generous. The next day the first stones of four of the girls houses were laid at the Orphanage. It was a second day of joyful excitement and holy benevolence.

This year Mr. Spurgeon addressed the Wesleyan Conference assembled in City Road Chapel, London. Calling at the chapel vestry on a matter of business, he hoped to get quietly away before his presence was known; this was impossible. Scores of hearty brethren pounced upon him immediately, and in a few minutes Dr. Punshon was conducting him into the assembly. The reception he met with from all present melted him to tears, and bowed down his soul with a weight of love. The president most affectionately invited him to address the conference; and although he was utterly unprepared, yet, depending on the Lord for help, he undertook the task. The address was one of unusual power. The whole scene was a spontaneous outburst of brotherly love in Christ Jesus. The following resolution was afterwards forwarded to him by the secretary of the conference :-"That the conference has much pleasure in receiving a fraternal visit from the Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon, and tenders to him the hearty assurance of the esteem and Christian love of its members. They rejoice in his long career of extensive usefulness, and they earnestly desire for him the continuance and increase of all spiritual blessings."

Intelligence came this year from all quarters of the usefulness of the sermon No. 1500. The proprietors of the French periodical, L'Echo de la Verité, translated it into French, and presented it to their subscribers as a New Year's gift. Survivors wrote to say how it had directed their dying friends to Christ, in whom they had found life and peace. An Indian agent of the London Missionary Society says "Your fifteen-hundredth came to hand a short time ago, and I read it to a delighted European and native audience here a Sunday or two since. I wish I had two or

three hundred of your fifteen-hundredth for educated Hindus." A missionary writes from Japan-"I have just completed a translation of Mr. Spurgeon's fifteenhundredth sermon, and the Tokio local committee of the Religious Tract Society having accepted it, have it now in the press."

The year closed with tokens of the divine blessing. On Sunday, 5th December, no less than one hundred and nine persons were received into church-fellowship at the Tabernacle. The following extract from a letter, received from a ministerial brother at this time, will be read with interest. Such tidings continually reaching him helped much to brighten his darkest hours. "Your first sermon in Belfast caused me to decide finally to enter the ministry. Since then I have given ten years to mission work in Damascus, where I built the first church ever erected for the spiritual worship of the true God in that city. I built two churches on Mount Hermon, and in these churches, again and again, I have preached your sermons in Arabic. I preached one of your sermons on the top of Mount Hermon at a pic-nic given to our different villagers." And this incident, which came on those days to his knowledge, excited wonder and praise :-A few days before he preached at the Crystal Palace in 1857, he went down to the building to arrange where the platform should be placed, and while trying the various positions, he cried aloud, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." A man was at that time at work in the Palace, who heard the text spoken under such unusual circumstances. It went with power to his heart, convinced him of sin, and led him to the sin-atoning Lamb, in whom he found forgiveness and peace.

HE year 1881 opened amid much and sore affliction. In February he says:-"I have been very ill for more than five weeks, and during that time I have been brought into deep waters of mental depression; yet, on the whole, I have had more quiet of heart than aforetime." Yet he abounds in thankfulness. "I beg specially to acknowledge the tender thoughtfulness of a host of friends. As if they felt it good to send cheer when God was sending chastisement, they have poured in letters of sympathy, backed up with tokens of love, in the form of contributions to my various institutions. I have been sustained by overflowing kindness." In March the song is the same:"More wearisome days have been appointed us, but yet the Lord has been very gracious, and we have good hope of permanent recovery, when frosts and damps become fewer." The annual church meeting was held on the 8th of February; and, though the pastor was suffering much pain, he was there, and it was a happy season. The warm love of his attached people cheered his heart; and, though another period of heavy affliction awaited him, it was a green oasis

in the desert of pain. On the twenty-eighth of the month, he presided at a meeting at the Tabernacle, to inaugurate an effort to send out evangelists to the English-speaking people of India. He felt that this work was forced upon him by the voice and providence of God, and he could not keep back.

Again, for a time, he was laid aside. In May, however, we find him present every day during the College conference week, presiding over the successive meetings, throwing life into them all by his wise counsels and hearty cheer. June was a month of much earnest work. His free service at the Tabernacle on Sunday evening, the twelfth, was the most successful of the kind in the character of the audience. The number who were ignorant of the tunes, and the general aspect of the hearers, clearly proved that they were not accustomed to attend any place of worship. The annual fête, in celebration of the President's forty-seventh birthday, was held at the Orphanage on the twenty-second, and was in all ways a great success. The proceeds of the day, for the support of the orphan boys and girls, amounted to upwards of £1400. At a public meeting in the evening, Hugh Mason, M.P., presided, and after speaking in terms of warm affection of Mr. Spurgeon, and enthusiastically of the Orphanage, gave the noble donation of a hundred guineas as a practical proof of his sympathy.

Through the summer the pastor continued to work on. A succession of special prayer-meetings proved times of great blessing. He thus refers to them:- "The special prayer-meetings before our week-evening lecture have not only been well sustained all through the past month, but have increased in number and grown in fervency, and we are already reaping the first-fruits of what will, we trust, prove a good harvest of souls. The Monday evening prayer-meetings have been seasons of unusual power; and this fact makes us quite sure that a blessing of an unusual

extent is on the wing. Requests for prayer have continued to come in large numbers from almost all parts of the globe, and not a few requests for praise, because former supplications have been answered. These have tended to keep the meetings real and earnest, for there has been actual business to do with the Lord that heareth us. Each meeting differs from every other, but all are remarkable seasons of fervent devotion. Frequently there are fifteen hundred persons present.”

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In October, Mr. Spurgeon preached at Portsmouth and Southampton, in connection with the autumnal session of the Baptist Union. At the former place, the vast audience had a remarkable escape from an imminent peril. nervousness of the preacher was great and manifest. memory of a scene many years ago rose to mind. One of the papers seemed to wonder at his alarm. "Who could avoid it," he says, "amid that dense throng, in a frail building, with constant interruptions? The horror of great darkness which passed over the preacher's soul, few can understand but those who have once seen a multitude flying in panic, and people trodden to death in the crush. We should be able to preach abroad far oftener if we could secure moderate audiences, in places full to safety, but not crowded to murder-point. However, the occasion ended well, and to God be praise!" At this season he was the guest of Canon Wilberforce. "Surely," he remarks, "there is some softening process at work, some coming together of divergent creeds, some candour towards long-despised truth. In the house of Canon Wilberforce, in concert with Lord Radstock and other friends, we had much friendly discussion, but far more spiritual communion, both in conversation and prayer. The life of God in the souls of believers triumphs over even important differences of ceremonial and doctrine. In honestly dealing with each other in the spirit of love to Christ we shall, by the