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CHRIST THE ONLY SOURCE OF REDRESS.

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which already have too often transpired, render even secret resolutions suspicious. But I am sincere in wishing,-I am sincere in praying, I am sincere in purposing,-though these are not enough: all else that is needed, and that is every thing which is valuable for efficiency, must come from God. Yet it is a delightful consideration, that Jesus is able to save to the very uttermost all that come to God by him; not that the intercession of Jesus is needed to conciliate the Father, for the Father himself gave His Son to be the Saviour of the world; but by the interference of the Son consistency is preserved, while I, a sinner, am purified as well as pardoned,—I have my faults corrected and my deficiencies supplied by the active grace which is distributed as it were, according to the will of Him who is exalted a Prince and a Saviour.

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To Thee then, O benign Redeemer! I apply with confidence for redress, redress of those perpetual grievances that arise from the tyranny of a depraved heart, which employs oppressive corruptions and lusts to wean me from faithfulness and all propriety in thy service. I apply to Thee, since thou, and only thou, art able to save to the uttermost.' The more willingly and eagerly do I apply to thee, because the report of those who have already made their applications to thee, is, that thou receivest them graciously, and lovest them freely. In the afternoon I rode about six miles to a village in this county named Poole Hill, to hear my dear friend preach. He had always expressed a dislike to this, and had employed all his means to prevent it; for, by some means or other, the people here seem to have some terrible apprehensions of my criticising disposition; from what cause I cannot imagine, for I have guarded pretty carefully against shewing that I have any inclination to appear pedantic, or to be supposed knowing. Perhaps they have heard of my having been a student at the Baptist College, and hence take it for granted that the College wisdom is transmitted into my head, without considering how great a blockhead a person may remain amidst the greatest advantages which he either cannot or will not properly improve. My friend knew nothing of my intention to see him at Poole Hill; and I was quite tickled with the thought of his surprise when he should discover me. I feared to meet his eye, for on entering the chapel I found in myself a strong temptation and propensity to laugh: against this, however, I sincerely prayed and strove; and thus I avoided the danger. On account of this painful struggle, as well as because of the effect of my unexpected intrusion on my friend's mind, and through him, perhaps, on the minds of the people, I had some reason to repent of my journey, for I certainly was not much blest; and he himself was so confused as to have all his liberty and pleasure in the service destroyed. I knew not how to meet the torrent of affectionate reproaches which I expected from him when he should come out of the chapel; and

when he did come, and so mildly asked me how I could serve him so unkindly, there appeared fresh reason to lament my temerity, especially when he told me that his mind had been greatly blest during the former service of the day, and that he had been enabled to rise into a sweet frame through that accession of grace; but when quite contrary to his expectations he, through the window, saw in the aspect of a criticising enemy, him whose approach he had been accustomed to regard as that of a real friend, his heart failed, and he could not regain his peace of mind during the whole service. But after all that may be said on the impropriety of treating a friend so unkindly, a retort may be made on the same ground; for what propriety is there in regarding the approach of a friend as a misfortune? The timidity which steals in the garb of modesty unsuspected into the heart of a young Preacher, and controls his habitual feelings, will, when it has attained sufficient stability, throw off the mask and exercise a tyranny which, on every unusual occurrence, shall levy on his sensibilities a contribution most painful for him to furnish; and occasions will, in the course of things, put every Preacher under the eye, and into the power, not of friendly hearers only, but of judicious critics, whose decisions may have weight because they are just, and poison because they are dogmatically severe. On these accounts, to meet fearlessly the eyes of strangers, at least so far as is needful to secure the placidity of the mind, is a great advantage; but as advantages of this kind are seldom the gift of nature, this must be secured by the hardness resulting from early and habitual exposure.

CHAPTER III.

Continuation of his Journal-Remarks on the Union of the People of God-Curious Experiment in Agriculture-History of Robert Bemman, Esq.-Remarks on Celibacy-Singular instance of Filial Affection-Dialogue on the difference between Sin and Satan-Consolation for a guilty and polluted Soul-A prosperous Sabbath-Advantages of Religious Correspondence-Reflections on the Death of an Infant-Arguments against Anxiety respecting the Future-Return to Bristol-Increasing ill-health.

Journal Continued.

MONDAY, Oct. 18th.-The subjects of my sisters' letters rest on my mind with great pleasure, and because of their importance they merit a more pointed reply than can be given in the cursory form of a Journal, which may be, in some respects, considered as common property; on this account my pen shall be employed in replying to each of them separately, and the following letter is therefore addressed to MY DEAREST SARAH,

THERE now waits for me the enjoyment of a real pleasure, it is to answer the longest letter that I have ever received from you; the perusal of it tired me not nearly so much as does the reading of many which I receive by their conciseness. This is surely an evidence that the subject which has engaged your thoughts and employed your pen is pleasing to my own contemplations, and that the person who has written is an object of real affection. That affection you seem to suppose is a sufficient warrant for expecting that you will be forgiven for the apparent want of attention to my feelings evidenced by your long silence. The peculiar circumstances in which you have been placed certainly plead strongly, nay, I will admit, irresistibly in your behalf; and I no sooner saw the statement of what you had presumed, than it was ratified by a spontaneous, merciful, and consenting smile. However, I would not have you understand that this act of indemnity is established as a precedent on which you may continue to presume, since the ground on which presumption stands is only supposed secure; but that supposition may be mistaken, and the presumption may meet with a merited repulse, because regarded as unjustifiable boldness. There is, you must admit, something exceed

ingly harsh, and even suspicious, in the aspect of a long unbroken silence; and it produces a feeling which suffers nothing to escape by which the cause of it may be ascertained: and even when at length the first direct communication relieves the anxiety which was rising to impatience, the pleasure of the agreeable disappointment is scarcely powerful enough to erase the recollection that the emotions which previously agitated the feelings were painful.

In the dispensations of unerring Providence, you are circumstanced so as to render it impossible to devote much time to those pursuits and engagements on which your desires have often been fixed; there is however no sacrifice of inclination to duty required, which has not some valuable blessing assigned to it; nor is any such sacrifice ever made with a view to the divine glory, but the blessing is carefully. transmitted according to its assignation, by that compassionate and all-powerful Spirit, who is the Treasurer of our Heavenly Father, the Sovereign of heaven and earth.

The circumstances in which the people of God are placed in the world, though so different in the particulars which distinguish them from each other, are yet so closely assimilated in the more general features, that to contemplate the situation of another, is in a great degree, to observe the representation of one's own; the adventitious occurrences in the earthly circumstances of one man, mark the uncertainty of human affairs in general; the exposure to difficulties, to privations, and to crosses, is not the unhappy lot of a few, marked out as the victims of an unbridled fury in some superior power, but it is the effect of a curse attached to the first triumph of Sin, and this curse has followed closely in the footsteps of impiety, wherever it has gone and prevailed. The erection of a tribunal of conscience in the breast of one, demonstrating that this present mode of existence is a state probationary for another life, must be admitted as the clearest development of the present important circumstances of all,-of the approach of an awful crisis, that of the judgment, for all,-and of the high destiny which is appointed for all. The mind which is awakened from its dream of sublunary pleasure, and is thus made sensible of the delusiveness of those phantoms which have engaged its pursuits, is terrified when on a comparison of its own past condition with the present state of others, it discovers, that with the exception of the few, who like himself are miraculously roused, all are sunk into a moral stupor which, if continued to the end of life, must result in eternal death.

These observations are introduced to account in part for the interest in each other excited in the hearts of those who are joined to the Lord in one body, having one hope of their calling.' The interest commences in a discovery of the commonness of their condition, and of their universal exposure to danger; increasing to a oneness of de

REMARKS ON THE UNION OF CHRISTIANS.

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sign to escape, and still magnifying to an agreement on the means by pplying to God through Jesus Christ, it attains not to the measure of ts fulness till they all, having arrived at the summit of Calvary, and placed themselves under the protection of that glorious Captain of alvation, who liveth, and was dead, and is alive for evermore,' and lunged themselves into the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness,' ise into the experience of a common deliverance, acknowledging the ementing influence of a union which flows from their having but one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, one Father of them all, who is over them all, and in them all, and through them all.' Thus are they wonderfully and irresistibly drawn together by their common enjoyment of a uniting principle of love, the very essence of that God, who is in them as their Father: and thus are they all inspired with similar and immediate purposes, their own sanctification and that of each other, because they are actuated by the same gracious Spirit, who being their Father, is certainly their Friend: and thus too they all have the same hope in them, the same prospect of glory in their more remote view, since the God, who is in them as their Father and their Friend, must necessarily desire an eternal continuance of the intimacy which he himself has commenced:- Father! I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory!'

Is not this, my dearest Sarah, the union which you have so justly and so beautifully described as a reciprocal attraction to the great centre of union,-God; and a mutual blending of persons and of interests, in the enjoyment of Him? And oh, my sister! is not the reason thus supplied, why thy heart is as my heart,' in that more than ordinary degree which our more than fraternal union enables us to feel?

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Our union is more than ordinary, because the ties of consanguinity and of natural affection alone cannot supply sufficient motives to induce us to watch with solicitude over each other's spiritual concerns and progress; it is more than fraternal, because, in addition to the common interests of closely related life, it enables us to love as Christian brethren, and to be not only solicitous for each other's temporal happiness in the highest degree, but to be most earnestly desirous to assist each other's attainment in the greatest possible measure of future and everlasting felicity and glory.

There is then sufficient reason for the pleasure that I feel at hearing from yourself the blessed intelligence of your soul's prosperity; it is an accession of good in which I have an interest; it forms the theme of fresh adoration and new praises to our Immanuel; it might well be the subject of mutual congratulation in the family; and, having brought you into increased communion with God, as well as into a nearer resemblance of his moral image, it affords fresh evidence of the freeness of divine grace, and of its sufficiency to prepare me, your fellow