with Christ in His sufferings, my trials have appeared to be lighter than nothing, and vanity; and 1 have wondered most of all, that God should condescend to use a rod over me. help me to be more thankful!

The Lord grant unto us the faith which sees God, which obtains promises, which overcometh the world, which has "respect to the recompense of the reward," that we may rejoice in tribulation also. Whatever others do, I must live to God; whatever I gain or lose, I am determined to have, if it is attainable, the interior glory, the indwelling God. O let us aim at this, and never be satisfied till we are filled with all the fulness of God!

J. H. B.

HOLYWELL, February 8th, 1833.

I WILL only just add, in reference to myself, that God is with me :

"He calls a worm His friend,

He calls Himself my God;

And He shall save me to the end,
Through Jesu's blood."

I am trying to live above my outward circumstances. Here is much that is gloomy, much that is discouraging; but I am endeavouring to gain a higher region. I want to regard the taking up of the cross, the renunciation of my own will, the deferment of hope, and a thousand other things which are far from being congenial with the feelings of flesh and blood, as blessings and pleasures. Who that knows anything experimentally, that has any personal acquaintance with God and Christ,, but would delight to labour or suffer in His cause and for His sake? O for more love, and zeal, and faith, and patience!

HOLYWELL, April 24th, 1833. SINCE Writing to you last, I have sometimes been a little poorly; sometimes rather low, sad, and sorrowful. I hardly know why or wherefore, except that I have been so unfaithfui and indolent in the ways and things of God. And sometimes, O, I have been so happy that I could scarcely desire any other heaven. You can have no idea how good the Lord has been to me of late; how He has manifested. Himself to my soul; how His secret has been with me, and He has shown me His covenant; how He has led me about, and instructed me, and kept me as the apple of His eye; how He has fed me with the choicest of the wheat, and honey out of the flinty rock; how He has anointed my head with oil, and made my cup to run over; how He has permitted me to dwell in the "secret of His tabernacle," and

privileged me to hide myself in His feathers, and to rest under the shadow of His wings. Even now my heart melts, and my eyes overflow: they are tears of joy and gratitude. I cannot tell you what I feel. God is mine. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. When I think of my insignificance and sinfulness,—an atom of dust, a depraved and wicked atom of dust, who has despised the authority and outraged the government of God, but who, nevertheless, has been pardoned and renewed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God, and is now privileged to dwell in the house and enjoy the favour and friendship of my heavenly Father, the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, I am overwhelmed and confounded. "How precious are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! They are more in number than the sand: when I awake I am still with Thee." "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us," &c. O, it is a miracle of mercy that I, of all beings in the creation, should be thus favoured and privileged !-I, who am "less than the least of all saints." I feel that I am the chief of sinners; and yet, Jesu's blood avails for ." This, however," as Mr. Fletcher remarks, in one of his heavenly epistles,-"this is speaking too much about self: good and bad self must be equally denied; and He that is the fulness of Him that filleth all in all, must fill my thoughts and desires, my letters and my all."

me.........

There is nothing more certain in religion than this, I speak from long observation and experience,-(you will say it is a truism: it is so,) that whenever Christians do their part in the work of prayer and watchfulness and self-examination and selfdenial, particularly in the work of faith, faith working by love, then God will do His part, in giving peace and joy, in making crooked things straight, and rough places plain, in causing the heavens to drop down dew, in leading us into the paths of righteousness; in making our bones to flourish as an herb, in enabling us to rejoice evermore, and pray without ceasing, &c. It is because we will not [in a certain sense] pay the price, that we are so poor in spiritual good. It is because we do not labour for the meat that endureth to everlasting life, that we have to complain, "My leanness, my leanness." And frequently our troubles are multiplied because we refuse to receive chastisement; we make our faces harder than a rock, we refuse to return. The Lord be thanked that you and I have, in some degree, under the Divine blessing and influence, been induced and enabled to stir up the gift of God that is within us, and work out our own salvation. O that we may be steadfast and unmovable, &c. ! O that we may be faithful unto death, that we may receive a full reward!

HOLYWELL, June 6th, 1833.

THAT you may know how I do, or, rather, how I have been doing, I send you a short synopsis of my movements for the last few days. On Saturday, the 27th, journeyed ten miles; slept at St. Asaph. On Sunday, walked six miles, preached three times, took cold, had a violent toothache: sent for the doctor, but he durst not venture upon the work of extraction, stating that the offending tooth might break, and still give me as much pain as ever; so, as you may suppose, I dismissed him. Monday, poorly; visited the people, preached. Tuesday, walked twelve miles and preached; still indisposed. Wednesday, being weary with forbearing, went to a druggist, who, without any hesitation, courageously applied his instrument, and, after a desperate wrench, gave me ease: preached in the evening. Thursday, a little better; rode about fourteen miles, and preached. Friday, about the same, except preaching. Saturday morning received your letter ; afterwards went to Mold, distance about nine miles, where I met with Mr. W., and expected to meet with the book-parcel, but was disappointed. Sunday, preached three times, met two classes, rode six miles; walked nine more in a dribbling, insinuating rain, which fell incessantly, and drenched me thoroughly. Yesterday walked six miles, and preached. To-day I have only had the class to meet, and find that rest to a labouring man is sweet. At the same time there is an undefinable gratification, or, I might say, deliciousness of feeling, in being worn out in the service of God; something far better than ease, or honour, or fame, or glory, or thousands of gold and silver, can bestow. And I would

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My body with my charge lay down,

And cease at once to work and live."

God is teaching me by facts and providences, as well as by His word and Spirit; and I wish to be a diligent observer and an apt scholar, that I may understand the loving-kindness of the Lord, and know what is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning me. O, the foot of the cross is a blessed place! to be less than nothing in one's sight, and Christ our all in all. Here the fruits of the Spirit grow in largest, richest clusters.

Your extracts from Hall's sermons so greatly delighted and profited me, that I shall not feel satisfied till I have the opportunity of devouring the whole. On the subject of walking with God, and holding fellowship with the Father of spirits, I have to say, as far as my own poor experience goes, that, though God is around, and above, and beneath us, as the atmosphere in which we live and move and have our being, He only manifests Himself to those who wait for Him more than they that watch for the morning, who walk by faith, who are all eye and all ear;

and who, when He condescends to come down in the cloud, and open an intercourse with the soul, entertain Him with holy thoughts and desires; and, while He breathes upon and through them in silent and sanctifying inspirations, breathe back to Him in prayer and praise. O what a state! What blessings, and privileges, and communications, and revelations belong to the man, the Christian, who can say, "Nevertheless, I am continually with Thee. When I awake, I am still with Thee. My soul followeth hard after Thee. Thy right hand upholdeth me." This is paradise restored. Here is celestial fruit on earthly ground. This is heaven begun below. Blessed be God, while I write, the best of all is, God is with me, and all my bones say, "Who is a god like unto our God?" I am the chief of sinners; but Jesus died for me.

"The Spirit answers to the blood,

And tells me I am born of God."

I see the beauty of the Lord, behold the glory as in a glass; and this is my experience: "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none," &c. I hear the voice of the Lord, and this is His language: "Son, thou art ever with Me, and all that I have is thine." Glory be to God! Glory be to God!

"I'll praise my Maker while I've breath,

And when my voice is lost in death,
Praise shall employ," &c.

'It strikes me, that you are deficient in the "venture of faith.” Mr. Fletcher says, "Sink or swim, a believer must learn to cast himself headlong into the boundless sea of Divine truth and love." John Smith says, "It is impossible to believe too much ar too soon." Now, it is not what you were, or what you shall be, but how do matters stand at present? Have you free and open intercourse with heaven? Do you walk in the light? While you read these lines, God is with you. Where is your faith? Open your eyes, and behold Him; open your heart, and receive Him. Entertain Him. Detain Him, and never let Him go. O that your "heart were all a heaven, for ever filled with God!" I am very glad and thankful to learn that the snare is broken and you are escaped. Take care lest you be again taken by the enemies. Now that the soul of God's turtledove has fled to His holy mountain, abide there; continue to hide yourself in the clefts of the Rock of Ages; and, by and by, "the rain will be over and gone, the time of the singing of birds will come, and the voice of the turtle will be heard in the land." Not that you are ever to forsake your hiding-place; but being driven there first by necessity, you will afterwards, when the storm is past, abide there from choice; because "this is the hill

which God hath desired to dwell in; yea, He will dwell in it for ever."

O what a year has the last been! Upwards of thirty workmen have been dismissed, and yet the temple of the Lord rises higher and higher. What an increase have we had! Mr. N. says, thirteen or fourteen thousand. So true it is, that God buries His workmen, but carries on His work. I am glad you profit by the ministry of I was much pleased with a remark in Mr. B.'s sermon: "Even men who have more understanding than their teachers, always need the public ministry; and, if they are truly wise and humble, are always the first to value it, as calculated to stir them up by putting them in remembrance," &c.

J. H. B.

Shortly after the date of the last extract, he was called to supply for awhile a vacant place at Liverpool, and afterwards visited his relatives at Thirsk. By that time the Conference had again met; and, as concurrent testimonies seemed to justify the act, he was once more regularly admitted to pastoral labour, and now appointed, in connexion with several elder colleagues, to the important town and Circuit of Birmingham. This change, with its anxieties and responsibilities, stirred up his usual pensiveness; but he was not long in settling to his work, and pursuing it with characteristic ardour. This appears from the first letter written to the same friend after his arrival.

BIRMINGHAM, August 29th, 1833. It is one of the disadvantages of our present state of existence, that frequently we cannot do the things that we would. My time and attention of late have been so fully occupied with numerous and important engagements, that, occasionally, I have scarcely been able to attend to my devotional exercises. Nevertheless, it is a great mercy, a matter of thankfulness, that, while in the business of personal salvation, it is necessary to be always at it, there is a possibility of attending to it and pursuing it in the midst of the greatest bustle and excitement in connexion with the affairs of this life; that, while our hands are here engaged, our hearts may be still with God. O for more of that holy abstractedness of mind, that mighty power of faith, which makes invisible things preponderate over visible things, and raises the future above the present! At the same time, the longer I live, and the more experience I have in the things