yearn within me, silenced all my murmurings, and dissolved my heart in gospel gratitude.

My dame and I now kept house at a very cheap rate; two shillings and sixpence per week carried us through tolerably well. As for the world's dainties, we were satisfied without them; for we knew that the grace of God had enabled us to choose that good part which shall never be taken from us; therefore patience had, in a manner, her perfect work. We soon saved upwards of twenty shil-. lings; with which, on the Saturday night, I set off to Kingston, to get some of my clothes out of pawn, leaving money in the hands of my dame to get half

a bushel of barley. It so happened that the apparel which I went to redeem came to so much, with the interest, that I had not any money left to bring home. This was a great trial to us; because our poor little girl, who had been but lately weaned, had nothing to carry her through the week but bare barley cakes; and, though she would eat barley, yet I could not endure to see her live on that only. On the Monday following I went heavily to work, and very much distressed to know how my poor little one was to live. I reflected with indignation on myself for parting with my money; thinking I had better have gone without my clothes, than have exposed my poor little one to want the necessaries of life. But, as I went over a bridge that led to my work, I cast my eye on the right hand side, and there lay a very large eel on the mud by the river side, apparently dead. I caught hold of it, and soon found it was only asleep. With difficulty I got it safe out of the mud upon the grass, and then carried it home. My little one was very fond of it, and it richly supplied all her wants that day. But at night I was informed the eel was all gone, so the next day afforded me the same distress and trouble as the preceding day had done. When going to my work, cruelly reflecting on myself for parting with all my money, - just as I entered the garden gates I saw a partridge lie dead on the walk. I took it up, and found it warm; so I carried it home, and it richly supplied the table of our little one that day. A few days