CHAPTER XI

JOURNAL.

THE correspondence which follows needs neither introduction or. comment. No one who reads it will need to be told how remarkable it is. It was Irving's first long separation from his wife, and his heart was opened and warmed by that touch of mutual sorrow which gives a more exquisite closeness to all love. This perfect revelation of a man's heart, and of a husband's trust and confidence, is given by permission of the remaining children of his house. It will be seen to begin from the time of his leaving Kirkcaldy, after the sorrows above recorded. I" Annan, 18th October, 1825.' MY DEAREST WIFE,-I am grieved that I should have missed this day's post by the awkwardness of the hour of making up the bag at noon precisely, beyond which I was carried, before I knew that it was past, by the many spiritual duties to which I felt called in my father's house and my sister's..... But I know my dear Isabella will not grieve half so much on this account as I have done myself..... And now, having parted with all the household, I sit down here, at the solemn hour of midnight, to write you how it is with me, and has been since I left you, first praying that this may find you and our dear babe as I left you, increased in strength. "Andrew bore me company to Peebles, and will inform you of my journey so far. We parted at two o'clock on the south side of Peebles Bridge, and I took my solitary way up Glen Sark, calling at every shepherd's house along my route, to obtain an opportunity of admonishing mother and children of their mortality, and so proceeded till I set my face to climb the hill which you must pass to get out of the glen-; in ascending which, I had the sight and feeling of a new phenomenon among the mountains, a terrible hail-storm, which swept down the side of the opposite mountain, and came upon me with such a violence as required all my force of hand and foot to keep erect, obliterating my meagre path, and leaving me in the wildest mountain, wholly at a nonplus, to steer my way, until the sun breaking out, or rather streaking the west with a bright light, I found myself holding right east instead of south, and night threatening to be upon me before I could clear the unknown wild. I was lonely enough; but, committing my way unto the Lord, I held south as nearly as I could guess, and reached the solitary house in the head of another water, of which Sam may recollect something; where, forgathering with a shepherd, I got directions, and set my breast against Black-house heights, and reached my old haunts on Douglas Burn, where, in answer to the apostolic benediction which I carried every where, I received a kindly offer of tea, night's lodging, then a horse to carry me through the wet, all of which in my haste refusing, I took my way over the rough grounds which lie between that and Dryhope by Loch St. Mary. My adventures here with the Inverness-shire herds and the dogs of Dryhope Tower (a perfect colony, threatening to devour me with open mouth), I can not go into, and leave it to the discourse of the lip. Here I waded the Yarrow at the foot of the loch,' under the crescent moon, where, finding a convenient rock beneath somt overhanging branches which moaned and sighed in the breeze, I sam me down, while the wind, sweeping, brought the waters of the locl to my feet; and I paid my devotions to the Lord in His own ample and magnificent temple; and sweet meditations were afforded me of thee, our babe, and our departed boy. My soul was filled with sweetness.'I did not ask for a sign,' as Colonel Blackadder says; but when I looked up to the moon, as I came out from the ecclesia of the rock, she looked as never a moon had looked before in my eye-as if she had been washed in dew, which, speedily clearing off, she looked so bright and beautiful; and on the summit of the opposite hill a little bright star gleamed upon me, like the bright, bright eye of our darling. Oh, how I wished you had been with me to partake the sweet solacement of that moment! Of my adventure with the shepherd-boy Andrew, whose mother's sons were all squandered abroad among the shepherds, and our prayer upon the edge of the mountain, and my welcome at the cottage, and cold reception at the farm-house, I must also be silent till the living pen shall declare them unto you. Only I had trial of an apostolic day and night, and slept sweetly, after blessing my wife and child. Next day I passed over to the grave of Boston, at Ettrick, where I ministered in the manse to the minister's household, and tracked my way up into Eskdale, where, after conversing with the martyr's tomb (Andrew Hyslop's), I reached the Ware about half an hour after George, who had brought a gig up to Grange, and from that place had crossed the moor to meet me; and by returning upon his steps, we reached home about eleven -o'clock. But such weather! I was soaked, the case of my desk' was utterly dissolved, and the mechanical ingenuity of Annan is now employed constructing another. But I am well, very well, and for the first time have made proof of an apostolical journey, and found it:to be very, very sweet and profitable. Whether I have left any seed that will grow, the Lord only knows. "l Many, many are the tender and loving sympathies toward you which are here expressed, and many the anxious wishes for your welfare and hope of seeing you, when, without danger, you can undertake it.... I shall never forget, and never repay, the tender attentions of all your dear father's household to me and mine. The Lord remember them with the love He beareth to His own. I affectionately, most affectionately, salute them all..... The Lord comfort and foster your spirit. The Lord enrich our darling, and make her a Mary to us.... "Your most affectionate husband, EDWARD IRVING." "Carlisle, 21st October, 1825. "MY DEAR ISABELLA, —Thus far I am arrived safely, and find that my seat is taken out in the London mail to-morrow evening at seven o'clock. I left all my father's family in good health, full of affection to me, and, I trust, not without faith and love toward God. Mr. Fergusson, and Margaret, and the two eldest boys came down from Dumfries on Wednesday, and added much to our domestic enjoyment, which, but for the pain of parting so soon, was as complete as ever I had felt it; for, though my heart was very cold, I persevered, by the force, I fear, rather of strong resolution than of spiritual affection, to set before them their duties to God and to the souls of their children. They spoke all very tenderly of you, and feel much for your weal, and long for the time when they shall be able to comfort you in person. Thomas Carlyle came down to-day, and edified me very much with his discourse. Dr. Duncan came down with CAM, who, poor lad, seems fast hastening into one of the worst forms of Satanic pride. He desires solitude, he says, and hates men. " Your short penciled note was like honey to my soul; and, though I have not had the outpouring of soul for you, little baby, and myself which I desire, I hope the Lord will enable me this night to utter my spiritual affections before His throne. I am an unworthy mana poor, miserable servant-unworthy to be a doorkeeper; how unworthy to be a minister at the altar of His house! I shall write you when I reach London. Till then, may the Lord be your defense, my dear lamb's nourishment and strength, Mary's encouragement, and the sustenance of your unworthy head. Rest you, my dear, and be untroubled till the Lord restore your health; then cease not to meditate upon, and to seek the improvement of our great trial, which may I never forget, and as oft as I remember, exercise an act of submission unto the will of God. This is written at the fire of the public room among my fellow-travelers. The Laird of Dornoch, Tristram Lowther the willful, where I waited for the coach, expressed a great desire that, when you came to the country, you would visit him.... "Your true and faithful husband, EDWARD IRVING." "Myddelton Terrace, 25th October, 1825. " MY DEAR WIFE, beloved in the Lord,-I bless you and our little child, and pray that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may be with you and all the house. "I reached London late (eleven o'clock) on Saturday night, by the good preservation of God, to which, when I sought at times to turn the minds of my fellow-travelers, I seemed unto them as one that mocked; but, though we were a graceless company, we were preserved by the Lord. On our journey there occurred nothing remarkable except one thing, which, for its singular hospitality, I resolved to recount to you. Our road lay through Rutlandshire, and half way between Uppingham and Kettering there appeared before us, on the top of a hill, an ancient building, but not like any castle which I had ever seen before, being low and irregular, and covering a deal of ground, and built, you would say, more for hospitality and entertainment than strength. I make no doubt, from the form of the structure, it is as old as the Saxon times, and belonged to one of those franklins of whom Walter Scott speaks in'Ivanhoe.'. Now mark; when our road, swinging up the hill, came to the gate of this mansion, which was a simple gate-not a hold, or any imitation of a hold of strength-to my astonishment, the guard of the mail descended and opened the gate, and in we drove to the park and gate of the castle, where they were cutting wood into billets, which were lying in heaps, for the sake of the poor in the village beneath the hill. One of these billets they laid in the wheel of the coach, for the hill is very steep; and while I meditated what all this might mean, thinking it was some service they were going to do for the family, out came from a door of the castle a very kindly-looking man, bearing in a basket bread and cheese, and in his hand a pitcher full of ale, of which he kindly invited us all to partake, and of which we all partook most heartily, for it was now past noon, and we had traveled far since breakfast-from Nottingham..... So here I paid my last farewell to ale, and am now a Nazarite to the sense. Oh that the Lord would make me a Nazarite indeed from all lusts of the flesh!.... Remember this hospitable lord in your prayers. He is my Lord Londes, and his place is Rockingham Castle. The mail-coach hath this privilege from him at all times, and, I understand, during the great fall of snow, he took the passengers in, and entertained them for several days, until they were able to get forward. "I arrived, I say, at eleven o'clock, and Alexander Hamilton was waiting for me at the Angel, with whom I walked to this house of mourning, and found Hall getting better, and all things prepared by his worthy wife for my comfort. So here I am resolved to abide, and meditate my present trials and widowhood for a time. But I forget not, morning and evening, to bless you, and our dear little lamb, and Mary our faithful servant, and to sue for blessings to you all from the Lord; and trulyI feel very lonely to ascend those stairs, and lie down upon my lonely bed. But the Lord filled me with some strong consolations when I thought that a spirit calling me father, and thee mother, might now be ministering at His throne. I do not remember ever being so uplifted in soul. Yesterday I travailed much in spirit for the people, and preached to them with a full heart -that is, compared with myself; but, measured by the rule of Christian love, how poor, how cold, how sinful! This morning I have had the younger Sottomayor* with me. Would you cause inquiries to * This was one of two brothers, Spaniards, the elder of whom had been abbot of be made what likelihood there is of his succeeding as a Spanish teacher in Edinburgh?.... Before settinig out, I resolved to write you, however briefly, that your heart might be comforted; for are not you my chief comfort? and ought not I to be yours, according to my ability? I assure you, all the people were glad to see me back again, and condoled with us with a great grief. The Lord bless them with all consolations in their day of affliction. The church was, as usual, very crowded, and I had much liberty of utterance granted me of the Lord.... I desire my love to your dear father and mother, and my most dutiful obedience as a son of their house. My brotherly affection to all your sisters, who were parents to our Edward; and to our brothers, who loved him as their own bowels. Oh, forget not any of you the softening chastisement of the Lord. Walk in His fear, and let your hearts be comforted. "Your most affectionate husband and pastor of your soul, "lEDWARD IRVING. "' Say to Mary,' Pray for the Comforter, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father.'" After his arrival in London his letters take the form of a journal, commenced as follows: "Let me now endeavor to express, for the information of my dear wife, and for her consolation under our present sore trial, and for the entertainment of her present separation from me, and the gratification of all her spousal affections, and, by the grace of God, for the building up of her faith in Christ, and her love toward her husband, whatever hath occurred to the experience of my soul this day, and whatever hath occupied my thoughts in this my study, and whatever hath engaged my activity out of doors; and for her sake may the Lord grant me a faithful memory and a true utterance. " 26th. This morning I arose a little after seven o'clock, in possession of my reason and of my health, and not without aspirations of soul toward the communion of God, but poor and heartless when compared with those experiences of the Psalmist, whose prayers prevented the dawning of the morning, and his meditations the night-watches; and my soul being afflicted with the a monastery, and had more than once been intrusted with missions to Rome. He had been enlightened by a copy of the Bible in the library of his convent, and after a while had been obliged to flee from the terrors of the Inquisition. He could speak scarcely any English, but was kindly helped to acquire it by the ladies of Mr. Irving's family. The younger was a soldier, brought to Protestantism as much by love for his brother as by love for the truth. Irving exerted himself in behalf of both, and treated them with great and constant kindness. The abbe married a lady whose confessor he had been, and whom he had insensibly led into his own views, and, as a consequence, into persecution, but died early, leaving his widow to the protection of his devoted brother. downwardness, and wandering of spirit, and coldness of heart toward the God of my salvation, in the morning, which is, as it were, a new resurrection, it was borne in upon my mind that it arose in a great measure from my not realizing with abiding constancy the Mediator between me and God, but breaking through, as it were, to commune with him in my own strength, whereby the lightning did scathe my soul, or rather my soul abode in its barrenness, unwatered from the living fountain, in its slavery unredeemed by the Captain of my salvation, who will be acknowledged before He will bless us, or rather who must be honored in order that we may stand well in the sight of the Father. When the family were assembled to prayers in the little library (our family consists at present of Mrs. Hall, her niece, a sweet young woman out of Somersetshire, and a servant-maid, and Hall, who is not able to come down stairs till afternoon), Miss Dalzell* and her sister came in to consult me concerning the unsuitable behavior of one of the Sabbath-school teachers, who was becoming a scandal unto the rest of the teachers, and had been a sore trouble to her, and whom Satan was moving to trouble the general peace of the society. Under which affliction, having given her what present comfort the Lord enabled me, I refrained from any positive deliverance, or even hinting any idea, till the matter should come before our committee, against which may the Lord grant me and all the teachers the spirit of wise counsel to meet and defeat this device of the Evil One. Hiow the tares grow up among the wheat in every society, and, alas! in every heart! The Lord root them out of my soul, though the pain be sore as the plucking out a right eye or a right hand. After worship and breakfast I composed myself to read out of a book of old pamphlets concerning the Revolution one which contains a minute journal of the expedition of the Prince of Orange, for the Protestant cause, into England, from the day of his setting out to the day of his coronation; which, written as it is in a spiritual and Biblical style, brought more clear convictions to my mind that this passage of history is as wonderful a manifestation of God's arm as any event in the history of the Jews, being the judgment of the Stuarts, the reward of the Orange house, the liberation of the sealed nation from its idolatrous oppressors, and the beginning of the humiliation of France, which went on for a century and was consummated in the Revolution, of which the remote cause was in the expensive wars * A lady who had been the means of establishing a system of local Sabbath-schools. exhausting the finances, and causing Louis XVI. to be a'raiser of taxes,' according to Daniel's prophecy. Oh that some one would follow the history of the Christian Church, and embody it in chronicles in the spirit of the books of Samuel! There is no presumption, surely, in giving a spiritual account of that which we know from the prophecies to be under spiritual administration. Afterward I addressed myself to Bishop Overall's Convocation Book, concerning the government of the Catholic Church and the kingdoms of the whole world, which digests, under short chapters, the history of God's revelation, and appends a canon to each; in the first twenty-two of which chapters and canons I was astonished to find the full declaration of what had been dawning upon my mind, viz., that the maxim, which, since Locke's time, has been the basis of all government,' that all power is derived from the people, and held of the people for the people's good,' is in truth the basis of all revolution and radicalism, and the dissolution of all government; and that governors and judges, of whatever name, hold their place and authority of God for ends discovered in IIis Word, even as people yield obedience to laws and magistrates by the same highest authority. Also it pleased me to find how late-sprung is the notion among our leveling Dissenters, that the magistrate hath no power in the Church, and how universal was the notion among the Reformers and divines that the magistrate is bound to put down idolatry and will-worship, and provide for the right religious instruction of the people. That subject of toleration needs to be reconsidered; the Liberals have that question wholly their own way, and therefore I know that there must be error in it; for where Satan is there is confusion and every evil work. " I went out into the garden to walk before dinner, and with difficulty refrained my tears to think how oft and with what sweet delightfI had borne my dear, dear boy along that walk, with my dear wife at my side; but had faith given me to see his immortality in another world, and rest satisfied with my Maker's will. Sir Peter Lawrie called after dinner, and besought me, as indeed have many, to go and live with him; but nothing shall tempt me from this sweet solitude of retirement, and activity of consolation, and ministry to the afflicted.... When he was gone I went forth upon my outdoor ministry, and as I walked to Mr. Whyte's, along the terraces overlooking those fields where we used to walk, three in one, I was sore, sore distressed, and found the temptation to 'idolatry of the memory,' which the Lord delivered me from, at the same time giving the clew to the subject which has been taking form in my mind lately, to be treated as. arising out of my trial; and the form in which it presented itself is'the idolatry of the affections,' which will embrace the whole evil, the whole remedy, and the sound condition of all relations. I proceeded to Mrs. S., and, being somewhat out of spirits, was tempted of Satan to return, but having been of late much exercised upon the necessity of implicit obedience to the will of God, I hastened to proceed, and was richly rewarded in an interview with the mother and daughter, wherein my. mouth was opened, as was their heart, and I trust seed was sown which will bear fruit. Then I returned home through the church-yard, full of softness of heart...... Upon my return home I addressed myself to a discourse upon the text,'To me to live is Christ, and to die gain,' until the hour of evening prayer, when I gathered my little flock, and having commended all our spirits and all our beloved ones to the Father of mercies, we parted-they to their couches, where I trust they now sleep in peace; I to this sweet office of affection, which I now close with the deep closing knell of St. Paul's sounding twelve in my ear. My beloved Isabella, you are sleeping upon your pillow; the God of Jacob make it rich and divine as the pillow of Padanaram! My little darling, thou art resting on thy mother's bosom; the Lord make thee unto us what Isaac was to Abraham and Sarah!' Farewell, my beloved I "27th October. I am so worn out with work that I fear it is a vain undertaking to which I now address myself, of giving some account of the day's transactions to my dear wife. I began the day with a sweet exercise of private devotion, wherein the Lord gave me more than usual composure of soul; and having descended, we read together the fourth chapter of Job, and prayed earnestly that the Lord would enable us to fulfill His will; at and after breakfast I read the seventy-third Psalm in Hebrew, and in the Greek New Testament the first chapter of Hebrews; after which I went to my solitary walk in the garden, and was exercised with many thoughts which came clothed in a cloud, but passed encircled with a rainbow. As I walked I employed myself in committing to memory some Hebrew roots. Having returned to my study, I addressed myself to read two or three additional chapters and canons in the Convocation Book, and am a good deal shaken concerning the right of subjects to take arms against their sovereign. Thereafter I labored at my discourse, in the composition of which I find a new style creeping upon me, whether for the better or for the worse I know not; but this I know, that I seek more and more earnestly to be a tongue unto the Holy Spirit. My dinner being ended I returned to my readings, and sought to entertain my mind with a volume of my book of ancient voyages, which delights me with its simplicity. I had a call from Mr. M —-, and Dr. M with him. I was enabled to be very faithful, and I trust with some good effect..... Then I went to church to meet my young communicants and the spiritual part of my people. But of all that passed, sweet and profitable, I am unable to write, with difficulty forming my thoughts into these feeble words. The Lord send refreshing sleep to my dear wife and little babe, and to His servant, who has the satisfaction of having wearied himself in His service. Farewell! " 28th October, Thursday. This day, my best beloved, has been to me a day of activity and not of study, feeling it necessary to lie by and refresh my head, whose faintness or feebleness hindered my spirit from expressing itself last night to its beloved mate. My visions of the night were of our dearly beloved boy, whose death I thought all a mistake or falsehood, and that he was among our hands still; but this illusion was accompanied with such prayers and refreshings of soul, and all so hallowed, that I awoke out of it nowise disappointed with the sad reality; and having arisen, I addressed myself to the cleansing of body and soul, and especially besought the Lord for simple and implicit obedience to His holy will, of which prayer, methinks, I have this day experienced the sweet and gracious answer. At family prayers and breakfast there assembled Mr. Hamilton, our brother; Mr. Darling, one of the flock, who came to consult concerning the schools, for which they wish a collection, to which I am the more disposed that all other means have failed; Mr. Thompson, the preacher who visited us at Kirkealdy, and came to present me with his little religious novel of The Martyr, a tale of the first century: opus perdifficile; Mr. M., curate of our parish of Clerkenwell, who came to commune with me concerning Sottomayor and the affairs of the parish, a:man of zeal, but I fear not of much wisdom, yet devoted to the Lord; Mr. Johnstone, a young lawyer from Alnwick, four years an inmate of Pears' house,* a Christian likewise, but of the Radical or Dissenting-for-dissenting-sake school —I trust * The school-house at Abbotshall, Kirkealdy, referred to in Chapter IV.

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190 A DAY IN THE CITY. men of God; and a sweet thought it is to me that the Lord should encompass my table with His servants; for whose entertainment Mrs. Hall (best and frugalest of housekeepers) had prepared a ham and other eatables, with which, and tea not over strong, we were well pleased and thankful to satisfy our hunger. After breakfast we set out (which had been projected between Mr. Hamilton and me) to see the walls of the new church, arising out of the earth in massive strength to more than the height of a man, where we found Mr. Dinwiddie, with his daughters, of whom he would not allow one to go to Edinburgh on a visit of months without having seen it, to carry the reports of our work. This careful elder having pointed to Mr. Hamilton the remissness of the overseer to be on his post betimes, we proceeded to the city; I to visit the flock, they to their honest callings. In Mr. —'s hospitium of business and general rendezvous of Caledonian friends, I wrote for Elizabeth Dinwiddie a letter of pastoral commendation to Mrs. Gordon, through whom, wife of my heart and sharer of my joys, you will find her out if you should be resident in the city. In the room of shawls, muslin, and muslin-boxes, which your father found cool as the refreshing zephyrs, there were four Greeks, negotiating with Alexander, by the universal language of the exchange, the ten digits, for one other common sign had they not. They were small, strong, well-built fellows, turbaned, with black hair curling from beneath high skull-caps; and yet, I think, though they had fire in their look, one or two English seamen carry as much battle in their resolute faces as did these four outlandish mariners. But I hastened to another conflict —the conflict of sorrow and sickness, in the house of our dear brother David, whose hurt in his head threatens him grievously.... In my first visit I liked the complexion of his sickness ill; he was then so moved and overacted by my visit that we judged it best that I should not have an interview with him. He had spoken much and delightfully to his excellent wife..... I gathered the family together, and having spoken to them, we had a season of prayer, from whence I proceeded to Mr. L —, in order to exhort him and his wife concerning their children, and especially concerning the Sacrament of Baptism, which they sought for the youngest, two months old. They are two saints, as I judge, and our communing was sweet. Thence I passed to Whitecross Street, in order to visit an old couple, Alexander Ma- and his wife (he whom we got into the pension society). they are sadly tried with two sons, one of whom has fits of madness; the other, according to his father's account,' has caught the fever of the day,' become infidel, which he tells me is amazingly spread among the tradesmen. Having exhorted them to zeal and steadfastness, I passed on to Sottomayor's, whom I found correcting a Spanish translation of Doddridge's'Rise and Progress;' and after much sweet discourse-for, dear Isabella, he proves well-his wife came up, and he interpreted between us. She is perplexed most to give up the honor of the Virgin-I should say the idolatry of the Virgin. I prayed with them, as in every other placer and hastened home, expecting letters from my Isabella, which I found not, at Pentonville. Thence I passed, peeping at the bookstalls, and sometimes going a step out of my way, but purchasing nothing, though sore tempted with St. Bernard's works, until I reached Bedford Square, where I found the two proof-sheets with the letter, which was like water to my soul. But one o'clock has struck. William Hamilton came at six, when we went to St. Peter's.. After which, returning home with sweet discourse, I assembled my family, and when I prayed there wept one, I know not which (may they be tears of penitence and contrition!); and having supped upon my cup of milk and slice of toast, I have wrought at this sweet occupation till this early hour. And now, with a husband's and a father's blessing upon my sleeping treasures-a master's blessing on my faithful servant, and a son and brother's upon all your house-I go to commit myself to the arms of Him who slumbers not nor sleeps. Farewell. " Waltharnstow, 29th, Friday. This morning, my dear Isabella, I excused myself a little longer rest by the lateness of my home-returning last night and my weariness, which you will observe is not right; for, unless there be some fixed hour, there can be no regularity, of which the great use is to form a restraint upon our willfulness. Moreover, I always find that the work of the Lord proceeds with me during the day according to my readiness to serve Him in the morning. Oh, when shall my eyes prevent the morning, that I might meditate in His law or lift up my soul unto His throne! After our morning prayers, our friend Mr. W. came in, much grieved in spirit by the vexations of the world, and the mistreatments of one whom he thought his friend. But I told him that his faith was unremoved and unremovable, and his wife and children spared to him, and daily bread furnished out to them, therefore he ought not so sadly to grieve himself.... I addressed myself to my main occupation of preparing food for my people, beginning a lecture upon the first three verses of the eighth chapter of Luke, which I sought to introduce by giving a sketch, chiefly taken from the preceding chapter, of what kind His ministry was likely to be in these cities, in which I think I had no small liberty granted to my mind and to my pen, for which I had earnestly besought the Lord in the morning. And having well exhausted myself by about one o'clock, and brought the discourse to a resting-place, I judged I could not do better than gather my implements and walk over to Walthamstow, that I might have the more time with our afflicted friends...... I pursued my road alone, reflecting much upon the emptiness of all our expectations, and the transitoriness of all our enjoyments, seeing that the last time I traveled that way I had pleased myself with having found a road through the park, by which you and I and dear Edward might oft walk out of a summer eve to see our friends; and now little Edward and our esteemed friend are in the dust. Be it so. I praise the Lord for His goodness, and so do you, my dearest wife. I found our dear friends as I could have wished...... Having assembled the family, and encouraged them to stand fast in the Lord and see his wonders, we joined in worship, and the ladies retired, leaving me in this room, dear, and sitting in the spot where our friend used so cheerfully to entertain us.... Oh, Isabella, my soul is sometimes stirred up, and sometimes languishes with much faintness, yet with a very faint as well as a very fervent cry, I will entreat Him that I may be wholly His, in my strength and in my weakness. I pray for you all continually. I bless you and our dear babe night and morning, not forgetting Mary, whom I entreat to advance, and not to go back.... Now, my dearest, how glad should we be that the fresh, free air of our house was eminently servicable to Hall, with whom it might have gone very hard in his confined place. The servant is now about to leave us; and then we are Hall, his wife, his wife's cousin, three most worthy people.... So be wholly at rest, my dearest, concerning my comfort, and regulate your time wholly by consideration for your health and dear Margaret's. The solitude does me good. It teaches me my blessedness in such a wife, which I have much forgotten, but now, thank God, forget not.... But time hastens, and my eyes grow heavy and my conceptions dull. The Lord, who preserved the Virgin and the Blessed Babe on their journey to Egypt, preserve my wife and babe, and bring them in safety to their home, and their home in my heart. This night may His arms be around you, and soft and gentle sleep seal your eyelids, and when you awake may you be with Him. Amen. "29th, Saturday. "'Long have I viewed, long have I thought, And trembling held the bitter draught; But now resolved and firm I'll be, Since'tis prepared and mixed by Thee. "' I'll trust my great Physician's skill, What He prescribes can ne'er be ill; No longer will I groan or pine, Thy pleasure'tis —it shall be mine. "'Thy medicine oft produces smart, Thou wound'st me in the tenderest part; All that I prized below is gone; Y)et, Father, still Thy will be done. "' Since'tis Thy sentence I shall part With what is nearest to my heart, My little all I here resign, And lo! my heart itself is Thine. "' Take all, Great God. I will not grieve, But wish I still had more to give. I hear Thy voice; Thou bidd'st me quit This favored gourd, and I submit.' "These lines, my dearest, were brought in for the consolation of Mrs. I by the two pious sisters in whom our departed friend used to rejoice so much. I thought them so pious and obedient in their spirit that I immediately copied them out for the consolation of Edward's mother. Dear Isabella, if the fruit of our marriage had been no more than to give birth and being to so sweet a spirit, I would bless the Lord that He had ever given you to my arms. "I am in Dr. M —'s back dining-room, so far on my way home..... So, to place myself in the sweetest company which the world possesses for me, I have taken my pen in hand. I know not how it is, my dear, that I find not the communion I looked for in the company of Mrs. I -. Her mind is fidgety or flighty, I know not which... So it is with me also, and with all others who nourish their own will in its hidden places. An evidence, my dear, of those who nourish their own will, is the carelessness which they have in expressing their thought, and manifesting it to others. Being manifest to themselves, they stop short, and heed not the farther revealing it. How this has been my character, and that of Mrs. I-! Hence our inability to enter into communion; for communion implies one common, not two several minds. The true access and assurance of good society* is the communion of the Holy Spirit, which if you cultivate, my beloved wife, it will be well for you in all relations, and so also for me. As Christ is the author of all true regulation of the mind, or understanding, or reason, so the Holy Ghost is the author of all true love, and affection, and communion, out of which all forms of society spring. But for Miss ]B, I think her, so far as I can judge, a faithful and true disciple of the Lord; rather, perhaps, over-theological, and not enough practiced in the inward obedience of the mind. Oh, my dearest, this obedience is the perfection of the Christian-obedience in the thought, obedience in' the feeling, obedience in the action. Think much of this, for it i true, true! As I came over these fields and marshes, and by tha running water, there revived in me some effeminate feelings, whic' convince me that there is an intimate connection between the sof er and more luxurious forms of nature, and the softer passions G. the mind; for I am never visited with any such fleshly thought; when moving through the mountains and wilds of my native country; and, to my judgment, this tendency of visible beauty, variety, and richness to cultivate the sensual part of our nature, which obscures the intellectual and moral, is the true account that, being left to themselves without religion, the people of the plains sink into lethargy and luxury of soul far sooner than the people of the mountains. The eye hath more to do with the flesh than any other sense, although they be all its vile ministers. Oh, when shall I be delivered from these base bonds? When shall I desire to be delivered, and loathe them with my soul? " Dr. M — interrupted me, and I now write by my fireside, whither the Lord has conducted me again in safety, preparing all things for my reception. I have finished both my discourses, and have had a season of discourse and prayer with the three women whose tears are the tokens of their emotion. Oh, that they may be saved!.. Dr. M~- pleases me not a little. He is an exact, but formal man, yet he seems to possess more insight into theology than I had thought. One discourse was profitable and full of argument. The Universityt makes progress, and the good* Irving uses this word in the Scotch sense-good company, fellowship. The social faculty is evidently what he means. t London University, which was then being established, and which, in consequence of the exclusion of religion, Irving strenuously opposed. natured doctor thinks he has mellowed them into the adoption of some measure defensive of religion. He pleases himself with the thought that Dr. Cox can do every thing or any thing with Brougham.' The man who thinks he hath Brougham captive hath caught a Tartar. He has more of the whirlpool quality in him than any man I have met with; and he careth not for wisdom, but for power only.' These were some of my exclamations in the midst of the doctor's simplicity. Observe, Isabella, that the philosopher, or lover of wisdom, is a grade higher than the lovers of power, or the monarchs who have reached it. Hence, when a truly great man chances to be a king, he desires wisdom moreover, as Alfred did, and others after, as Justinian and Napoleon; 6lut no philosopher ever cared to be a king-Pythagoras, or Plao, or Socrates, for instance. There are no philosophers nowa-!ays, because they are all ambitious of power or eminence. Even Basil Montagu is desirous of power-that is, his own will; and Joleridge is desirous of power-that is, the good-will of others, or the idolatry of himself. The Christian is both priest and king, a minister of wisdom and a possessor of power. The rest I leave to your own reflections. I had much earnest discourse with Mr. T- on our way home, concerning his vocation. The Lord be his defense. And now, Edward Irving, another day hath passed over thy head, and hast thou occupied the time well? Art thou worthy of to-morrow? I have passed the day amiss, and am not worthy of to-morrow. I have been in communion with myself. I have loved myself better than another. I know not whether I have been altogether temperate; and yet will I praise the Lord, for I have prayed oft, and I have written my discourses in a spiritual frame of mind. But oh! my meditations, why centre ye at home so much? Now may the Lord prepare me for to-morrow's holy dawn, and all my people, and give me strength to beget one unto Christ, whom I may call my son! How doth my sweet daughter, my dear child? Thou seed of an immortal! the Lord make light thy swaddling-band, and salvation thy swathing round about thee! And thou, my most excellent wife! when shall these eyes behold thee, and these lips call thee blessed, and these arms embrace thee? In the Lord's good time. When Thou judgest it to be best, oh my God, direct them to a good time, and conduct them by a healthy way. Thou doest all things well. And this night encircle them with Thy arm where they lie, and bless the house where they dwell for their sake. Make my wife like the ancient women, and my child like the seed of the fathers of Thy Church. And, oh! that Thy servant might be held in remembrance by the generation of the godly. Bless also Thine handmaiden, our faithful servant. Even so, my family, let the blessing of God encompass us all. " Sunday, 30th. This has been to me a day to be held in remembrance, my dearest wife, for the strength with which the Lord hath endowed me to manifest his truth. I pray it may be a day to be remembered for the strength with which He hath endowed many of my people to conceive truth and bring forth its fruitfulness. In the morning I rose before eight, and having sought to purify myself by prayer for the sanctification of the Sabbath, I came down to the duties of my family; but, before passing out of m>? bedchamber, let me take warning, and admonish my dear Isabell how necessary it is for the first opening of our eyelids upon th sweet light of the morning to open the eye of our soul upon il blessed light, which is Christ, otherwise the tempter will carry u, away to look upon some vanity or folly in the kingdom of this world, and so divert our souls as that, when they come to lift themselves up to God, they shall find no concentration of spirit upon God, no sweet flow of holy desires, no strong feeling of want to extort supplication or groanings of soul, so that we shall have complainings of absence instead of consolations of His holy presence, barrenness and leanness for faithfulness and beauty. So, alas! I found it in the morning; but the Lord heard the voice of my crying, and sent me this instruction, which may He enable me and my dear wife to profit from in the time to come. After our family worship, in which I read the first chapter of the Hebrews, as preparatory to reading it in the church, Mr. Dinwiddie, our worthy and venerable elder, came in as usual, and we joined in prayer for the blessing of the Lord upon the ministry of the Word this day throughout all the churches, and especially in the church and congregation given into our hand; whereupon he departed, having some preparations to make before the service, and I went alone, meditating upon that first of Hebrews, which has occupied my thoughts so much all the week. We began by singing the first six verses of the forty-fifth Psalm, whose reference to Messiah I shortly instructed the people to bear in mind. In prayer I found much liberty, especially in confession of sin and humiliation of soul, for the people seemed bowed down, very still and silent, and full of solemnity; then, having read the first of Hebrews, I told them that it was the epistle for instructing them in the person and offices of Christ as our mediator, both priest and king; but that it wholly bore upon the present being of the man Christ Jesus, from the time that he was begotten from the dead, not upon his former being, from eternity before He became flesh, which was best to be understood from the Gospel by John, but for the new character which He had acquired by virtue of His incarnation and resurrection, and the relations in which He stood to the Church and to the world, this epistle is the great fountain of knowledge, though, at the same time, it throws much light upon His eternal Sonship and divinity, by the way of allusion and acknowledgment in passing; that the purpose of the epistle was to satisfy the believing lebrews, who were terribly assailed and tempted by their unbe-.ieving brethren, and confirm them in the superiority of Christ to -oses as a lawgiver, to Aaron and the Levitical priesthood as a,riest, and to angels, through whose ministry they believed that she law was given, as the apostle himself teacheth in his Epistle to the Galatians. And therefore he opens with great dignity the solemn discourse by connecting Christ with all the prophets, and exalts Him above all rank and comparison by declaring His inheritance, His workmanship, His prerogative of representing God, of upholding the universe, of purging our sins by Himself, and sitting at the right hand of the majesty on high. Then, addressing himself to his work, he demonstrates His superiority to angels, in order, not to the adjustment of His true dignity-which he had already made peerless-but to the exaltation of the dispensation which he brought, above the former which was given by angels. This demonstration he makes by reference to psalms, which, bythe belief of all the Jewish Church, from the earliest times, were understood of Messiah, which quotations, however, far surpass, infinitely surpass the purpose for which they are quoted, placing Him, each one, on a level with God, to us, at least, to whom that doctrine hath been otherwise revealed. But those Psalms looking forward to Niessiah's glory can consequently have only an application posterior to the time that He was Messiah, and that he was Messiah in humility. Therefore, the' this day' is the day either of His birth or of His ascension, the'first-begotten' is from the dead, and the'kingdom' is the kingdom purchased by His obedience unto the death; and hence the reason given for His exaltation is, because He hatbh loved righteousness and hated iniquity. These trains of reasoning and quotation being concluded, I challenged them to remark the sublimity of that from the 102d Psalm, and thence took occasion to rebuke them very sharply for going after idolatries of profane poets, and fictitious novelists, and meagre sentimentalists, who are Satan's prophets, and wear his livery of malice, and falsehood, and mocking merriment, while they forsook the prophets of the Lord, and their sublime, pathetic, true, wise, and everlasting forms of discourse. Then, having begun with a prayer that the Lord would make the reading of this Epistle effectual to the confirming their faith in Christ's character, offices, and work, and possessing them of the efficacy thereof, I concluded with a prayer that the Lord would enlarge our souls by that powerful word which had now been preached to us of His great grace. " Then we sung the last verses of the 102d Psalm, and prayec in the words of the Lord. The sermon* was from Phil., i., 21, tc which I introduced their attention by explaining my object t, show them the way to possess and be assured of that victory ovel death, of which, last Lord's day, I showed them the great achievement (1 Cor., xv., 55-57); then, having, in a few sentences, embodied Paul's sublime dilemma between living and dying, I joined earnest battle with the subject, and set to work to explain the life that was Christ, which I drew out of Gal., ii., 20, to consist in a total loss of personality and self; and surrender of' all our being unto Him who hath purchased us with His blood, leaving us no longer'our own'-which condition of being, though it seem ideal and unattainable, is nothing else than the obedience of the first great commandment,'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,' &c.; since to be so identified, and at one with Christ, was only to be wholly in love with, and obedient to the Father. Now this condition of life must insure to all who have reached to it the same grace at death which Christ, the man Christ, the Messiah, by His resurrection, attained to-or, if not wholly at death, partially then, and wholly at the resurrection. For I argued from the 2d of the Hebrews that whatever Christ attained to EHis people attained to, and also from all the promises in the 2d and 3d of the Revelations to those who overcome. This gave me great purchase upon the subject, allowing me the whole scope of the contrast between * This wonderful rgsum6 of the day's services will give a better idea than any description of the lengthened and engrossing character of these discourses, into which the preacher went with his whole soul and heart, and of the extraordinary fascination which could hold his audience interested through exercises so long, close, and solemn. Christ's humiliation and exaltation; which having wrought according to my gift, I then proceeded to show the vanity of any lower estimate of the life which is'Christ' by touching many popular errors, such as place it in a sound faith merely, or in a correct morality, or in a religious conformity, against which having opposed the universality and unreservedness of obedience, the thoroughness of redemption, and the perfectness of regeneration, I told them and warned them of sad misgivings on a death-bed, of desperate fears and hoodwinkings of the conscience, showing them that the believer could not die hard, like the unbeliever, or brutified, like the carnalist; and I prayed them, when these doubtings came upon them, to remember that this day they had been warned by a minister of the Gospel. I had a good deal of matter still remaining, but Mr. Lee's child being to be baptized, and the quarterly collection to be gathered, I stopped there, the place being convenient. "We sang the three first verses of the 23d Psalm, and concluded. Mr. Hamilton walked home with me, and we enjoyed much spiritual discourse. I refused to dine with him, and also with Mr. Dinwiddie, and had my chop, which, being eaten with thankfulness, was sweet. Benjamin shared with me, and was sadly afflicted to hear of little Edward's death. I am sure it does not trouble you to speak of our departed joy, else I would desist. I rested the interval, meditating upon the 22d chapter of Genesis; and having gone forth, not without prayer and thanksgiving, to my second ministry, I have reason to give God thanks for his gracious support. From the chapter I took occasion first to observe, in general, that it was for the instruction of families, as the fount of nations, in God's holiness;... I observed how it was that idolatry in the people and true piety in the king were found together, even as, among the Roman Catholics, you have among the priests singular saints, while the body of the people are rank and gross idolaters.... The Lecture was upon Luke, xiii., 1; when I sought, first, to give the character of our Lord's ministry in their towns and villages, deriving it from the specimen of Nain, and other fragments from the preceding pages, its munificence of welldoing, its public discourses, sifting and sounding the hearers, its private ministrations in houses and families, improving each to the justification and recommendation of a higher kind of ministry than what presently prevails among us..... Such, dear, hath been my employment this day, of which I give you this account before I sleep, that you may be edified.... The Lord be gracious unto you, and to our little babe, and to our faithful servant, for He regards me accountable for all my household. Therefore I exhort you all to holiness and love. The Lord reunite us all in peace and blessedness. "Mbnday, 31st October. I now sit down, my dear Isabella, to give you the humble history of another day, which, from yesterday's exhaustion, hath been a day of weakness. What a restraint and hinderance this flesh and blood is upon the inflamed spirit, and to what degradation that spirit is reduced which doth not beat its weary breast against the narrow cage which confineth it. But to fret and consume away with struggles against the continent flesh is rather the part of discontented and proud spirits than of those who are enlightened in the faith of Christ, to whom the encumbrance which weighs them down is a constant memorial of the resurrection, and by the faith of the resurrection soothed down into patience and contentment. Besides, the bodily life is to them the period of destinies so infinite, and the means of charities so enlarged, that it is often a matter of doubt and question with them, as with St. Paul, whether it is better to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, or to remain in the flesh, which is more profitable to the Church. And I do trust that my abode this day in an overstrained tabernacle hath not been unprofitable to that Church which is the pillar and ground of the truth. It was a day devoted to private conversations with those who propose, for the first time, to join themselves to the Church at our approaching communion. When I came down to breakfast, my table was spread with the welcome news of Anne P -'s merciful delivery, which Mr. M — had come to tell me of, but not finding me, had written out. Sottomayor was waiting for me, and joined with us in our morning worship. Hie is in good cheer, but in want of another hour's teaching, in order to keep his head above water, which, I trust, will be obtained for him by that merciful Providence which has watched over his wife and him. By-theby, I had taken upon me the task of inquiring, while in the north, what opening Edinburgh presented for his brother, the soldier, which my various unforeseen duties hindered me from fulfilling. Would you give that in trust to some one and let me know? I think Sottomayor, the priest, is truly confirmed in the faith, and I have good reason to think that the soldier is finding relief for the multitude of his doubts. There came also to breakfast with me a Mr. M —-- and a Mr. C - (I think), of neither of whom I know any thing, except that the former had met me in Glasgow. He has come to this town on adventure, like so many of our countrymen, and came to me in his straits to help him to a situation, leading with him, or being led by, the other lad. - I thought it hard enough to be by so slight a thread bound to so secular a work; but looking to the lad, and seeing in him an air of seriousness and good sense, and thinking of his helplessness, I felt it my duty to encourage him; and though I could not depart from my rule of not meddling with secular affairs, and stated so to him plainly, I penciled him a word to Alex. Hamilton to give him counsel. At the same time I declared to him what I believe to be the truth, that this coming upon venture from a place we are occupied well, and sustained in daily food from our occupation, merely that we may rise in the world, is not a righteous thing before God, however approved by our ambitious countrymen; and though it may be successful in bringing them to what they seek, a fortune and an establishment in the world, it is generally unsuccessful in increasing them in the riches of the kingdom, in which they become impoverished every day, until they are the hardest, most secular, worldly, and self-seeking creatures which this metropolis contains. Let them come, if they have any kindred or friends to whose help they may come, or if they be in want, for then they come on an errand which the Lord may countenance; but let them come merely for desire of gain, or of getting on, and they come at Mammon's instigation, with whom our God doth not co-operate at all.... I began the duties of the day at ten o'clock, with Mrs. C -, the woman whom Lady Mackintosh recommended to you for a matron. She has been a mother of tears, having lost, since she came to England, about twenty-five years ago, husband, and child, and mother, and brothers three, and all her kindred but one brother, who still lives in Buchan. The loss of her little daughter, at six years of age, by an accident upon the streets, brought her to the very edge of derangement, in the excess of her grief, so that, like Job, she was glad when the sun went down, and shut out the cheerful light from her eyes. But the Lord restrained this natural sorrow, that it should not work utter death, as its nature is to do, in consideration, I doubt not, of her faith, and for the farther sanctification of her soul... She left Scotland without her mother's consent (why, I did not venture to ask), and in six months her mother was no more to give or withhold her consent, which made her miseries in England have something in them, to her mind, of a mother's curse; and this, she told me, was bitterness embittered. Tell this to all your sisters, that they may honor their parents, and never gainsay their mother. Tell it also to Mary, and let Mary tell it to her sisters; but withhold the woman's name; that, like many other things I write, is to yourself alone.... This good woman, whose face is all written over with sorrow and sadness, like Mrs. M's, had been a member of Dr. Nicol's church till his death, whose ministry had been to her a great consolation. Tell this to James Nicol when you see him; and say that, now that he is inheriting his father's prayers, he must walk in his father's footsteps, and comfort the afflicted flock of Christ, which is our anointed calling, as it was that of our great Master. Obey this at the commandment of your husband. This woman satisfied me well, both as to knowledge and spirit, and I admitted her freely thus far. She is now a sort of guardianservant to a lady in Bloomsbury, who has partial and occasional aberrations of mind. The Lord bless her in such a tender case! "My next spiritual visitants were the two Misses A-, whom I am wont to meet at Mr. Cassel's, of whom the younger came to my instructions, drawn by spiritual concern, the elder to accompany the younger, and thus both have been led to come forward -I fear the latter still rather as a companion than as a disciple. But oh! the difference; as a lad who has just parted from me said,' Grace gives to the youth a fuller majesty, without any petty pride,' so I found it here in the difference between the living spirit of the one's conversation and words, and the shaped formality and measured cadence of the other. I propose looking here a little deeper; but as I have several days devoted to farther instruction, I made no dernur at present, though I counseled them fervently and prayed with them both. My next was a Miss S, from Johnstone, near Paisley, who has come to London to be under her brother's medical care-a fine Scotch head, with an art-pale countenance, and fine Grecian. outline of face; she is a regular member of the Church in her native place, but out of her own will came to speak with me; and, though feeble in strength, we were able to commune and pray together to our mutual comfort. My last, at one o'clock, was Mrs. R-., a widow lady of most devout and intelligent appearance, who has been in the habit, for many months, of attending my Wednesday ministrations, bringing a son or a daughter in her hand, with the latter of whom: a sweet girl of about seven, she came attended. And we joined in discourse, and I found in her a most exercised and tender spirit, whose husband of her youth had been cut off from her in the East Indies, and left her three sons and a daughter; the former she had now come up to town to prepare for cadetships; afterward to return, with her daughter, to the country again, to rear her in the fear of the Lord. And of her eldest son, whom she had watched over with such care for six years, having for that time lived with them in Beverley, for no other end but to educate them herself, in which occupation she met with the healing of God to her own soul in the midst of scoffers and deriders (whereof the memory to mention drew tears from her eyes)-her eldest son, who had shown no signs of grace under her most careful instruction, being now, like herself, for the sake of the Hindostanee language, placed among the alien as his mother was, has since shown such a new character, and written such letters as she never expected to receive from him; and then she communed with me of sweet domestic interests in such a devout and simple way, with so many applications for instruction, and such a tender interest in two half-caste daughters of her husband, whom she has cared for as her own, that I delight to think what a sweet companion she will make for you, my dearest, when you return. Thus passed a forenoon, not without its mark in memory's chart. "I walked down to Mrs. M. -'s in order to inquire after Anne........ But time forestalls my wishes, dear Isabella.'Twelve has struck, and the sweetest, holiest scene of the day remains untold. I prayed for a son, and the Lord this night hath brought me my son, Henry S, a youth who called on me before my northern visit, and then showed tokens of grace which I had not time to consider; but this night, though but an apprentice, he hath, being the last of my visitants, showed such wonderful seriousness of mind, soberness of reason, purity of life, and richness of character, as far outpasses in promise any youth that I have been the means of bringing unto Christ. And when at nine we assembled to prayer, and Hall showed his pale, emaciated face, and head but sprouting again from the shaver's razor, along with the rest of my household, and I gave him my easy-chair in consideration of his weakness, oh, Isabella, I felt like a priest and a patriarch! and the Lord enabled us to have one of the sweetest occasions of praising Him and serving Him which for a long time I have enjoyed; so that we parted bedewed with tears from our prayers, in which we never forgot you and our separated family; after which, while I partook of my usual repast, I glanced at that very remarkable article'Milton,' in the'Edinburgh Review,' which came in from the library. I take it to be young Macau. lay's. It is clever-oh, it is full of genius-but little grace. Theology of this day-politics of this day-neither sound. Oh, envious Time, why dunnest thou me? I write to my wife to comfort and edify her, and bless her, and my babe, and my servant, and all my kindred of her father's honorable and pious house. Well, I come. Farewell, my dear wife. "November 1st, Tuesday. The command of King George could not have made me take a pen in my hand this night, dearest Isabella; and now that I have taken it in hand, I exceedingly question whether this weary head will drive it over another line. But, dear, your thanks with me! I have had such a harvest of six precious souls, whose spiritual communications have carried me almost beyond my power of enduring delight. The Lord doth indeed honor me. But, ah! this will not do; I must leave off. Tomorrow, the Lord sparing me, I will set forth the particulars to my Isabella, whom, with my dear daughter, may the Lord this night preserve. "2d, Wednesday. It was well-nigh nine o'clock before I was recruited this morning with strength enough to go forth to my labors; for these mental and spiritual labors, being in excess, do as truly require an extra quantity of rest as do bodily and social labors. But I have risen, thank God, well recruited, and have proceeded thus far on the day (five o'clock) very prosperously. The first of my communicants yesterday was a Mary B, from iatton Garden, a young woman of a sweet and gracious appearance and discourse, who, with her mother and a numerous family, were early cast upon God's care, who hath cared for them according to His promise. I was much pleased with the simplicity and sincerity of her heart, and the affectionate way in which she spoke of her Lord; so that she left no doubt on my mind of her being, to the extent of her knowledge and talents, a faithful and true disciple. I shall seek another interview with her; for I do not feel that I have got acquainted with her spirit, or else it is of so simple and catholic a form as to have no character to distinguish it. The next was my old acquaintance, Sarah Evans, the wild girl, who was somewhat carried in her mind, if you remember, in the beginning of a sermon, and whom I visited at Dr. -'s, in  I little expected to see her so soon, and so completely restored, although she still gives one the idea of one on whom our friend Greaves would work wonders by animal magnetism. I have a moral certainty that this is her temperament, and that her temporary instability was rather a somnambulism of the spirit than any insanity or derangement of mind. Since her seventeenth year she has been a denizen of this great hive of men, friendless and without kindred, and has partook the watchful care of the Great Shepherd. She is a spirit full of inspirations. Heer very words are remarkable, and there is a strange abundance and fertility in her sayings which astonishes me. She has already had much influence on her fellow-servants, who have banished cards and idle, worldly books. Poor Sarah (and yet thou art not poor), I feel a strange feeling toward thee, as if thou wert not wholly dwelling upon the earth, nor wholly present when I converse with thee. And sure it is, dear Isabella, she has always to recall herself, as from a distance, before she answers your inquiries; and even the word is but like an echo. Of her spirituality I have no doubt, though still she seems to me like a stranger. Her master at present is Dr. HE, one of my brother's medical teachers here, who inquires at her occasionally about my brother and about the Caledonian church, from which I presume that every one recognizes in her the same unlikeness to another and to her station. "These occupied me till eleven o'clock, after which I went forth to breathe the air into the garden, in expectation of another visitor; and, as usual, for his memory hangs on every twig, the little darling whom I used to fondle and instruct came to my remembrance, and bowed me down with a momentary sorrow, which passed, full of sweetness, into what train of thought I have now forgotten. I occupied myself with my Convocation Book, which is to me what a politician and Christian of the year 1600 would be if I could have him to converse with me and deliver his opinions. It embodies the ideas of the English Church in full convocation upon all points connected with the government of the Church and of the world, and hath done more than any other thing to scatter the rear of radicalism from my mind, and to give me insight into the true principles of obedience to government. There are, my dear, certain great feelings or laws of the soul, under which it grows into full stature, of which obedience to government is one, communion with the Church is another, trust in the providence of God another, and so forth, which form the original demand in the soul, both for religion, and law, and family, and to answer which these were appointed of God, and are preserved by His authority. My notion is, that the ten commandments contain the ten principal of these mother-elements of a thriving soul-these laws of laws, and generating principles of all institutions. These also, I think, ought to be made the basis of every system of moral and political philosophy. But all this is but looming upon my eye, and durst not be spoken in Scotland, under the penalty of high treason against their laws of logic and their enslaved spirit of discourse. By-the-by, when I speak of Scotland, it was about this time of day when I received a letter from Dr. Gordon, asking me to preach a sermon in some chapel which Dr. Waugh has procured for the Scots Missionary Society, and bring the claims of that Society before the great people of London. I mean to answer it by referring them to my Orations on the Missionary Doctrine, as being my contribution to the Society.... But I must go to the church to preach from John, xiv., 27. The Lord strengthen me. " And now, having enjoyed no small portion of His presence for one so unworthy, I return to my sweet occupation of making my dear Isabella the sharer and partner of my very soul. From the garden, where I communed with the canons of the convocation, and with my own meditations on these elemental principles of wisdom, I returned, and upon looking over my paper, I found I had no more visitors till five o'clock; so I addressed myself to my discourse, which I purposed from Gal., ii., 20, in continuation and enlargement of that from Phil., i., 21; but, going into the context, I was drawn away to write concerning the Church in Antioch, which occasioned the dispute between Paul and Peter, until I found it was too late to return, so that my discourse has changed its shape into a lecture, and where it will end you shall know on Sabbath, if the Lord spare me. At five came a young man, by name Peter Samuel, of a boyisi appearance, very modest and backward, a native of Edinburgh, and by trade a painter in grain; in whom, Isabella, I found such real utterance of the Spirit, such an uplifted and enlarged soul, that I could but lie back upon my chair and listen. The Lord bless the youth! It was very marvelous; such grace, such strength of understanding, such meekness, such wisdom! He is also one of the fruits of my ministry; had wandered like a sheep without a shepherd,' creeping by the earth,' until, in hearing me, he seemed exalted into the third heavens,-at times hardly knowing whether he was in the body or out of the body.'And all the day long, at my work, I am happy, and in communion with the Church, which is every where diffused around me like the air;' and he arose into the mysteries of the Trinity, and his soul expatiated in a marvelous way. At six I had made double appointments; the one for James Scott, a stately, bashful lad from Earlston, on the Leader, between Lauder and Melrose-the residence, in days of yore, of Thomas the Rhymerwho is come to town to prosecute his studies as an artist. He is already in full communion with the Church, but loved the opportunity of conversing with me; and the other was of two who desire to come in company, John R —, a man of about thirty-five, and C —, a young lad of about twenty. Moreover, Samuel had not departed; and I think they had been congregated of the Lord on very purpose to encourage my heart and strengthen my hands, for it is not to.be told what a heavenly hour they spent in making known the doings of the Lord to their souls; and the two latter told me that every Sabbath they held meetings, before and after church, with others of the Church. Poor Samuel had been lamenting his loneliness, but now his soul was filled with company who welcomed him to their heart; and Scott had now one whose spirit and manners attracted him; and I was lost in wonder how the Lord should work such things by my unworthiness. But remembering my ministerial calling, I opened to them the duty of self-denial in the expression of our spiritual experiences before the world, lest they should profane these sanctuaries of our God; and the necessity of wisdom to veil with parable and similitude, before the weak eye of man, the brightness of the pure and simple truth, reserving for the Lord and for his saints the unveiled revelations of our higher delights. Upon which life, having enlarged to their great seeming contentment, we joined our prayers together, and they departed. Now these men who thus commune together are of most diverse ranks.' C is a gentleman's son; R —, though of high expectations, has been reduced to fill some inferior office in Clement's Inn; and the others, whom I know, are Scotch lads, working as journeymen; so true is it that there is no difference in Christ Jesus. After seven I went to the meeting of the Sabbath-school teachers... After I returned home, I wrote a letter to Constantinople to L —, who sends us the figs, exhorting him to stand fast among the alien; which altogether was a day of such exhaustion as unfitted me for writing to you the particulars of it, that you might rejoice in my joy, and give praise unto the Lord, when you know the blessing which He is pouring out upon my ministry. Oh that He would give me food for these sheep, and a rich pasture, and a shepherd's watchfulness, and the love of the Chief Shepherd, that I might even die for them, if need were! In all which spiritual conditions I am much encouraged by what yesterday the Lord brought before me. " And now, dearest, this day hath been a day of thought which has hardly yet taken form to be distinctly represented; but on Sabbath I will communicate the result. Only I have had much insight given me into the Epistle to the Galatians, from which the matter of my discourse will be taken. At six I went forth to my duties, and opened to my children the nature of the Christian Church, as being to the world what the new man is to the old; what the body, after the resurrection, is to the present body... After which, commending them to the grace of God, I returned to the vestry, and came forth again to discourse to the people of Christ's bequest of peace.... But, though my head could thus rudely block out the matter, I wanted strength and skill to delineate it as it deserved, which, if I be in strength, I shall do it another time.... After the lecture, ten more came, desirous to converse with me; so that I shall have, by the blessing of God, a very rich harvest this season.... The Lord be with thy spirit. " Thursday, Nov. 3d. Last night, my dearest Isabella, upon my bed I had one of those temptations of Satan, with which I perceive, by your affectionate letter, that you are oft troubled, and which I shall therefore recount to you. The occasion of it was the memory of our beloved boy, who hath now got home out of Satan's dominion. That morning he was taken by the Lord I was sleeping in the back room, when dear sister Anne, who loved him as dearly as we all did, came in about three or four o'clock in the morning, and said,'Get up, for Edward is much worse.' The sound of these words, caught in my sleeping ear, shot a cold shiver through my frame like the hand of death, and I arose. Of this I had not thought again till, last night on my bed, before sleeping, Satan seemed to bring to my ear these words; and, as he brought them, the cold shiver trickled to my very extremities. I thought to while it away, but it was vain; and I remembered that the only method of dealing with him is by faith, and of overcoming him by the word of God. So I took his suggestion in good part, and meditated all the sufferings of the darling, which are too fresh upon my mind; and sought to ascend, by that help, to the sympathy of our Lord's sufferings, and to take refuge (as the old divines say) in the clefts of His wounds till this evil should be overpast. Whereupon there came sweet exercises of faith, which occupied me till I fell asleep, and awoke this morning in the fear of the Lord. I make Mondays and Thursdays my days of receiving friends; and while we were engaged with worship, Mr. Ker came in, and, after, prayers, Mr. C. I was happy to understand from the former that Mr. Cunningham, of Harrow, has become a violent opponent of the expediency principle in respect to the Apocrypha,* and think the- committee will come to the righteous conclusion, which will please our good father much. Mr. C came on purpose to communicate the dying injunction of a friend who had been converted from Unitarianism by my discourse on that heresy last summer, and had died full of faith and joy before fulfilling his purpose of joining my church. I trust he hath joined our Church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven. As we went to the city together, Mr. Ker bore the same testimony to the blessing of my discourses to his soul, for which I desire you to give thanks unto the Lord when you pray secretly, or with Mary, for it is a great blessing to our household to be so honored. I found our friend David at length able to see me again, who has passed through a terrible storm of afflictions, swimming for his life, and tried with great agony of the body; but in his soul above measure strengthened and endowed with patience, and full of holy purposes and continued acknowledgment to the Lord.... His wife, and Martha her sister, bore testimony to the goodness of the Lord, and we joined our souls in thanksgiving with one accord. "Thence I went on my way to our friends, the G-'s, who now live in America Square, toward the Tower. I know not how it is, but I feel a certain infirmity and backwardness to speak to Alex. G concerning spiritual things, though I love him, and believe that he loves the truth; against which, by the grace of God, I was enabled in some measure to prevail, and make some manifestation of the truth, and unite in prayer, which had the effect of bringing him to signify his purpose of waiting upon me * Referring to the hot and bitter conflict then going on in the Bible Society, chiefly between the parent society in England and its Scotch auxiliaries, which were vehemently opposed to the insertion of the Apocrypha along with the canonical Scriptures.

(I suppose concerning the communion). The Lord receive this worthy and honorable youth into the number of his chosen! Thence returning, I felt an inclination to pay a visit to Miss F -, in Philpot Lane, but resolved again to proceed on more urgent errands, and passed the head of the lane, and was drawn back, I know not by what inducement, and proceeded against my purpose. It was the good will of the Lord that I should comfort one of His saints, and He suffered me not to pass. I found the mother of that family, who has long walked with God, and travailed in birth for the regeneration of all her children, laid down by a confusion in her head, which threatened apoplexy or palsy, and now for three days afflicted, without that clear manifestation of the Holy Comforter which might have been expected in one so exercised with faith and holiness. Many of the friends and kindred were assembled in the large room below, and the father and the children; to whom having ministered the word of warning and exhortation, and prayed with one accord for the state of the sick, I went up to her bedchamber with the father and daughters, and found the aged mother lying upon the bed more composed than I had expected. I taught her that Christ was the same, though her faculties were bedimmed; that her soul should the more long to escape from behind the dark eclipse of the clouds; but not to disbelieve in His mercy, because her body burdened her, and caused her to groan. We bowed down and prayed, and the Lord gave me a large utterance; and when I had ceased, I could not refrain myself from continuing to kneel, and hold the hand of the dear saint, and comfort her, and utter many ejaculatory prayers for her soul's consolation; and I was moved even to tears for the love of her soul; with which having parted, her daughters, who remained behind, came down and told us that she was much comforted, and had proposed to compose herself to rest. The Lord rest her soul, and prepare it for His kingdom, though I hope she may be restored again to health.... "Thence I proceeded to Bedford Square, by Cheapside, and gave Mr. Hamilton charge of your letter, which may you receive safe, and with a blessing, for it is intended for your comfort and edification in the faith, that you may know the goodness of the Lord to your head, and rejoice and give thanks. On my way to Bedford Square I called at Mr. Macaulay's, having heard that he and his wife were poorly, and with a view, if opportunity offered, of saying a word to their son concerning Milton's true character,  if so be that he is the author of that critique. For I held with him once, but now am assured that Milton, in his character, was the archangel of Radicalism, of which I reckon Henry Brougham to be the arch-fiend. But I found they had gone to Hannah Moore's for retirement and discourse. The Lord bless their communion! I called at Mr. Procter's to look at two marvelous heads by Correggio-the one of the Virgin about to be crowned with stars, the other of St. John; certainly, beyond comparison, the most powerful heads I have ever seen. The latter, they say, is a portrait of me. But I do not think so. I can not both be like the Baptist and the beloved apostle; I would I were in spirit, for the flesh profiteth nothing. Anne P~ and the child continue to do well, and the poet is already a very tender father.... The,ounselor and I had a good deal of private discourse.....He is a tender father and a well-meaning man, but willful; and willfulness, dear Isabella, is weakness and inutility, the excess of will being to the same effect as the defect of will. Yet I love him, and he loves me, and permits me to open truth in a certain guise to his ear. The Lord give me wisdom, if it were only for this family! I returned home to peruse Eckhard's'Rome,' and to worship with my family, and read the Holy Scriptures, and conclude by writing the summary of the day to my dear wife. And now I return to my chamber, thankful unto Thee, oh my Father, who hast protected thine unworthy child, and not allowed him this day to stray far from thy commandments. Thou hast made me to know Thee; Thou hast exercised my soul with love and kindness; Thou hast called me out of the world by prayer. I bless Thee, oh my God; I exceedingly bless Thee! And now, my tender wife, go on to seek the Lord; wait upon Him; entreat Him; importune Him. Do not let Him go till He give thee thy heart's desire. And thou, Margaret, my sister, submit thy strong spirit unto the Lord, and thou shalt find peace. And Elizabeth, my sister, persevere in the good part which thou hast chosen, and thou wilt find all that is promised to be true and faithful. And, my lovely Anne, be composed in thy spirit by God, who will deliver thee from all things that disconcert and trouble, and make thy spirit lovely. And, my David, remember our covenants of love with one another, wherein thou wert oft moved to desire God. Oh, forget Him not, my children! Walk before Him, and be ye perfect.... May He keep us as the apple of the eye, and hide us under the shadow of His wings this night; and when we awake in the morning, may we be satisfied with His likeness! " Tuesday, Nov. 4th. I feel it necessary already to be on my. guard against the adversary, lest he should convert these journals, intended for the comfort of my dear wife, into an occasion of selfdisplay or self-delusion; and the more, because I have been singularly blessed by the goodness of the Lord, which, you would say, was the best protection against him; but the Lord judged otherwise when, after enriching Paul with such revelations, he saw it wise to give him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, lest he should be exalted above measure. Therefore let me watch my pen, and the Lord watch my soul, that nothing pass thence to the eye of my partner which may in any wise convey a false impression of my heart. I have resumed my custom of reading the lessons of the day, besides the Psalms, whatever else I may read out of the Holy Scriptures, and. was struck, in reading out of Ecclesiasticus, with the odor of earthliness which there is about the wisdom of it. It is rather shrewd than divine, and, I am convinced, has little heavenward drift in it to the soul. But how much more spiritual than the maxims of Rochefoucault, or any other modern who has sought to express himself by aphorisms! I was in great danger of falling under the spirit of indolence after breakfast, and loitering. The sensation about my eyes, which foretells a listless day, made its appearance, and I felt inclined to stretch my limbs, and take up a book at hand, and while away the time. But I thank God who enabled me to withstand the enemy, and stir myself up to study, which I prosecuted with a view to my morning sermon. This is beginning to take shape, and will form, I judge, a digest of the Epistle to the Galatians, or a statement of the apostle's argument for the abolition of the law and the liberty of faith, in order to my afterward showing our deliverance from the forms of the world into the liberty of Christ. "This was a fast-day to me, at least a soup-day, which Ijudged good for my health, so that I felt languid the whole forenoon until four, when Miss A - called to conduct me to her house. The two Miss A ——'s joined our Church at the last communion. Their mother had died some months before, and they are orphans. They win their bread by the needle, and dwell with two younger brothers, whom they wished me much to converse with. Those two brothers have no one over them, and are as wild as the beasts of the wood. Though only fifteen and seventeen, I was perfectly amazed at the irreverent, thoughtless way in which they behaved when I entered-nothing awed, nothing moved, but full of conceit and self-possession. The eldest is a clerk in a writer's (AnglOcg, attorney's) office; the younger is a sort of clerk to a councilorone to keep the door of his office open, and to go errands-for whom his master is glad to find something to do. Oh! what a horrid effect London has upon the character of children! It is only beginning to be revealed to me in its native deformity. The awful iniquity of a great city is nothing to its silent effects in deteriorating the races of men. They really dwindle as if they were plants. I saw at once that if I was to be profitable to these two lads, it was by authority as well as by affection; so I resolved to teach them the reverence of God, and of God's word, and of God's messenger. The eldest sat over against me on the other side of the fire, the two sisters working at the table, and the youngest beyond the table, and he would not be persuaded to come near me. I opened my way by speaking of their orphan state, and their want of counsel and authority over them. Then I passed to the authority of God, and opened the tendency of youth to be headstrong and untamed. The eldest, I perceived, was full of observation and thought. He could not divide the matter between the authority and affection with which I spoke. By degrees I got him to open his mind, which was very willful. I continued to oppose to his whims the will of God, and would not lower the discourse to any compromise, or indulgence to any of his moods. His brother had to go away earlier; and after getting him to sit beside me, I spoke to him with great earnestness and affection, and blessed him; but whether he was moved from his indolent and lethargic obstinacy, I know not. Then with the eldest I dealt for another hour, in various discourse, which I am now too weary to recall. And when I knew not what impression I had made upon his short and hasty temper, which I saw writhing between the awe of the truths which I spoke and the irritation of the mastery which I held over him, the lad rose from his seat, and went to a press and took out a parcel, from which he drew forth a set of beautiful little prints of Bible subjects, and asked if I had seen them, I answered no. Then, said he,'Will you accept them from me?' I hesitated; but perceiving it was altogether necessary, if I would have any farther dealing with this strange spirit, I took them, and here they are before me. Upon which, his hour of seven having come, he went his way.... I am weary, but very well, and give the Lord thanks for his goodness, praying Him to strengthen me with rest. St. Pancras is ringing up the hill twelve o'clock, so the Lord compass you and my beloved child. Farewell! "ASaturday, Nov. 5. I had all arranged to finish this sheet and send it off to-night; but James P — is come, and has occupied me so much, and the Sabbath is now on the verge of coming in, and I have much before me, therefore I delay this day's summary till to-morrow evening, if God spare me. But that I might not go to bed without blessing you and our tender lamb, I have taken up my pen to write -That the Lord God, whom I serve, would be the guardian of my wife and child until He restore them to the sight of his servant. Amen. " Sabbath, Nov. 6. And now, my dearest Isabella, I am alone with thee again, and can give thee the news which are dearest to thy heart, that the Lord hath not deserted His unworthy servant this day, but hath been, especially in the evening, present to my soul, and given me a large door of utterance, I trust to the edification of His Church and the comforting of His people. Yesterday I had labored all the morning with a constant and steady diligence, and about one o'clock was in full sight of land, with strength of hand still left me to have finished this letter, and so cheated the lazy post, when, as I said, James P1- stepped in; in whom, to be brief, I find we shall have a most easily accommodated inmate, if so he likes to become, and a very shrewd, logical companion, full of political economy and of mathematics, who can not help stating every thing as if it were a question to be resolved by the Calculus, and can not conceive of any ideas or knowledge which are to be otherwise come atthan by the methods of the intellect; which error I have labored hard to correct in him, and not, I believe, without some partial success. He is one of the coolest, shrewdest intellects I have ever met with —sweetly disposed, very gentle, and easily served.... My morning lesson this day was the 2d chapter of the Hebrews, in which is taught us this great lesson, that we shall partake with Christ in the government of the world to come, which I take to be the same with the'rest that remaineth,' mentioned in the 4th chapter, or the perfection of the present dispensation of the Gospel in the millennial state.... Also there is taught us, though but incidentally, the end of His incarnation to destroy death and him that hath the power of death, and deliver us from the fear and bondage of death. Let us enter into faith, my dear wife, and be delivered from the blow which death hath brought us.... Also He took our flesh that we might be assured of our oneness; that we might be able to give ourselves to the hope of His glory, He did first join himself to the reality of our humility. My discourse was a view of the doctrine of the Epistle to the Galatians, introductory to discourses upon Gal., ii., 19, 20.... This introduction, sum of doctrine, and threefold argument embraced the whole Epistle, which I had thus digested into my discourse, with application of each branch of the argument to the present times and all times; but I was able to deliver only about a half of it, and withal our service reached to within a quarter of two. My evening chapter was the 21st of Genesis, when I felt my mouth opened in a remarkable way to bear testimony to the want of faith in this generation, who would embrace the heavens and the earth, and the truth and majesty of God, within the nutshell of their own intellect, and believe in God not a hair's-breadth beyond their intellectual sight-which, adopted by children as scholars, would destroy the school-by subjects, would destroy government; and, in short, that these sacred things all hang together, and must sink or swim with faith.... I was much strengthened in this discourse, and in both my prayers... Mr. E — was there morning and evening. The Lord add that youth to His Church! I travail for him. Farewell, dear Isabella. You can not have so much pleasure in reading these as I have in writing them. The blessing of the Lord be with my babe-my tender babe. The blessing of the Lord be with her mother -her tempted but victorious mother.... " Monday, 7th November. Though wearied, my dearest Isabella, with a day of much activity, and afterward with the exposition of that blessed Psalm, this night's lesson, and now with much discourse and discussion to James P —, whom I like exceedingly, and William Hamilton, all concerning the subordination of the sensual or visible, and the intellectual or knowable, to the spiritual or redeemable (the first giving the typography, the second giving the method, and the last the substance of all true and excellent discourse), I do now sit down with true spiritual delight to commune with my soul's sweet mate. Yea, hath not the Lord made us for one another, and by his providence united us to one another, against many fiery trials and terrible delusions of Satan? And, as you yourself observed, has he not over again wedded us, far more closely than in any joy, by our late tribulation, and the burial of our lovely Edward, our holy first-born, who gave up the ghost in order to make his father and mother one, and expiate the discords and divisions of their souls? Dear spirit, thou dearest spirit which doth tenant heaven, this is the mystery of thy burial on the wedding-day* of thy parents, to make them forqver one. Oh, and thou shalt be sanctified, God blessing, by such a concord and harmony of soul as hath not often blessed the earth since Eden was forfeited by sin. My wife, this is not poetry, this is not imagination which I write; it is truth, rely upon it, it is truth that lovely Edward hath been the sweet offering of peace between us forever; and so, when we meet in heaven, he shall be as the priest who joined us-the child of months being one hundred years old. Let my dear wife be comforted by these thoughts of her true love. I found much sweet meditation upon my bed last night; and when I awoke in the morning He was with me, and I had much countenance of the Lord in my secret devotions; and when I descended found Mr. T —, the preacher, and Mr. Bull met in the breakfast parlor, and Mr. P seated in the library. That preacher is very clever, and infinitely prolific in his vein, and that no contemptible one but volatile and wild as the winds, yet musical in his mirth, and full of heartiness and goodwill. But he serveth joyaunce of the mind, and has not yoked himself to any workmanship; and I have accordingly exhorted him to be about his Master's work-to get him down into the battle, and take his post. Mr. Bull brought me a very sweet frontispiece, which he has executed for Montgomery's Psalmist, one of Collins's series.... As usual, his bashful, meek company was very sweet to me. "When they went, Miss N came, who can believe none, and would intellectualize every thing, and consequently looks for her religious prosperity in expedients of the intellectual or visible world, or in means, as they call them (but, Isabella, nothing is a means of grace in which Christ is not seen to be present, whence he is called the Mediator or mean-creator), which, I told her, I could no Ionger indulge her in by framing my discourse to her subtleties, but would read her the Word of God, to which, if she framed her mind by faith, then it would be well; but if not, she must utterly perish. After which reading of the 103d Psalm, being moved in my spirit with love to her, I pronounced over her, without rising, a prayer which made her weep abundantly-tears, * This much-lamented child was buried on the 14th of October, the second anniversary of their marriage. I trust, which may by God's grace reap joy hereafter. She says I have demolished all the glory of her building, and she stands as upon a ruin of herself. I say unto you, Miss N —, Christ can alone build up and mould your shattered mind to the similitude of His own mind. You see, my dear, what boldness the Lord is endowing me with.... What clean, black villainy, what unwrinkled villainy, there was upon those countenances I met in Saffron Hill and Field Lane on my way to the Bible Society, where, among others, I saw the face of Father Simon, looking with all its eager unrest; and there being nothing of importance to detain me, I came away with the old worthy, and held such discourse with him as the Strand heareth not oft, until we reached the Temple, whither he entered to his business, and I returned to the city to dine with Mr. IDinwiddie and Wm. Hamilton; and on my way, having found a receiving-house, I committed your letter to the care of the post. But, ah! forgot the blessing or prayer for its safe arrival, so doth the rust of custom corrode the frame of our piety. Life should be a web of piety; custom makes it a web of impiety. My dear, we must be redeemed in all things from wickedness to serve the living God. Having dined with my friends, I proceeded at three to visit Mr. David, who had yesterday a relapse, and is this day very low. The surgeon apprehended no danger; but I know not how it is, I fear we are going to lose him. His soul is winged with faith: let it take its flight. He also is my son in the Gospel. I could not see him, but we lifted up our hearts together for his health and salvation. Then I proceeded to Mrs. T —; and now, my dear, learn a lesson of spiritual life, and let me learn what I am now to teach thee. This sweet mother, whom I greatly love, said to me,'All darkness, all darkness; what if it should have been all self-deception?' That is, the Lord was shaking His saint out of the last refuge of Satan, which he takes in the righteousness which hath been wrought in us by the Holy Spirit. As Knox said on his death-bed,'The enemy has been trying me with representations of the work which has been done by me.'... " From thence I proceeded to the Session, where we proceeded with good harmony and union till they came to speak of time, and then I told them they must talk no more to me concerning the ministry of the Word, for I would submit to no authority in that matter but the authority of the Church, from which also I would take liberty to appeal if it gainsaid my conscience. I am  resolved that two hours and a half I will have the privilege of. WVrite me your judgment in this matter.... We had another meeting, at seven, of the congregation... So I returned, and one o'clock sounding in my ear from Pancras church, I bid you farewell for the night, and pray the Lord to bless you, and our little treasure, and her who hath joined herself to our house, and hath a right to the share of its blessings. Farewell, my spouse I " Wednesday, 9th November. I sit down, my dearest, after a day of languishing and mourning, rather more cheerful and refreshed than I have deserved to be; for, whether from defective sleep or overfatigue yesterday, I have been very dead and lifeless all day long, until the evening roused me to some spiritual exercises. Satan could not have had this occasion against me but for my own most blameworthy conduct in preferring man before God in the services of the morning; for, having promised to take James P — down to Bedford Square to breakfast, I hurried over both my private and family worship. Now this is such infinite irreverence done unto the majesty of heaven, that I know not how any stronger proof of want of faith could be found.... When we returned from Mr. M —'s, I endeavored to seek the Lord in my closet, but found Him not. He hid His countenance, and my heart was left to the bitterness of being alone. I took to the reading of the 3d chapter of Hebrews, in the original, with a view to pasture for my people; and afterward to the 22d of Genesis, with the same end in view, of which I have been able to make out eight verses. I wish to read the Sabbath lessons, at least, in the Hebrew, and to make both lessons a diligent study through the week, with Pool's' Synopsis' before me; and I have besought the Lord, as I do now again beseech Him, that I may continue in this righteous and dutiful custom. In the Hebrew, it would perhaps be an entertainment to your heart to accompany me, that we may not be divided in this study when we meet again. But I forget that you have the dear babe to watch over; for whom, my dear, let our souls be exercised rather than for the dead. Oh, let us wrestle with God for her soul, that she may not be caught away from us at unawares. I wish she were here, that I might in my arms present her to the Lord every morning and evening. Your letter gave me great delight, and came to cheer me in my spiritual mourning. The Lord continue to support your soul, and to be your portion! Oh, how blessed has been thy death, my beloved, to thy parents' souls! thou first-fruits of our union, and  peace-offering of our family, dearly-beloved child, who never frowned on any one, and never fretted, but moaned the approach of that enemy which was to bereave us of thee I... "I sought to begin the discourse on Galatians, ii., 19, whose object it will be to show that an outward law is always a sign of bondage, and that the inward willingness is liberty, which a Divine indwelling spirit can alone beget and maintain within us. Pray that I may be enabled to handle this mighty theme to the glory of God and the promotion of the Redeemer's kingdom; for it calls upon all that is within me, and I shall have this and the following week to give to it.... Too many cares of philanthropy, dear, are as seductive as any other cares; it is divinity which alone can sustain philanthropy. ltut a divine is become like a phcenix. We know one, but he is near in ashes, and who is to arise in his stead, I know not.... After leaving the study, Mr. P — and I walked together.... At six, I had the visit of another child of my ministry, Miss Miller, in whom I found a very humble and sweet spirit, thoroughly, as I trust, convinced of sin, and purged of her sin. After conversing and praying with her, I went out to Mr. and Mrs. Hall, at their own request, to open the subject of the* communion to their souls, when I set it forth by the parable of the prodigal son. That at baptism we had obtained our freedom in our Father's house, who ever since had divided to us our portion of gifts, graces, and opportunities, which we had prodigally squandered; but, taking pity on us, IHe doth keep open table in His house, in order to welcome every one who hath a longing to return. He breaketh bread and poureth out wine, the body and blood of His Son's sacrifice, for every one who will come, as the prodigal came, heartily repenting, and humbly confessing his sin. This, therefore, is what I desire-the sense of sin, and the faith that it is to be forgiven only through the blood of Christ. For the enlightening of the mind, for the convincing of the heart, and the converting of the whole soul, it is the work of the Holy Spirit, who is the gift of Christ to His weak but faithful disciples. Oh, dearest, how profitable is that mystery of the Trinity to my soul! The husband and wife heard me with tears. I trust these are tokens for good. The Lord enable them to retain upon their souls those feelings toward Him which they this night expressed to me. By these exercises my spirit was restored. The Lord hath restored my soul, and I was able to comfort the family with the 42d Psalm, and I trust to encourage my own spirit..... Now, the blessing of the Lord rest upon my wife, and child, and servant this night, who have not separated, I, know, without commending me to the Lord! Thus do we unite our interests on high, and lay in our proofs and pledges of mutual love with our heavenly Father.... Farewell! "Thursday, 10th November, 1825. I pray the Lord so to quicken my love to my dear wife, and so to move my soul with the spirit of truth and wisdom, as that I shall much comfort and edify her by the words which I am about to write. Yesterday I so wore myself out with the various duties I had to discharge, that I was hardly able to do the offices of family worship, and, in utter inability, forewent my sweet interview of faith with my Isabella; no, not of faith, but of these visible emblems of faith, for the interview of the spirit I truly had with you.... I have fulfilled your commission to Mrs. Hall, who received your gift with much thankfulness. Our maid is now gone, and we are a very happy, and, I trust, contented household. In the church last night I opened the real contents of the new covenant (Hebrews, viii., 10, to the end) to the young communicants, who are about to enter by the proper form to the renewal of it; for you will observe, dearest, that there was a renewal of the covenant when the children of Israel entered into the land of promise, as there is to us: first, the granting it at baptism to the faith of our parents; and, again, the renewal of it over the sacrifice of our own faith. Now these contracts are, 1st, the law within, and no longer without, that is, liberty of soul to obey God, instead of restraint of fear; 2d, the ruling of God over us, and our subjection to Him in all willingness; 3d, the teaching of His spirit in all His revelations; 4, the absolution of all our sinfulness through Christ's atonement. The first being the conversion of our will; the second, the maintenance of our weakness; the third, the enlightening of our knowledge; the fourth, the purging of our conscience from all fear. What an inheritance, my dear wife, is this to which you, and I, and all believers are admitted! Let us enter it, let us enter into it. Why can we not enter into the willingness, the confirmation, the enlightening, the peace of it? We canl not enter in by reason of unbelief. Now encourage one another, I pray you, for the time is short. " This morning we mustered a goodly company, though it was the stormiest morning almost I remember; three missionaries from the Mission House, our broad-faced Wiirtemberg friend, so dear to us all, and a countryman, and an East Indian, half-caste, preparing for his return to preach to the Hindoos. They tell me there are at present two of their countrymen at St. Petersburg fulfilling to the letter our Lord's instructions to his disciples. I have a very strong purpose of sending over to all the Mission Houses copies of my Orations for the sake of the youth; and to this effect of ordering Hamilton to send me all that are not sold, and desiring him to transmit the proceeds of the sale which there has been to the widow of Smith. Tell me what you think of this. The German missionaries at Karass soon found out the unproductiveness of Scottish prudence when applied to propagate the Gospel,-and are fast recurring to the primitive method on the confines of Persia, where they at present labor. They speak of a great revival in the Prussian kingdom; more than a hundred young preachers have gone forth from the Universities to preach the Gospel. The Lord prosper his work! To-morrow a number of young missionaries are to receive their instructions at a public meeting in Freemason's Hall, and they are to set out for Malta some time this month. The Lord is their helper. I took occasion, from the 51st Psalm, to speak to them of the qualifications there referred to.... After their departure, I addressed myself to my sweet studies of reading the lessons of the day, and meditating the lessons of Sabbath in the original tongues.... Afterward I betook myself to my lecture on Christ's attendants and sustenance in his ministry, Luke, viii., 2, 3, which is a subject of great importance and fruitfulness, if the Lord see it good to open it to me by His Spirit, which I do now earnestly pray. James and I, after dinner (we have now got the wine-cellar open, and I have ordered Hall a bottle of Madeira to strengthen him), went down to Bedford Square, where I had a good deal of profitable conversation with our dear friends. But before I went out I received a parcel,... in which was a fine lace cap and wrought robe for our dear departed boy;... our darling hath now a more precious robe than can be wrought by the daughters of a duke; yet it is a sweet and honorable token of their love. I have written to tell them whither the object of their love is gone... Our little boy! thou art incorporated with my memory dearly, with my hope thou art incorporated still more dearly. We will come, when our Lord doth call, to thee and to the general assembly of the first-born. Oh, Isabella, I exhort thee to be diligent in thy prayers for thee and me! "Friday, Ilt November. I have just dismissed Mrs. Hall, my dear Isabella, to set into the study to-morrow morning a slice of bread and glass of water, purposing to keep myself alone for meditation, and I pray the Lord that he would give us both a heart full of divine thoughts and holy purposes.... Mr. Hamilton is a great comfort to me; I may say of him, as Paul says of Mark, that he is helpful to me for the ministry, literally delivering me of all secular cares. But I must proceed in order. When we were at our morning worship, Mr. O slipped in, with his slow and canny foot, in order to seek introductions to Scotland, which I would not give; for, though I am enough satisfied with him for the rule of charity, I have no sufficient evidence upon which to commend him to another. Indeed, I would be suspicious of his favor-seeking and power-hunting if I were not satisfied it is universal, and that he may have caught it by infection, not generated it in his own constitution; but, ah! it is a weakening disease, however caught. When I had dismissed him, I read the 3d chapter of John in the original, and studied the latter half of the 3d chapter of the Hebrews with a diligent reference to the parallel scriptures; and in studying that chapter it will help you to know that'even as Moses in all his house' is not to be understood foses,' but God's house, the house of' Him who appointed him,' as you will see by referring to the passage in Numbers, of which it is the quotation; the whole argument being to sot Moses forth, not as having a house of his own, but as a servant in the house which Christ had ordered, and to which, in due time, IHe came as the heir to claim and inherit His own. That idea of the Church, under the similitude of a house, is constant in the New Testament, derived, I take it, from the Temple, which was a type of the Church; and I have no doubt that'In my Father's house are many mansions,' means the Church in which he prepared a place for his apostles, by sending to them His Holy Spirit, so that thenceforth they became its foundation stones.'We are made partakers with Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end,' refers to Christ's coming in the end to occupy His house, when all His people shall share with Him in His kingdom, which He himself sets forth by the same similitude of a householder who went into a far country, and in the mean time gave his servants their several charges. We are these servants; let us be found faithful, and when He comes we shall be made partakers or sharers with Him. After these studies in divinity I relieved my mind by reading a portion of the Convocation Book which treated of our Lord's respect to those who sat in Moses' seat, presenting this feature of His obedience in very meek and true colors. Oh, how I have offended herein, making myself a judge instead of a minister of the Church i and yet I know not how otherwise to proceed when all things are manifestly so out of square. I do pray earnestly that the Lord would keep me manly in the regulation of the censorious part of my spirit; for I have this day, and immediately after the perusal of the above, written a lecture upon the simple and unprovided faith in which our Lord made His rounds of the ministry, arguing thence the spirit in which His ministers should stand affected toward the provisions of this life, and should receive them; wherein I have not crupled to declare the whole counsel of God, but I know not whether in the right spirit. "This also has occupied me since dinner up to the time of evening prayer, when the Lord opened my mouth to speak of His love to our souls, so that I could see the tears gather in the eyes of my little company. I do hope there is a work of Divine grace proceeding in these servants' hearts.... Oh, Isabella, I have a strong persuasion of the power of a holy walk and conversation, in which, if we continue, we shall save not only our own souls, but the souls of those that hear us; even now there is a strong conviction of that truth brought home to my spirit. For yourself, dear, when, you are in darkness and distress, then do not fret, but clothe your spirit in sackcloth, and sit down and take counsel with your soul before the Lord, and study all its deformity, and search into the hidden recesses of its unbelief. It is a rich lesson for humility; it is a season of sowing seed in tears. The Lord permitteth such temptations, that we may the more thoroughly see our depravity; and in the midst of our seasons of brightness, they come like clouds threatening a deluge, which the rainbow covenant averts from the soul of God's chosen ones..... My dearest, we must soon go to our rest, and our sweet infant also; and perhaps the Lord may not see us worthy to leave any seed on the earth. His will be done. I pray only to be conformed to His will. Now rest in peace, my other part, and thou, sweet link of being betwixt us! The Lord make our souls one! And may He bless with the inheritance of our domestic blessings, spiritual and temporal, our faithful servant, who has joined herself to our house. Fare you all well. The Lord compose your souls to sweet and quiet sleep! " Saturday, 12th November.... I am left to my sweet occupation of making my dear Isabella a sharer of the actions of my life and the secrets of my heart; would that they were more valuable for thy sake, my dearest love! This day was devoted to pious offices connected with the memory of our dear boy, that it might be made profitable to the living. But I found not the satisfaction which I expected. I began by reading the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians in the original, hoping to be somewhat raised in my thoughts; but whether I fell away into the criticism and schoice, from the old Greek fathers, which are in my noble Greek Testament, I know not; but I think I missed the edification of the spirit. Satan is never absent from us; he can slay as effectually from the letter of God's word as from the lightest and vainest pleasures of the world. After which I studied the funeral service of the Church, in which office I found some movements of the spirit which I sought. Then I girt myself to my duties, and: wrote, first, a letter to my father's house, exhorting them against formality, and testifying to them the nature of a spiritual conversation; then I wrote to M —-, manifesting, according to my ability, the evils of self-communion and self-will, and the blessings of communion with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. I know not how it may be felt by her, but if she should speak of it, assure her it was done faithfully and in love.... Thereafter I addressed myself to some reading in my Convocation Book and Roman History.... Since tea I have been busy preparing my discourses, and I do pray that He would bless them. I had much liberty in exhorting my little evening congregation and opening to them the comfortable doctrine of the Divine Providence, and in praying for our souls, and the souls of all men; and now, dearest, twelve o'clock hath rung in my ears, and having exhorted the household to timeous hours on the Sabbath morning, I must not be slack to give the example; and that I may leave room for tomorrow's work, which I trust will be holy and blessed, I part from you with few words, praying the Lord to have you all in His holy keeping. But let me not forget that this day, which I have improved to others, I ought of all to improve the most carefully to Edward's mother. Every twelfth day of the month, my loving and beloved wife, let it be your first thought that your babe is mortal, and that the father of your babe is mortal, and that you yourself are mortal; and every twelfth day of the month, my loving and beloved wife, let it be your last thought that your babe is mortal, and that the father of your babe is mortal, and that you yourself are mortal. Do this, that you may swallow up our mortality in the glorious faith of our immortalityin the heavens. Farewell, my wife. Dwell forever with the Lord, my sister saint in Christ; dwell forever with the Lord, my tender babe, and be blessed of Him, as He was wont to bless such as thee. I pray the LQrd to bless all with whom you dwell, thou daughter of Abraham and heir of the promise! " Sabbath, 13th November. My dear Isabella, I have finished the labors of another Sabbath, with much of the presence of the Lord in the former part of the day, and not so much in the evening. There must have been some want of faith either in the writing or delivery of my discourse, and I have besought the Lord that he would preserve me during this week in a spiritual frame of mind, and move within my soul right thoughts and feelings for the salvation of my people; and I desire that you would ever on a Sabbath morning pray the Lord to preserve my soul in a spirit of faith and love all the day, and in the evening pray that He would direct my mind to such subjects of meditation and methods of handling them as He will bless.... I have been much exercised this last week with the possibility of some trial coming to me from the resolute stand which I have taken, and will maintain, upon the subject of the liberty of my ministry. For the spirit of authority and rule in the Church begins to grow upon me, and I fear much there is not enough of the spirit of obedience in our city churches to bear it. But I am resolved, according as I am taught the duty of a minister of the Gospel, to discharge it, and consider every thing that may befall as the will of the Lord. I was telling this to Mr. Dinwiddie this morning; for I find, good men, they.have all their little schemes, after which they would like to see me play my part, instead of looking to me, as one under Christ's authority, to watch over the Church, and to be honored of the Church. The church was crowded both morning and evening; but I am prepared, if the Lord should see it meet to try me here also, and I sometimes think I shall be tried here at some time or other. Now, my notion is, that the Lord is very gracious to. me at present, permitting me to be strengthened; that then Satan will have power against me for a season by every form of trial-and, alas! there are too many open rivets in my armorbut that in the end the Lord, if I abide faithful, will increase me with much honor.... I thank God that I am very strong; and even now (ten o'clock) sleep begins to loose the curtains of my conception, and twilight is settling in my mind..... And now, dearest, I commend you and our little one unto the Lord, and pray that the Lord may bless you and preserve you for a blessing to these eyes. "Monday, 14th November. My dear wife, this has been a day sweetly varied with the good mercies of God, who in various ways hath used His servant to minister unto the comfort of His people, which I shall now set forth to you in order, being full of gladness and thankfulness. In the morning we had the Psalm of our Lord's humiliations-(lxix.), and the chapter of Job's most pathetic lamentation and divine confidence in his Redeemer (xix.), upon which I have been able to reflect more during the day by what I have seen than I was able to reflect unto my family, though I sought for words'of exhortation. We were, besides our own, Mr.. J —, a friend introduced by Pears; Rev. Mr. COx, of the Church of England, a calm, pious, and charitable man, whom I met at Brighton; and Sottomayor, the soldier. I had to withstand the radicalism and village-town conceit of the first, who cut all questions with a keen blade of self-conceit, but neither of wit:ior understanding, in which I was greatly assisted by the wisdom of Mr. Cox, who, having traveled, was able to speak with authority; and he delighted me with one declaration, that in the Catholic churches of Italy he had never heard a sermon (though he had heard many) which breathed of saints' days and other mummeries, but always of solid theology, deep piety, and much unction, and that he had met with many whom he believed most spiritual. My dear, I have often more concern about the-issue of the intellectual forms of our own'Church, which tend to practical and theoretical infidelity, than of the sensual forms of the Romish Church, which do tend to superstition, and still preserve a faith, though it be of the sense. Anyway, I give God praise that either with us or with them He preserveth a seed. When they departed, poor Sarah Evans came to me, troubled in her conscience, poor girl, that she had not confessed to me all her sins; and she was about to open all her history in time past, when I interrupted her, and would not allow her to proceed. Poor thing! I pity much her wandering mind, still. timorous and startled like one that had been lost, and not sure of having found the way. I think I must consult the elders about her.; It is a hard case; she is truly spiritual, but has a certain instability and flutter in her judgment.After her came a poor woman, the sister of Mr. M'W — (formerly of Dumfriesshire), who had been a prodigal for the last twenty-one years in a far distant land of the West Indies, having followed into dissipation a dissipated husband, buried ten children, left one, and now returned inform'z pauperis-left upon the shore by the good Samaritan, who provided her in a fortnight's lodging, expecting that in that time her brother, to whom he wrote, would be eager to relieve her. But her brother seems more ashamed of her than sorry for her, and dreads her return to Scotland, and had written a letter entreating me to get her into a hospital, which I found on my arrival. I liked its spirit ill, even before I had seen her, and wrote that I would not recommend to any hospital the sister of a Scotch clergyman: in good ircumstances, except she should be wholly abandoned. Still he writes me, inclining to the finding an asylum for her in London, and wishing me to see her, which this day I appointed by letter, for she lives all the way at Shadwell, and is disabled of her side by a palsy. And she came-a poor picture of the prodigal, humbled and penitent, and longing for her brother's bosom as ever the prodigal did for his father's.'I should never be off my knees, I think, if I could but see John, and partake of his prayers and counsels; the Lord would bring peace to my soul.' And she wept; and she very sorely wept when I read her parts of her brother's letter, but confessed to her past sinfulness; and before she went away her last words were, with many tears,'And tell him I am an altered woman.'... So I sat down and wrote for the widow, and rebuked my brother sharply, and told him he ought to make for her a room around his fireside. What may be the issue I know not; but my part, God helping me, is to help the prodigal widow.... "Then I went forth to visit Mrs. P, as I set down in my letter; but be thankful that letter went not to the dead office, for giving a glance to tho object of my affections, whose name I thought fairly inscribed, I found that it was fairly blank,; and had to get pen and ink at the receiving-house. James P - (who is very great in the highest mathematics, and reads La Place's Calculus of Generating Functions, which that greatest of calculators has applied to probabilities), immediately told me that La Place observed, to show how constant causes are, that the number of such undirected letters put into the Paris post-office was year by year, as nearly as possible, the same. When I went up to Mr. P —'s shop I found his sister standing in it, and she took me up to her mother's sick-ioom, saying little or nothing by the way. And her mother took me by the hand, and said,'The Lord hath sent you this day, for my Andrew is cast into prison.'.. Andrew, you must know, is betrothed to a young lady whom he has been the instrument of converting to the Lord, and when'he left S —-'s, being unresolved what to do with his little capital, which could not meet his present business, his betrothed's uncle said,' Get your bills discounted, and you shall not want, for money;' for they had always said that he was to have ~500 on the wedding-day, and ~500 afterward. To this the servant of the Lord trusting, sunk his money in his lease, trusting to have his floating bills met by his friend, who, growing cool because Andrew did not instantly succeed, withdraws his promises, and leave our friend in deep waters; and deals with his niece to send poor Andrew all his letters, and to request hers in return. This took place on Friday, and this day, at breakfast, two of the officers of justice, at the instance of a creditor, came, and he went with them. Thus was his mother left, and thus I found her all but overcome. I comforted her as I could, and prayed with her as I could, and saw that something was to be done as well as said. So coming down, I sat down to write in the back shop, while his sister sought some clew to the creditor's address, that I might find the prison.... So I proceeded by Cary Street, and, after diligent search, found Andrew in a house of which the door is kept always locked, seated with three men who seemed doleful enough-one resting his forehead on his hands, another reclining on a sofa, and the third contemplating, half miserably, half sottishly, a pint of porter. Andrew was close by the chimney corner. We communed together, and he was as calm and cheerful as Joseph, having Joseph's trust; and of a truth, yesterday, he seemed to his own household lifted above himself. And he had tasted my evening discourse upon the minister's wayfaring, raven-brood life to be very good. And it is marvelous, we concluded our service with the 34-37 verses of the 37th Psalm, as if the Lord would encourage me with respect to that service of which I desponded to you last night. While I talked with dear Andrew, not knowing but the others were the watchful officers of justice, he upon the sofa struck his forehead and started to his feet with a maniac air, crying,' Oh God, the horrors are coming upon me!' and wildly, very wildly strode through the room, so that I was standing to my arms, lest he might be moved of Satan against me for the words which I was speaking to Andrew. And he with his hand upon his head wept, and the other man would comfort with' patience'-' philosophy.' But the wounded man continued to burst out, and stride on, and beat his forehead, whence we gathered that he had been there for a whole month, daily expecting releasement, but none came, every message worse than another; and ever and anon he spoke of his wife. Then, when his fit was over, in which he talked of people putting an end to themselves, and of the fits of horror which broke his sleep, I addressed words of comfort to him, and prevailed to soothe him; so that, when I came away, he said,'It were well for us to receive many such visits, sir.' But I must break off; the night wears very late, and I am getting too much moved. The Lord bless, for the night, my loving and beloved.vrife, and the Lord bless our baptized babe-our little daughter of the Lord! "Tuesday, 15th. Andrew, who realized to me the idea of Joseph in prison, had come away in great haste, and omitted to take his Bible with him, which I supplied with my far-traveled and dear companion, now bound firmly as at the first. Those storms which I encountered upon the Yarrow mountains melted the cover of my writing-desk, and firmly bound the loose back of my Bible. Leaving Andrew, I proceeded to my engagement at six o'clock in Fleet Market, which was to visit Miss M —, and her brother and sister, who live with her. Their father dead, their mother in Essex, and two married brothers in town, so estranged from her by selfishness and worldliness that,'if five shillings would save me from death, I hardly think I could muster it among all my relations.' Oh, what a blessing to Scotland are her family ties! Families here are only associations under one roof for a few years, to issue in alienation and estrangement: I am grieved at my heart to witness it; but she abides strong in the Lord.... Her brother gave wonderful ear to me. My words entered deep, for he wept almost continually, and was much overpowered; and I do trust in the Lord that the lad may be brought to a more obedient and loving spirit toward his sister. Having finished a very sweet visitation, to which there came in an old woman, and a boy about to proceed to North America, whom I also exhorted, I hastened to Mrs. P's, in order to set her mind, and especially her imagination, at rest, which would be conjuring a thousand ideal frights about a prison; which having done with much consolation to my own spirit, I called as I passed at Bedford Square to see if any thing had happened untoward, but found that all was well... Mr. Scoresby was still sitting, and after I had taken a cup of tea, we came on our ways together, enjoying much delightful discourse. The Lord is opening'his mind wonderfully to the right apprehension of the ministerial office. I arrived not at home till about ten o'clock, and assembled the family for worship; and after writing the above, I went to bed and dreamt a dream of sweet thoughts-that I was sitting at Jesus's feet, and learning the way to discharge my office, having only six days to hear from the Divine Instructor, at which time-He was to remove from the earth..,...... " I was much refreshed by the sweet thoughts of the night, and arose very cheerful; and while the family was at worship, Mr Scoresby and'Mr. Hamilton came in,'whom I had invited on purpose to meet one another. Our morning was passed in sweet discourse, and afterward I opened to Mr. Scoresby, in my own study, many of my views concerning the Church: into some he could enter, and into others not. But he is growing richly in divine knowledge, and I praise the Lord for his sake. We prayed together before he went away, and I invited him, when he came back, to make his home with us.... Then I addressed myself to my discourse on the bondage of law, and having wrought that vein till I was wearied, I betook myself to the correcting of another proof, and had gone over it once, and was about concluding the second reading, when a letter from Winm. Hamilton announced that Mr. David was much worse, and a few hours might terminate his life. - Thereupon I left all, and proceeded to the house of death. On my way I met Mr. Simon proceeding to Bath in order to build up certain churches there who have besought his presence. We commended each other to the Lord, and took our several ways. I found Mr. David still living, and some' faint hopes of amendment; but I am prepared for the worst, which I doubt not is the best... I wrote a letter to Willie, who is at Norwich at school, opening the afflicting intelligence to him as best I could.... I returned in time to get my proof-sheet finished for the post, since which I have been laboring up the hill with my lecture upon the pious women who ministered unto Christ; when at nine o'clock a lady came in to enjoy the privilege of our prayers. At the church on Wednesday evening a sorrowful lady asked me if it was true that I read prayers at my own house and permitted people to come.I said, at family worship I delight to comfort and encourage the hearts of all who are present, and if you come on a spiritual errand you shall be' welcome.'So this night she came, and hath opened to me her sorrows. Three months ago she lost her only boy, after three years' illness, during which she watched him continually; and'now she is alone in the world, with a memory haunted and a heart stunned and broken, knowing little of the spiritual, and dwelling much in the imagination. His sufferings had been extreme, and his death frightful; and his poor mother, not more than your years, is now alone in this great city, which to her is a great desert..... Her husband was a Sicilian, and died before the boy was born..... She wanted to know if she would know her son in heaven. I could have wept for her, but I saw she needed another treatment, and therefore rebuked, but with kindness, her imaginations, and showed her the way to the spiritual world, whither I pray the Lord to leadher.... The Lord enable me to direct her in the way of peace..... Thus another day has'passed with its various incidents and various blessings. I have been oft in it enjoying near communion with God, and oft I have been cold and lifeless. When shall I be wholly with the Lord? I do desire His abiding presence-the light of his countenance..... Now may the Lord be the canopy over your head, and over the head of the babe, this night, and over mine, enveloping us in the everlasting arms! " Wednesday, 16th November. Our dear, dear friend is no more. He departed about five o'clock, in exactly that frame of spirit which, above all others, I would wish to die myself in.... In the five weeks of his sore affliction his robust and zealous spirit has had the meekness of a little child, and as a little child he was taught of the Spirit in a wonderful way.... The propitiation of Christ and his own unworthiness were his chief meditations, and continued so to the last. During that time a worldly care has not crossed his lips. His soul has been full of love to all, and of great, great affection to me. I know not that I have one left who loved me as he did.... He. accompanied me to the ship, with Mr. Hamilton, when I came to see you and little Edward; now he is gone in London, and Edward lies in his cold grave in Scotland; and I am left, and you are left, whom I feared lest I should lose; and left we are, dearest, to bear fruit unto God; and fruit we will bear unto God, being cleansed by the word of Christ, and supported by the juices and nourishment of the vine, and dressed by the hands of our heavenly Father. Let us watch and exhort one another, as I now do you, my dearest wife, to much frequent private communion with God. This was what our friend had resolved to apply himself to with more diligence than ever if it had been the will of the Father to spare him. About three o'clock I received a message from Wm. Hamilton that he was fast fading away, and had expressed a wish to see me. I had proposed going about two hours after; these two hours would have lost me the sweetest parting in my life-my child first born unto Christ, at least who is known to me. I found him far gone in breathlessness, but lively in hearing, quick in understanding, and full of the Spirit of life. He stretched out his hand to me; his other was stretched to his wife on the other side of the bed.... I prayed with him, and afterward continued, at intervals, to supply his thoughts with pregnant scriptures. I repeated to him the 23d Psalm, in which he was wont to have such delight. This revived him very much, and he uttered several things with a grave, full, deep voice, interrupted by his want of breath.'My whole hope, trust, and dependence is in the mercy of God, who sent His Son to save the meanest.'... I saw death close at hand, and drew near and took his hand. His breathing deepened, and became more like distinct gasps. And it failed and failed, until his lungs did their office no more, and he died without a struggle of a limb or the discomposure of a muscle-his mouth open as it had drawn its last breath -his eye fixed still on me; and we stood silent, silent around him. Then Mr. Bedome closed his eyelids. I know not why they do so. I loved to look on Edward's. Dear, lovely corpse of Edward, what a sweet tabernacle was that over which thy mother and I wept so sadly! My much-beloved child, my muchcherished, much-beloved child, dwell in the mercies of my God, and the God of thy mother! We will follow thee betimes, God strengthening us for the journey. I had still an hour to sit with Mrs. David, and to write sweet William and his grandfather. She was comforted, and I left her tranquil. Mr. Hamilton, who is much affected, was seated below, in the dining-room, and we came to the church together, when I discoursed from the 24th and 25th verses of the 14th chapter ofJohn, and made known to them the good intelligence that our brother had had a good voyage so far as we could follow him or hear tidings from him. Every one seemed deeply affected, and all whom I talked with were sensibly rejoiced... Thus another of my flock has gone to the Chief Shepherd.... Andrew P - brought me up my Bible, having been delivered last night, and giving thanks unto God. I love him much; his mother, also, is better; so that the Lord hath shined from behind the cloud.... James P is a very sweet companion. Hall is still weakly. The rest are well. I fight a hard fight, but let me never forsake private communion or I perish. The Lord bless you and our dear babe. I wish I were refreshed with a sight of you both. "Thursday, 2 o'clock. I have had such a conversation with one of my congregation, a medical man, upon the subject of what I would call' the theology of medicine,' as made me sorry you were not present to hear it. But in good time, when you are restored to me, you shall hear him often; for he is both a gentleman, a man of science-the true science of nature-and a Christian. He discoursed upon infants, and the treatment of infants, so well and wisely, that I could not let this letter go without noting to you one or two things.*.. "' Thursday, 17th Nov. My dear Isabella, nothing is of such importance as to have a distinct view of the end of all our labors under the sun-our studies, our conversations, our cares, our desires, and whatever else constitutes our being; for, though many of these seem to come by hazard, without any end in view, believe me, my dear, that every habit arose out of an end, either of our own good or some other good desirable in our eyes, and that the several acts contained under that label go to strengthen that end which it carried with it from the beginning. Now, dearest, our one, only end should be the glory of God, and our one, only way of attaining that end by the fulfillment of His will; and the only means of knowing that will is by the faith of His word; and the only strength for possessing it is the love, desire, and joy which are begotten in us by the Holy Ghost. Therefore be careful, my dear sister in Christ, to occupy your thoughts and cares with some form of the divine revelation, and to have before the eye of your faith some divine end present or distant-yea, both present and distant; and then shall you have communion with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ from morning to evening. This attempt, this succeed in, not by the force of natural will, which will * Here follows a minute record of the advice he had just received, reported with the most grave and anxious particularity, but concluding thus: "To these rules give no more confidence than seems to your own mind good, and put your trust in the providence and blessing of Almighty God." make such a hirpling, hobbling gait of it, but by the practical redemption of your Savior, which will by degrees clear you of the former slough, and feather your callow nakedness, and give you wings with which to mount up into the exalted region of life. Have ever in view the glory of God, and ever seek help to it by prayer, and the Lord himself will lead you into the way. These thoughts occurred to me as I came home from Bedford Square, where I took dinner with our dear friends, and I resolved I would write them for your sake. I spent the morning in study upon the help which women may afford and have afforded in the Church, and have brought my lecture nearly to a close; so that I have to-morrow and next day for the great theme of legal bondage on which I have entered. I would, and earnestly pray that I might, keep my thoughts during study intent upon the glory of God and the promotion of Christ's kingdom. And it were not dutiful if I did not acknowledge that the Lord is bringing me into a region of nearer communion. But I can not tell what huskiness there is about my heart, and in rmy discourse what seeking after intellectual or imaginary forms. Oh that I could feel the very truth, and rejoice with the free joy of its inheritance. During my study, Dr. Wilkins came in, and discoursed to me for about an hour with a simplicity and beauty which ravished me. If he do not prove visionary upon further acquaintance —if his practical understanding be perfectly sound, then he is the greatest accession to my acquaintance since I became acquainted with Mr. Frere, and will prove to me, in all that respects the chemistry of the bodily constitution, what other leaders have been to me in respect to the mental and the spiritual. The Lord hath showed me such marvelous kindness in respect of teachers that I can not enough praise Him.... The object of his discourse was to prove that nature had no tendency to any disease, but wholly the reverse; and that, were it not our ignorance and perversity, we would come to our full age, and drop into the grave as a shock of corn in its season; and he began his demonstration from the condition of the child.... There was much more he had to discourse of, but I told him I had enough for the present, and would hear him another time. He is a man of fine manners and a sweet nature-of continued acknowledgment of God and blame of man. Now, dearest, I have put all this down for your sake, that you might meditate upon it, and make the use of it which you judge best. The man you will like exceedingly, that I know full well, because we are of one spirit now, or fast growing into one spirit-praised be the mercy of our God.... The Lord be gracious to you and all in the house. I pray for you and baby, I oft think, with more earnestness than for myself, which is sentiment, and not faith. The Lord edify us in one most holy faith; and Mary also, whose salvation I earnestly desire. A Amen. "Friday, $18th. My dear Isabella, there is no point of wisdom, human or divine, so carefully to be attended to, for one's own good, or for the knowledge and good of others, as the spirit which men are of. For the spirit draws after it the understanding, and determines the views which men take of every subject, in the world of sight or in the world of faith. Some people remain under the spirit of their minds, and become intensely selfish. But the social principle leads the several spirits to congregate together for mutual defense and encouragement. First of all there is the Holy Spirit, whose communion constitutes the true Church of Christ, and you may be sure their opinions will be orthodox doctrine, charitable sentiment, sweet, patient temper, and, in short, transcripts of Christ Jesus our Lord. Then there is the worldly spirit, which is one in respect of its opposition to the former, and intolerance of all its opinions; but in respect to itself is divided into many, its name being Legion. Of these I find to prevail at present the following: 1st. Around you in Scotland there is the spirit of the human understanding, of which skepticism of all things that can not be expressed with logical precision is the characteristic, and an utter abhorrence of all mystery; whereas, as you know, to the Holy Spirit of simplicity every thing is a mystery unfolding itself more and more. There is also the spirit of selfsufficiency, which characterizes our countrymen above measure. With us we have the spirit of expediency, which calculates what it can foresee, and accounts all beyond to be void and unreclaimed chaos; it is utterly fruitless of any principle self-directing in the human soul, and would make man wholly under the influence of outward things. Of this class Owen is the fool. About the Universities of England is the spirit of antiquity, which prizes what is recondite and difficult of discovery, and runs out into Egyptian expeditions to the Pyramids and the Tombs. And among the common people there is, in direct opposition to this, the spirit of radicalism, which hath no reverence for antiquity, or, indeed, for any thing but its own projections. In the Church here there is the spirit of formality, which often ascends into very high regions of beauty and comeliness, but wants the living, acting, confirming principle-is but an Apollo Belvidere or a Venus de' Medici after all-not a living, acting, self-directing principle. I have not time nor strength to open the subject philosophically, but I have said enough to lead your meditations to it, which is all that I desire. For observe you, my dear, that if you be of the right spirit, all things will right themselves in the eyesight of your mind. Hence the Holy Spirit is called also the spirit of truth. We do not get right by conning our opinions back over again, but we change our opinions, as we do our dress, from a change in our spirit. Therefore these are often not hypocrites, but rash men, who are seen so suddenly to change their sides. And true conversion draws with it an alteration of all our opinions; and conversion is properly defined as a change of spirit. How often do people say, It was all true he said, but spoken in a bad spirit. Now if you wish to be right, seek communion with the Holy Spirit; and if you wish to know whom you ought to listen to, by what manner of spirit he is of, try the spirits whether they be of God. Milton could not say, Jesus is the Son of God, because he would not yield to the Holy Spirit, but preferred the spirit of radicalism; and as no one can know the Father but he to whom the Son revealeth Him, so no one knoweth the Son but he to whom the Spirit revealeth Him. And what is meant by having right opinions, or being wise, but to know the Son who is truth? And much more remains, which I may perhaps write hereafter. "I gave God thanks for your letter, and for the answer of my prayers that you continued to stand fast in the Lord. With respect to your journey, you will easily reach Dumfries by posting it; and I think you ought to take the road by Biggar, Thornhill, and the Nith, as being the more pleasant, and I think, if any thing, the more sheltered of the two; although, in that respect, both are bleak enough;... from Annan you had better take the way by Newcastle, and thence to Mr. Bell's, of Boswell, which I understand to be within seven miles of York, and I would meet you there.... From Annan you will bring me two or three pairs of a shoe of a passing good form for my foot. Nothing has occurred to me to-day worth mentioning. I have enjoyed the presence of God beyond my deservings. I preached to Mr. N-'s people, and recognized in them improvement, as I hope; much in him. There was one idea which occurred to me worth writing. How vain is it for man to trust in God's mercy, when His own Son, though He cried hard for it, could find none, but had to drink the cup of justice! I am weary. The Lord be with you all!'; Saturday, 19th November. I am so fatigued, dear Isabella, that I dare not venture to write, but will not retire to rest without inserting upon this record of my dearest thoughts a husband's and a father's blessing upon his dear wife and child. " Sabbath, 20th November. I have reason this night again to bless the Lord for His goodness to His unworthy servant, for I have been much supported, and have had great liberty given me to wrestle with the souls of the people; but I want much the grace of wrestling with the Lord for their sake. I feel daily drawn, like the Prophet Daniel, to some great and continued act of humiliation and earnest supplication for the Church, but Satan hindereth me. And yet I doubt not the Lord will work in me this victory, and that by your help I shall yet be able to wait upon the Lord night and day, and to weep between the altar and tabernacle for the souls of the people. Indeed, I have already planned that when the Lord restore you to my sight (in spirit we are never parted), we shall pass an' hour of every day, from four till five, in our own room, with no presence but the presence of God, which we will earnestly entreat; and we will rest from our great labors that hour, and meditate of our everlasting rest. Before entering upon this day's labors I will look back upon yesterday, that you may be informed of one or two things which will be pleasant to.your ear. The death of our friend David hath wrought wonderfully for good with us all, so that men busy with the world have wept like children; and all have, I think, had the spiritual seasoning intermingled with the natural feeling. It wrought upon me in the way of greater earnestness of spiritual communion; and I think yesterday morning, in the visions of the night, I was conscious of the sweetest enjoyments of the soul I ever knew. There was no vision presented to my sight in my dream, but there was a sense of deeper meaning and clearer understanding given to our Lord's parting discourse, which filled me with a spiritual delight -a light of spiritual glory that was unspeakably mild and de-. lightful. I awoke full of thanksgiving and praise, and bowed myself upon my bed, and gave thanks, and arose to my labors. I break off for worship. The Lord be in the midst of us! "In reading the last half of the 16th chapter of John, I was struck with the 23d and 24th verses, which show us why the Lord's prayer was not concluded in Christ's name-because he was not Intercessor and High-Priest till after His death. He was perfected, that is, consecrated (for the word for consecration was then perfecting) by sufferings. In the days of HIis flesh He had no mediatorial power, but was conquering it to Himself and His Church, and therefore Hie called upon them to rejoice that He was to go away. Now to return. All the day long I continued in study, with walks in the garden and relaxations of history, until after two o'clock, when I bore Mr. P- company to Bedford Square.... Thence I proceeded to the house of affliction.... Now I come to the labors, the blessed labors of the Sabbath. This morning I awoke at six, but was too weary to rise till eight; and having gone over my sermon, with my pen in my hand, to bring it to very truth as nearly as I know it, I went to church with Mr. Dinwiddie, who enters cordially with me into prayer, and is desirous of a more spiritual discourse.than when you used to walk with him. After Psalms and prayer, in which I had no small communion, we perused the 4th of Hebrews.... Then I commenced my discourse on Gal., ii., 14, upon the bondage of law, opening the whole subject of justification by faith, upon which I intend to discourse at large; and I presented them first with a view of the dignity of the law, both outward in the state and inward in the soul.... (But it has struck twelve; the Lord bless thee and the child, and rest us this night in the arms of His love and mercy, so as we may arise as to a resurrection of life against to-morrow! Amen.) To-morrow is come, and I am still in the land of the living to praise and glorify my Creator and Redeemer; which having done according to my weakness, I sit down to my pleasant labor, after many incidents which must form part of my next dispatch. Then showing them the Charybdis of licentiousness upon the other side of the fair way, into which Antinomians and other loose declaimers against the law did carry miserable souls, and where also superstition and Methodism did bind them in bare bondage after they had seduced them from the wholesome restraints of law, into which law they ought to have breathed the spirit of true obedience, I concluded by entreating their prayers that I might be enabled to handle this vast subject with power, and love, and a sound mind (which I again beseech of you also).'.. "In the evening I was feeble in prayer to begin with, no doubt from want of faith; but the Lord strengthened me toward the close, otherwise I think I should not have had heart to go on with the service, I felt so spirit-stricken... My lecture was upon the ministry of women in their proper sphere in the Church, which I drew out of the Scriptures by authority; and by the same authority limited and restrained from authority, either in word or in discipline, to the gentle and tender ministry of love, and devotion of goods and personal services, which afforded me a sweet and gracious topic to descant upon, in defense of female liberty, and emancipation from worldly and fashionable prudential laws and tyrannies of decorum, false delicacy, and other base bondages; all which I set off with the historical illustrations of woman's vast services, martyrdoms, shelter of the persecuted, care of the poor, to the'seeming conviction of the people, and concluded with a summary of a Christian woman's duties in her various relations; and insisted upon them, as they were members of my church, to be helpful to me, or else I saw no prospect of any growth of communion kin the midst of us.... Dearest, I have set forth many things in this letter for your meditation. They are seeds of thought (rather) than thoughts; the spirit of truth (rather) than the doctrines of truth. Think on these things, and meditate them much, and the Lord give you understanding in all things. For our babe we can do nothing but pray unto the Lord, and cease from anxiety, living in fait; and cease from anxiety, living in faith..... " fonday, 21st November, 1825. May the Lord of tHis great mercy fill my soul with the fullness of love to my dear wife; that, as Christ loved the Church, I may love her, and in like manner manifest with all gracious words my unity of soul with her soul; that we may be one as Thou, our Creator, didst intend man and woman to be from the beginning. This day, dearest, hath been to me a day of much and varied activity, which, being full of reflection and conflict, I shall recount in order. After good rest, which, by the blessing of God, my wearied head doth constantly enjoy, I arose about eight, and, being outwardly and inwardly appareled, I came down to fulfill the will of God, whatever it might be, and found Mr. M-, the artist, and Mr. S, also'an artist, of whom I wrote to you as being one of my communicants, with whom and the family, having worshiped the God of our salvation, while breakfast was arranging in the' other room by good Mrs. Hall, Miss W and another lady came to wait upon me, whom I went to see. The lady is a Mrs. S', dwelling in the city, who has been much blessed by my ministry, and was brought to it in this wonderful way, as she told it me from her own lips. She had been much tried by a worthless husband, of whom you know there are so many in this tie-dissolving city; and in the midst of her sorrowful nights she dreamed a dream: that she was carried to a church, of which the form and court, even to two trees which grew over the wall, were impressed upon her mind; and there she heard a minister, whose form and dress, to the very shape of his gown, was also impressed upon her, who preached to her from these words:' Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.' This she communicated to one of her comforting friends, to whom, describing the gown, she answered that he must be a Scotch minister who was intended by the vision, for they are the only people who wear that kind of gown..She had already heard Dr. Manuel and Dr. Waugh, but was sure they answered not to the figure of the vision; but, as she passed a window, she saw a print of me, and was impressed with the resemblance. Heretofore she had been deterred from coming near me by the crowd, but now she resolved some evening to come; and, having taken a friend's house by the way, they strongly gainsayed her purpose, and would have taken her elsewhere with them, and all but prevailed. This detained her beyond the hour, and when she returned our psalm and prayer were over, and I was naming the subject of lecture, and the first words that fell upon her ears were the words of her dream:'Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.' She stood in the midst of a crowd hardly able to stand, and beheld and heard all which had been revealed to her in the visions of the night.... Is not this very marvelous, dear Isabella, and very gracious, that the Lord should comfort His people by such a worm as I am? I exhorted her to abide steadfast, and to come again and see me. " When breakfast was over I brought Mr. S — with me into the library, whose heart, I perceived, was full of some matter, who told me, with an artlessness and alarm which showed his happy ignorance of our town infidelity, that a cousin of his had, in the course of religious conversation, declared his disbelief of Jesus being the son of David, and disputed the genealogies, and had maintained that in Joshua's time they were but poor geographers, otherwise they would never have alleged that the sun stood still. I was at pains to instruct him, and to teach him the subtle arts of the tempter, but he concluded by saying that it was not for himself, but for his cousin, that he was concerned, and the big tear filled his eye when he said it. I entreated him to bring his cousin some night at our hour of prayer, and I would do my endeavor to set him right. Now I had received this very morning a letter from one Gavin --—, a poor infidel, craving that I would preach a discourse upon the character of God, which he could not understand to be both merciful and vindictive; and I had received two other letters, one with a pamphlet, craving help of me against the infidel Taylor, who is poisoning the city at such a rate; and having likewise been entreated by two men to attend a meeting in John Street Chapel upon the subject of the District Society for Evangelizing the Poor, I resolved to attend, though somewhat against my intention, considering that these things, put together, were a sort of call of Providence. Having dismissed Mr. S —, I had communion with Mr. M -, whom Mr. A — had been in much fear about lately, lest he should be falling back, through the love of a young woman and the companionship of her family, who were not spiritual. To this subject, introducing myself gently, modestly, and tenderly, I came, and spoke upon it with feeling, as having been in like manner tried; for in what way have I not been tempted, and, alas! overcome in all?... "Then, being left alone, I sought to relieve my mind by perusing the history of those wonderful instruments of God, the Roman people, not without prayer that the Lord would interpret the record of His providence to my soul. And I think that I was edified in it until I had gathered strength to finish your letter, Which Brightwell interrupted me in, to whom I revealed all my convictions of the spirits that were abroad in the world, and which were defacing the glory of the Church: the radical spirit among the Dissenters, the intellectual spirit in the Scottish churches, the spirit of expediency among the Evangelicals. He could not see along with me throughout, but he saw more than most men I converse with. Do pray that the Lord may enable me clearly to discern truth, and steadfastly to bear testimony to it! It is a Jesuitical spirit that is opposing Christ among the Methodists. And these four spirits are so weakening the being of the Church, and corrupting the life which is faith, that, though their numbers may increase, it will still be true,' When the Son of Man cometh shall He find faith on the earth?'.. "I had engaged to dine with Mr. H —- at four o'clock. I knew not that any thing was waiting me there. But where is not the minister of the Lord wanted in this distressed, imprisoned, and rebellious earth? The old man was ill, and they had been forced to bleed him. I went in to see him on his bed, and would have prayed with him, but he professed he was not able to hear me. Ah! Isabella, I fear for that old man; I greatly fear his soul is asleep and will not awake. Make your prayer for him, for he also shall be required at your husband's hand. There are two Miss F —'s, cousins of the family, come to spend the winter, who talked much like the young women of Edinburgh, chattering a vain palaver about ministers, and music, and organs, with which I would have nothing to do. But after tea I began to talk to them all concerning the things of their peace, and was led by Mrs. H —'s questions to unfold the judicial blindness to which men are at length shut up, and to open the whole matter of our dependence upon the Father, which was mightily confirmed by the first half of the 17th chapter of John, which is a marvelous acknowledgment of the Father's sovereignty. I pray you to read it and learn humility, self-emptying humility, and profound nothingness in your prayers. They all wept, the religious belles as well as the rest; and a young nephew, half-caste, about to sail for India, wept with a very full heart after I had prayed with them all. I trust that family is growing in grace, and I fear they have long abidden formalists. Remember this one thing, my Isabella, that we who have believed are by covenant to be brought into the full inheritance, but according to the Lord's time and proportion; but surely as He hath sworn we shall inherit, therefore abide waiting, abide waiting (how long did He wait for us?), waiting in perfect faith of being led in. "I took the John Street Church by the way, and heard them deliberating about an expedient to meet Taylor's blasphemous tract that is soon to be published. They are very busy, these enemies of the Lord. He can not bear it long. They are carrying the people like a stream away from God. But I told them it was not by the expedient of tract-writing or circulating, or controversial work, but by manifestation of the truth to the conscience, that they were to prevail; and that, when they found the people upon that ground, they should answer them with'a caveat that the matter at issue was not there, still giving them a reason with meekness and fear, but shift the ground as fast as possible, not because the ground was not tenable, but because the kingdom was to be contended for elsewhere. That the teachers ought to assemble to make themselves masters of the infidel's fence, in order to interpose their shield against his poisoned arrows, but with the other hand they should feed the poor captive, and nourish him into strength to fight himself. They heard and believed me. But I came away entreating the Lord to make me a man in the breach against these sons of Belial, and that I was willing to die if He would spare His inheritance from these fiery flying serpents of infidel notions, which have fallen in upon this central congregation of Israel. Tell your father to be on his post, and to tell his brethren to look to their arms, they know not how insecure their citadel is. Henry Drummond was in the chair; he is in all chairs -I fear for him. His words are more witty than spiritual; his manner is spirituel, not grave..... Then I came home, and immediately there gathered a pleasant congregation.... to whom, with my family, I addressed the word of exhortation, and opened the 103d Psalm, that psalm of psalms, and our passage in order was Luke, xiv., verse 25. How appropriate to these communicants, but oh, Isabella, how sublime! None but God durst have uttered such an abrupt apostrophe to a multitude of men, and no multitude of men would have borne it: but from a manifest God. But how contemptible a comparison of unresolved professors-savorless salt, neither good for the field of the Church nor for the dunghill of the world! I pray you to consider this passage; it was more fertile to my soul than I have now strength to tell. The ladies went their ways, and left the two young men, with whom having conversed in the study, I found to be of a righteous spirit, and pressing into the kingdom... These things rejoice me. The Lord enriches me with comfort. Blessed be His name! Blessed be His holy name! His thrice holy name be blessed forever and ever! A' nd now, dear, I am wearied, having fulfilled many gracious offices, and having.had a breathing of the Spirit on them all, and on this not less than the others, my worthy wife —that thou and ours, and. the h6use where thou dwellest, may be blessed of our God forever and ever! " Tuesday, 22d. That subtle Cantab, with his logic, has almost robbed my Isabella of her tribute of love, he has so exhausted me. In the morning we were alone, and I arose much refreshed with sleep, and, after worship and breakfast, addressed myself to the work of meditating the 5th chapter of the Hebrews in the original, which is so full of tender humanity. To this I added, in the garden, some reading on the high-priest's office in Godwin's'Moses and Aaron.' And as I walked I had much elevation of soul to the heavenly thrones, with certain cogitations of God's neigh. borhood to very holy men, so that to me it seemed not possible to say whether He might not still work manifest wonders by their hand; not to convince them with visible demonstrations, for that is the Catholic solicitation for an idol, but to work spiritual wonders by their means. Thereafter I set myself to rough-hew my discourse, of which more when it takes shape; taking among hands the'IRoman History,' not without prayer that the Lord would open to me the mystery of his Providence, when, for the first time (oh unbelief!), it occurred to me that I was reading the rise of the fourth great monarchy into whose hands God had given the earth. The works of the Lord are wonderful-sought out are they of all those who take pleasure therein; so wonderful was the rise of Macedon and of Persia, for Babylon I have forgot.... Another letter from Henry Paul, commending a Miss M —-- to me as one of the people of God who wished to join our fold. She is welcome in the Lord's name. I could not see her, being occupied with a little circle of kinsfolk, who were Peter F ——'s wife, and daughter, and mother.... They are on their way to join him at Dover (how full of painful interest that place is now become! My Edward! oh my Edward!). The mother wishes to get a housekeeper's situation, for which she is qualified, and desires your countenance; so, while you are at Dumfries and Annan, I pray you to satisfy yourself of her character and ability, that we may help her if we can. I commended them to the Lord after they had eaten bread with me. Thereafter I addressed myself to reading, being broke up for the day by this welcome interruption, until toward three, when I bore James P —--- on his way to the inn, and returned to my own solitary meal; and after it I took myself much to task for want of temperance, which, after all, I have not yet attained to. It is a saying of one of the Fathers,'In a full belly all the devils dance;' and Luther used to say' he loved music after dinner, because it kept the devils out.' But I believe the truth is, that temperance wrought by the Spirit is the only defense, of which I felt this day the lack, although my dinner was wholly of pea soup and potatoes; but I took too much, and was ashamed of the evil thoughts which have dared to show face in the temple of the Holy Ghost. " I prayed the Lord to strengthen me in all time coming for His greater glory, and proceeded, about five, on my way to Mr. Barclay's, Fleet Market, taking by the way a brother of Hall's, whose house joins by the back of the church. Oh, Isabella, how frail we are! There was a sweet boy of nine years, who had never ailed any thing in his life, brought in one day to the jaws of death, if he be not already consumed of it, by the croup; and a poor family, and, I fear, an ignorant one, with whom, having left my prayers and help, I proceeded on my way. The boy had said,'Mother, do not fret; I must die some time, and I will go to heaven.' So would patient Edward have said if he could have spoken any thing. Love not Margaret after the flesh, but after the spirit, my dearest wife. I went with fear and trembling to Mr. Barclay's, but with self-rebuke that I had not made it a day of prayer and humiliation for their sakes. I had besought the Lord, but I did not feel that He was found of me; and I had meditated by the way this one thought, kindred to what I set forth in my last letler,'That when the Holy Ghost departs from any set of opinions or form of character, they wither like a sapless tree.' Witness the preaching of Scotland, the voice: of the Spirit of a former age; witness the high-flying Whigs of the Assembly, the armor-bearers of the covenanting Whigs of the Claim of Rights; witness the radical and political dissenters of England, the mocking-birds of the Nonconformists; witness the High-Churchmen of England, who pretend to maintain what Ridley, and Latimer, and Hooper embodied. Ay, there is the figure; the doctrine is the vainest when the Spirit is gone. Meditate, Isabella, this deep mystery of the spirit in man quickened by the Holy Spirit. I had one meditation at home,'That immortal souls, not written compositions, nor printed books, were the primumr mobile of a minister's activity.' I found father, and mother, and two sisters, and from the first Mr. B~ opened his doubts and difficulties to me, by telling me that he hoped to be able to enter better into my new subject than into my former, but declaring that he had seen new views of his sinfulness, and brought to look to Christ alone for salvation, whom he looked upon as his Mediator, Intercessor, and Redeemer, but could not see as equal with God, though he was God's representative. I opened the great mystery as I could, telling him at the same time it was only to be opened by the Holy Spirit, upon whose offices I enlarged, and went over a large field of demonstration with much satisfaction to them all, and deep emotion with the two daughters, whom I think the Lord our God is calling. Then we came to speak of dear David's death, by my recital of which they were very much moved, as also by my unfolding the blessed fruits of our Edward's removal. He has been much upon my mind this day. Dearest, I think light is breaking upon Mr. Barclay's mind. Pray for him; he is to mark his difficulties, which I am to do my endeavor to clear up. When I returned, here waited Miss W and a Mr. M'Nicol, from Oban, who, with his wife, desired the ordinance..... Our chapter was the first seven verses of the fourteenth of Luke. What a touching appeal that parable of the sheep was for the poor publican to the Pharisees; how delicately reproved they were, themselves being allowed to be as men who needed no repentance compared with these sinners I Grant that ye are the unoffending, unstrayed children of the house; but here is one that has shipwrecked. May I not go and seek him as ye would a strayed sheep, and, if he return, will not the family forget their every-day blessedness in a tumult of joy? The Lord strengthened me in prayer, and now He hath strengthened me in this writing beyond my expectations. Kiss our beloved child for her father's sake. I heard of you both by those airy tongues that syllable men's names.... Fear the Lord, my wife, always; fear the Lord!.! "Wednesday, 23d. This has been to me a day of temptation from dullness and deadness in the divine life. I know not whence arising, if it be not from want of more patient communion with God in secret, and more frequent meditation of His holy Word. Oh, Isabella, there is no abiding in the truth but by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is not reasoning, or knowledge, or admonition, or council, or watchfulness, or any other form of spiritual carefulness and ability, but His own presence-His own Spirit, quick and lively, which maketh us tender, ready, discerning in the ways of righteousness and iniquity. The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. Dearest, mistrust reasonings, mistrust examples, mistrust prudential views, mistrust motives, and seek for an abiding, a constant spirit of holiness, which shall breathe of God, and feel of God, and watch in God, and care in God, and in all things reveal God to be with us and in us. A child possessed of the Holy Spirit is wiser to know righteousness from iniquity than the most refined casuist or the most enlightened divine. It is truly a spiritual administration, the present administration of our souls, and we see but as through a glass, but afterward face to face. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall know as we are known. Oh, seek a presence, an ever-abiding presence of the Holy One, for yourself and your husband! Yet, though heavy in soul, I cried to the Lord very often, and He has heard my prayer. I know that we shall be tried with various tribulations, but we shall not be prevailed against. While I was occupied constructing my morning discourse, Mr. N-. came in, and we had a season of brotherly communion. His sisters go forward, all the three, with one consent, and bear a loving heart to us and to all the people of God. They wished books to peruse, and I recommended to them Edwards' History of Redemption, to read along with the Old Testament history of the Church, and to prepare them for reading the New Testament history of the Church. Oh, that this was drawn up by one possessed of the Spirit of God, and not the spirit of history, who, in a short space and with a round pen, would draw it out after the manner of the books of Samuel and the Chronicles, adjoining to it specimens of the most pious writings of the Fathers, which might answer to the history, as the prophets answer to the Old Testament history.... I also opened my lecture, which is to treat of the duty of the Church to support its ministers; for I perceive that, from want of being discoursed of, these great rudimental ideas of the Church have changed into convenient and expedient arrangements of human wisdom. "I dined alone, and after dinner kept on with the History of Rome, whose age of tumults and domestic seditions I have arrived at, the condition of the people, with plebeian institutions, who have lost the bond of religion., and the domestic and moral obligations resting on it. That tradition is remarkable of Julius Ca3sar's having the vision of a man of great stature and remarkable appearance inviting him to cross the Rubicon, which paved the way to the empire, in which form it becomes a prophetic object, and has a prophetic character. I have resolved, nevertheless, to throw that part of my book* which derived its materials from the book of Esdras into a note, lest I should give encouragement to the prudential advocates of the Apocrypha. It is there that Julius Caesar is a prophetic character. -.. When: we came to Mrs. David's, I had such a desire to deliver Brightwell from political leaning in the Slavery Abolition question, for I find they are to a man gone into the idea that Christianity must have the effect of making the slaves disquiet; that is, they lean so much to the political question, that even themselves say, until they are emancipated, it is vain that you seek to Christianize them. This is turning round * Babylon and Infidelity Foredoonmed. with a vengeance; but it is so every where. Oh, my Isabella, how the sons of God are intermarrying with the daughters of men! Every where some evil spirit is seeking alliance with the Holy Spirit. This is to me an evidence that the Deluge is at hand. Every day I feel more and more alone, and more and more rooted and grounded in the truth. The Lord make me faithful, though it were by the hating of father, and mother, and brother, and my own life. William Hamilton sees this matter as I do, and I found Dr. M- saw the question of liberty as I do: these are the only two concurrences I have had in these broad and general questions since I came to visit you. But I thank God, in other matters of a private and personal kind, I am at one with all the children of God. Oh, out of what a pit the Lord hath brought, me! i ow I abhor my former self and all my former notions! I was an idolater of the understanding and its clear conceptions; of the spirit, the paralyzed, dull, and benighted spirit, with its mysterious dawnings of infinite and everlasting truth, I was no better than a blasphemer. Now the Lord give me grace to bear with those who are what I lately was. This discourse wore me out, and when I came to church I was more fit for a couch and silence; but I sought strength, and, though I could not reach the subject in all its extent-' the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me'-I trust I was able somewhat to put the people on their guard against Satan's temptations, and establish the Church in Christ, their everlasting strength.... "Thursday, 24th... In this record, which I make daily for the comfort and edification of my dear' wife, I desire God to be my witness and constant guide, lest I should at any time consult for the gratification of my own vanity, or warp truth from the great end of His glory: and the comfort of His saint. And may He not suffer the method which I pursue, of personal narrative, to betray me into any egotism or self-preference to the prejudice of holy truth! In the morning our dear friend B. M came to breakfast, bringing (diligent man!) the sheets of the third volume of Bacon with him. He preferred to be with us during worship, and was very much affected, as I judge, by our simple service. We read that sublime evaluation of wisdom in the Book of Job (xxviii.), which was so appropriate to our dear friend's mind, though it came in course, and I was so stupid and dull, or overawed by his presence, as not to be able personally to apply it. Dearest Isabella, what a passage of Holy Writ that is! What a climax of sublimity, ranging through the profound mysteries of the bowels of the. earth, and the knowledge of man and all his most valuable possessions, and through the earth and the hoary deep, and through death and the grave, till at length he finds it in the simplicity of spiritual truth:'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and to depart from evil, that is understanding.' It is equaled by the nineteenth chapter, which is in the pathetic what the other is in the sublime; expressing the uttermost dejection and desolation, and from the depths of it all piercing through gloomy time, and hoary ruin and waste, to the resurrection, when he should meet the Redeemer fromn all these troubles, and stand before Him in immortal being. My dear companion of thought, meditate these two chapters of inspiration; they will repay you well. "The four German missionaries came in during prayer, and I think I had a spirit of supplication granted to me in interceding for their sakes. We had sweet discourse during breakfast. I think our dear friend is melting into sweeter moods, and overcoming himself not a little. I trust, by the grace of God, to see him a disciple of the Lord, humble and meek. His manner to me is utterly changed, permitting me to follow my own manner of discourse in things spiritual and divine. When breakfast was finished, I left him and James together, and brought the missionaries into the library, for they came to take leave. Then I opened to them the condition of the world as presented to us in the prophecy, and the hopes to which they had to look forward; of the falling'of the cities of the nations,' that is, the superstitions of the world. Then, as their constant encouragement, I read them the seventeenth chapter of John: their Lord's intercession for their sakes, which now He hath power also to accomplish, if they have faith in him. Oh, Isabella, it seemed to me a rich reward of all their labors that they would be brought to a nearer acquaintance with these most precious apostolic consolations, the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th chapters of John. Then I recounted to them my own missionary success in London, the hinderances of Satan, the enmities of my countrymen and their evil reports, the enemies in this place, and whatever else was raised up against me, in order to acquaint them with the wonderful works of God on my behalf, unworthy sinner, headstrong rebel as I am. Then we joined in prayer, and I besought the Lord to be for home and friends, and wisdom and strength to these defenseless sheep, which were about to go forth among wolves. I made them write their names and nativities in my book, chiefly for your eyes, seeing you are not permitted to see them before they go. I do again pray the Lord to be their guide and their prosperity. "By this time the mourning coach had arrived to carry me to the funeral of my beloved son in the Gospel, which took up, by Clerkenwell church, a Mr. T, who, with his wife, are hearers in my church; with whom also I returned, and was enabled to speak clearly to his soul, without any shamefacedness, and, I trust, with pastoral love and fidelity. The truth drew tears from his eyes; whether the Lord may bless it to his spirit, He who is wise will witness. When we arrived there were several assembled of her trusty friends and nearest kindred, and among others Mr. A-, the counselor. He began to remind me, in a voice little apt to mourning, or -mindful of the Sacredness of the house of mourning, that the last time we had met was at the house of feasting, dining with the lords at the Old Bailey; upon which I felt it my duty, in order to overawe worldly intrusions, to take up that word, and say that my friend had reminded me of our last meeting at the house of feasting, and that, as it would have been thought very indecorous then to have obtruded the face or feeling of sorrow, so this house of sorrow and death had also its rights, which did not bear with the conversation of lively (minds) and worldliness; but with humble moods and downcast spirits, and mourning before the Lord, and other afflictive conditions of the soul; and when it was a Christian who was taken, and from Christians that he was taken, there should shine upon the troubled waters a gleam of light, and a hope of glory, and thankfulness, and joy: the joy of grief that he had escaped the troublous and chastening deep. This led to discourse that was profitable.... Poor William wept very sore, but always sorest when I mingled religious warnings to him and counsels; then he turned his face and his eyes to me, as we walked together in the church-yard, and wept without restraint, as if he had said, Oh, forsake me not, forsake me not! And I will not forsake thee, my orphan boy, God not forsaking me. It drizzled and rained; several of the congregation were waiting there, to walk behind the company; and when he was lowered into the grave, I stood forth to declare the conquest of death and the grace of God in the faith of our brother, and exhorted the people to be of a good and constant faith, after which we prayed and departed to our homes and occupations, I trust not without motions of the Holy Spirit to a better life. Then applying myself to study what short interval was left me, I proceeded to Bedford Square... On my way I called at Mr. H's, and found the old man growing worse; but he would not see me. That is very remarkable. I gather that he sees his partner. Dare he not bear my probe? It is wont to be very gentle; but she is a saint growing fast... "Friday, 25th November. This morning I arose rather worn and weary..... I have all day experienced that trial which many have continually, of a troublous body, but am better now at night. This condition of my body and mind was not relieved by many interruptions, while I had upon me the weight of two discourses. First, Mr. Hamilton bringing me the tidings of Mr. HI -'s illness; then Mr. Whyte, who called by appointment; then Mr. Dinwiddie posting with the same account of Mr. IIH —. I would they would help me, not beat me up as if I were slothful, when my poor soul is like to languish with too much exertion. But formality, formality, thou art man's scourge! and thou, spirit of truth and duty, thou art man's comforter! My elders have a nice idea of things being rightly managed; I wish they had the spirit of it; and I think that also is growing. Then came Miss D —- with the same tidings; and though I was in the midst of weakness with such a load on my mind, I went my ways with my papers in my pocket, having to meet Mr. W —- at Mr. Dinwiddie's at dinner. I found Mr. H —-- shut himself up from my visits, although he saw both his medical man and his mercantile partner. I pray the Lord to be his Shepherd and comfort in my stead; and we prayed in the adjoining room, and afterward I came down stairs to study, being purposed to wait as long as I could. Toward four Mrs. HI- came to me; and we had much discourse with one another. She told me of the saintly character of her father, and of Mr. H —'s grandfather.... Why are there no such saints in Scotland now? Because their wine is mingled with water-their food is debased. It will nourish men no longer, but dwarflings. Oh, Scotland! oh, Scotland! how I groan over thee, thou, and thy children, and thy poverty-stricken Church! Thy Humes are thy Knoxes, thy Thomsons are thy Melvilles, thy public dinners are thy sacraments, and the speeches which attend them are the ministrations of their idol. And the misfortune, dearest, is that the scale is falling everywhere in proportion, ministers and people, cities and lonely places, so that it is like going into the Shetland Islands, where, though you have the same plants, they are all dwarfed, and the very animals dwarfed, and the men also. So valuable is pure unadulterated doctrine; so valuable is pure faithful preaching; so valuable is simple faith, and a single eye to the glory of God. How well the state of our Church, nay, of the Christian Church in general, is described by the account of the Laodicean Church. It almost tempts me to think more of the idea that these seven Churches are emblems of the seven ages of the Christian Church, to the last of which men are now arrived. My dear, if this is to be reformed, if it is to be withstood, and I have faith to undertake it, I think I must stand alone, for I can get no sympathy among my brethren. Dr. Gordon even has not had this revealed to him; and for Dr. Chalmers, he is immersed in civil polity and political economy, a kind of purse-keeper to the Church Apostolic. And for Andrew Thomson, he is a gladiator of the intellect, his weapons being never spiritual, but intellectual merely, and these of an inferior order —nothing equal to those that are in the field against him. Of these things I am calmly convinced; for these things I am truly troubled; and to be helpful to the removal of these things, I pray God for strength continually. You must be a help-meet for me in this matter as in other matters, and, I pray you, for that as well as for your own blessedness, seek the purity of the faith, the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. So I counseled dear Mrs. H —, when she looked out from those eyes so full of sorrow, so full of doubt, so full of supplication, and gave me her cold hand again and again, and often asking that I would remember them in my prayer. "I walked melancholy enough along Burton Crescent to see the church for the second time, which is now up to the level of the first windows-indeed above it; and in front the yellow stones are showing themselves above the ground, and when it is finished I doubt not it will be a seemly building. But may the Lord fill it with the glory of His own spiritual presence, and endow me with gifts to watch over the thousands who are to assemble therein! or raise up some other more worthy, and take me to His rest. Ah! how formality hath worn out the excellent faculties of the females at Burton Crescent, and the continual longing for that state and rank whence they have fallen! Oh, how thou dost skillfully take thy game, thou spirit of delusion! O Lord, deliver Thou their feet out of the net, I do humbly pray Thee; and give me grace to be found faithful in this city of the dead. After dinner I opened my mouth to them all-Mr. Woodrow, Hamilton, Virtue, Aitchison-expounding to them the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and the withered trunk of form, ceremony, and mnere doctrine which remained when He was gone; illustrating it by all things in which there was once a spirit of holiness, and which, during the last century, the most unspiritual, I think, we ever have had, faded away out of every thing, whereby we are become these meagre skeletons of saints and ministers which I lamented over. They had nothing to say in reply, and, if I might judge, were a good deal impressed with what I had testified. The Lord give it fruit! Mr. Woodrow and I came away at eight o'clock, and I bore him company through Russell Square. I think he is likely to be elected,* but it is by no means certain yet. The elders have been telling him that he must be more plain, as they are plain people; that is, he must not leave their beaten track; and that he must be shorter; that is, not interrupt their family arrangements of dinner, etc.; and that he must be more explicit in discourse, in order to gratify their desire of mere fragments of knowledge, instead of receiving the living continuity of spirit and soul which a discourse ought to be. Oh, that cutting of truth into bits is like dividing the body into fragments! death, death unto it! The truth should breathe continuous; the spirit of truth should inspire every member of a discourse, instead of our having it in those cold, lifeless limbs of abstract intellectual proportions. How your father would laugh at this! Nevertheless, tell him it is truth, though ill-expressed in my present feebleness of conception. I told Woodrow if he yielded a scruple of his ministerial liberty I would call him brother no more, but impeach him of treason to the Great Prophet. Nevertheless, I encouraged him to be of good cheer, for he was a little cast down. I came home by Mr. HI-'s, and found him as I had left him; but saw her not-only comforted poor Agnes, whom I met in the passage. Miss W.- came to prayers, and I trust the Lord was with us. The greater part of the afternoon I devoted to your ear, Tibby, which is to me more sweet audience than the ear of princes or of learned men. Fare thee well! "Saturday, 26th November. Yesterday and yesternight, dearest wife, I had many thoughts of our departed son, our first-born, and I was able to use David's words in the Psalm of that night,'Thy * As minister of one of the Scotch churches in London.  judgments, O Lord, are just, and in righteousness hast thou afflicted me.' My dreams brought you and little Margaret before me, and I said, Dear Isabella, it is little Edward; and was not undeceived till I saw her small black eyes instead of his full-orbed blue, whose loving kindness was so dear to me even in death. But my dreams withal were very pleasant, and not afflicted with evil suggestions. This morning I have arisen fresh and lively, and have already nearly finished my discourses; and now, at three o'clock, am hastening to cover this sheet with sweet thoughts for your dear mind, that you may receive it before leaving Fife. Mr. H_- is no more in this world. He died about eleven o'clock, and I have now a letter from dear Agnes. May the Lord comfort the widow and the fatherless. I think I shall have time, after finishing this, to hasten down, though it were but for a few minutes. Oh, Isabella! put nothing off, my dearest, put nothing off; have nothing to do, have all besought, have all believed, have all done, and live quietly unto eternity! Say so to your dear father and mother, and all the family. We know not what a day may bring forth. If you be languid, then cry for help; if you be under bondage, cry for deliverance; and abide believing, abide believing, opening your heart to the admonitions of the Holy One, your ear to admonitions of every faithful one. Turn aside from lies, from flattery, from vanity and folly. Be earnest, be grave always ready. There will be no folly, nor laughter, nor bedimming of truth with false appearances, nor masquerading, in eternity. But I return. After prayer, in which I seek the spirit of prayer above all requests, for my soul wanders, there is an under-current of feeling, and even of thinking. It is very amazing we can speak to God so, and not to any mortal. I am oft to seek for an answer to man when I am thinking of another matter; but I dare speak to God, though I am thinking of another matter. Oh! what is this, my dear Isabella? It is very lamentable, and I lament it very much. The Lord doth not hear us because we ask amiss. Now, my dear wife, make it for yourself and myself a constant prayer that we may have the spirit of prayer and supplication bestowed upon us; rather pause to recover the soul, than hurry on in a stream of words. I take it this must be still more felt by those who use forms, and that this is one of the chief advantages of the disuse of forms; but no means will charm forth the evil heart of unbelief. He only who hath all power in heaven and earth is able-our Savior and our Lord. Now I had almost forgotten that this is the day before your communion. It is stormy here, may it be quiet with you; and to the saints may it be a day of much refreshment!.. "Now, with respect to your journey, if you set out on Thursday, you must not go farther than Dumfries that week; and then open your mind to Margaret and James Fergusson concerning the things of the Spirit. Be not filled with apprehensions about baby. The Lord will prove your shield and hers. There is nothing will interest you till you come to the edge of my Dumfriesshire.... After you go through Thornhill you pass the Campbell Water.. Then, as you come to the Shepherd's bar, you are upon Allan Cunningham's calf-ground, and in the midst of a scene worthy of the Trosachs..... Within four miles of Dumfries you pass through a village. That village my uncle Bryce founded for the people at the time of the French Revolution, when he wrote a book on Peace, seeing well that the spirit of anarchy was out; and a half mile farther on you will see Holywood Manse, a bowshot from the road, and the church, where my uncle and aunt lie side by side.... Now, for the rest, you will find a letter waiting for you at Dumfries.... The Lord guard you on your journey, and temper the blast to the little darling.... It is now past four, and I hasten to salute Mrs. H-I, widow, with the blessing of her husband, and the children, orphans, with the blessing of their father. Be at peace, full of faith and blessedness! " Saturday, 26th November. After putting your letter in the postoffice, and still without any uplifting of the soul that it might be safely conveyed to you, and arrive in good season (so doth custom eat out piety), I went directly to the HI-'s; Mrs. Hl — the most composed, being manifestly full of faith, and by faith supported; and I felt moved with much fellow-feeling. She spoke of his kindness to all —of his charity to the poor-of his constant cheerfulness in a most perplexing and tried life-of his faith in Christ, though it had little outward appearance-of all which I was well pleased to hear. We then went up stairs, and, having assembled the family, I sought to apply to them the 130th Psalm and the 4th and 5th of 1st Thessalonians, showing them that tae only hope was in Christ Jesus' either for themselves or the departed. Then I proceeded to Mr. W-, and received Mr. Bell's instructions for you. The place is Bossal, near York.... You must go to the George Inn, York, which is the posting-house, and take a post-chaise to the house, where you are expected with much delight; and may it be delightful to us all. Mrs. W —-- is better. We had very sweet discourse, in which I was enabled to maintain faithfully the truth-I fear, not so much in the love of it as I could desire. And, oh! I am pressed with the desire of nearer communion to the divine throne! There is something in my spirit very paralytic there. Oh that I could pray unto the Lord-even with what affection I write these letters! I do earnestly pray the Lord to take the veil off my heart, and I believe in good time He will.... Now I go to seek the Lord in secret for us all. Farewell! " Sunday, 27th November. I have reason to bless the Lord, my dear Isabella, for His strengthening and encouraging presence this day, both in the ministry of the Word and of prayer, which I receive as His wonderful patience with my unworthiness, and as a sign that IHIis hand is toward me for good. In the morning prayer I was better able to abstract my soul from under-thoughts, and to stand with my people before the Lord. I have been led to think more concerning that under-current of thought during prayer, and I perceived it to be owing to our infidelity. The living and true God, with His acts and attributes, is not present to our spirit, but our own ideas of Him, and customs of discourse, which the mind presents while thinking of other things, as it doth in many other cases..... Therefore it is the awe of God's presence -the reality of His presence-by which the soul is to be cured of this evil —this heinous evil. It is the feeling of this want which has introduced pictures and statues among the Catholics, and I take it to be the same which makes the Episcopalian attached to forms. But nothing will do, dear, but His own presence-the presence of His own invisible Spirit in our hearts, crying unto our Father which is in heaven. Prayer, my dearest, is the complaint of the Holy Spirit under His incarnation in our hearts. Our chapter in the morning was the 5th of Hebrews, comprehending Christ's priesthood. But I find I have not strength for unfolding these high matters. My beloved, fare thee well! My baby, the blessing of the Lord upon thee! " In considering the priestly office of Christ, be at pains to separate it from the prophetic..... My discourse was on justification by faith alone.... And I concluded with exhortations to humility, and an abiding sense of the Savior's righteousness, and of our own wickedness, and of a new principle derived from the former which should be generative of a set of works truly good, truly holy, truly blessed. In the evening I read the sweet and picturesque account of Isaac's courting, and took occasion to press the fidelity of the servant in all points, and to point out the verisimilitude which the narrative bore with the manners of the ages nearest to those times. I discoursed concerning the duty of the Church to their ministers in respect to support, yet handling the subject largely and widely, with the view of demonstrating the total disproportion between moral and spiritual services and pecuniary rewards-showing them my favorite maxim, that money is the universal falsehood and the universal corruption when we use it for discharging obligations contracted by spiritual or moral services. For example, if you think the wage discharges you of your obligation to Mary, you are deceived out of so much spiritual feeling as should have repaid her, and corrupted into a worldling; and so if Mary were to think her obligations discharged by works; and so of all giving of gifts to express sentiments. They do express the sentiment, but discharge it they can never. This was a very fertile topic of discourse, and full of warning to the worldly people. There were very large congregations to hear, and I trust they were edified. Our service extended to three hours in the morning, and two hours and a half in the evening, and I find i can not relax....' Monday, 28th. This morning Sottomayor the soldier was with us, and James and I, partly of charity, partly of veneration to the old Spanish character and literature, have agreed to take lessons in Spanish at seven every morning, which will curtail this letter. So we have provided us in Bibles, with which we are to begin, and afterward we shall read Don Quixote.... Then there came Mr. M:- to read with me the Greek Testament, and we gave ourselves to the 6th chapter, which I will open to you in some other place. I think the Lord, by the help of Father Simon, hath enabled me to understand it. Oh, I thank God for the change upon that young man! Even P-, who is very judicious, and was with him an hour alone, could discern in him no superciliousness nor conceit. He is very docile, and is to come every Monday for'an hour or two. I hope to do for him what others have done for me... "Tuesday, 29th. Last night I endured the temptation of many evil thoughts and imaginations, which the good Spirit of God enabled me to overcome, although it was a great trouble and vexation to my soul.... Such an almighty and infinite work is the sanctification of the soul! Our Lord hath said,'Satan cometh and findeth nothing in me.' Alas! how otherwise with us! The Holy Spirit cometh and findeth nothing in us!... What a work is the sanctification of a soul! It is second only to its redemption; and to:that second only irin place and order, not in degree. In the morning we started at seven o'clock to the Book of Samuel, and made out one chapter with Giuseppe Sottomayor, who commends himself more and more to my esteem as a man of true principle and piety. I think the work of conviction goes on in his mind. He breakfasted and worshiped with us; after which I came to my study, and did not rise, except to snatch a portion of, dinner, till five o'clock. In that time I did little else than study' a chapter in the Hebrew Bible, and read Poole's Synopsis upon it, which is written in Latin, with abundant Hebrew and Greek quotations, that occupy me well-insomuch that, if my time will allow, I purpose doing the same daily. For I fell in with a dictionary, which I can consider little else than a providential gift, in two handy little quarto volumes-a Latin dictionary, which renders the word into Hebrew, Greek, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, so that it is to me a continual assistance of the memory, besides affording a perpetual delight in tracing the diversity and analogy of languages, in which I had always great pleasure... During my solitary study I received two sweet interruptions -one in the shape of a messenger from a far country, coming from one dear to you, but dearer to me, and who loves me too well to love herself well. Now, who is that? and who is that messenger? A riddle which I take you to resolve.... The messenger was from yourself, in the shape of a letter, laying out your plans of travel, and making merry with my scheme. Now Kant's Metaphysics was not in my mind, but that better authority, the road-book; for you must know that, setting off on Monday morning, I can be in York, you at Bossal, to breakfast on Tuesday..... So that you see there is neither Kantian negation of space and time, nor the wings of love, in the matter, but simple, prosaic, stage-coach locomotion.... Being so far, I went on to Bedford Square.... But there is no getting a spiritual discourse maintained: you can but set it forth in intellectual parables, which are nothing so efficient as the parables for the sense which our Lord was accustomed to use. But, dearest, we must either speak in parables to the world, or we must be silent, or we must present a wry and deceptive form of truth, or we must cast our pearls before swine, of which choice the first is to be preferred, and our Lord therefore adopted it; because a parable is truth veiled, not truth dismembered; and as the eye of the understanding grows more piercing, the veil is seen through, and the truth stands revealed. Now parables are infinite; besides those to the imagination, they are to the intellect in the way of argument, to the heart in the way of tender expression and action, and to the eye in the way of a pure and virtuous carriage. And the whole visible demonstration of Christian life is, as it were, an allegorical way of preaching truth to the eyes of the world, whether it be wisdom in discourse, or charity in feeling, or holiness in action. But I wander. I returned home about seven, and addressed myself to write my action sermon,* but found myself too fatigued to conceive or express aught worthy of the subject-' Do this in remembrance of me' —and I know not whether any thing may be yielded to me this night worthy of it.... I trust our meeting may be blessed to add gifts to us mutually. I am truly happy to anticipate it so much sooner. "You are now among my dear kindred, who I know will be very kind to you, for your own sake and for mine. I owe them all a great debt of love and affection, which I shall never be able to repay. I look to you to drop seasonable words into their ears, especially concerning their salvation and their little ones; for nothing is so fatal to Scotland as lethargy. I trust they are not nominal Christians, but I would fain have deeper convictions of so important a matter. I pray you not to yield any thing to your natural kindness at the expense of your health and risk of the infant, but in all things, as before the Lord, to take the steps which you judge the best, looking to His blessing. To this also I charge you by your love and obedience to me. This day is very fine. I hope you are on your journey; and I earnestly pray you may travel as Abraham did, at every resting-place setting up an altar to God in your heart. We remember you night and morning in our prayers, and I trust that the Lord will graciously hear us. At Annan I have nothing for you to say particularly but to assure them of my most dutiful love and constant prayers, and to entreat them not to slumber..... The Lord bring you in safety to my bosom and to your home. I know you will care for Mary in every thing as one of the family, and bound to us by many acts of faithfulness and love. * The name usually given in Scotland to the sermon preached before the communion. "Wednesday, 30th November. My dear Isabella, I am daily loaded with the tokens of the Lord's goodness, which I regard with the more wonder and gratitude, as I have been this week more than ordinarily tried with inward trials; and to receive tokens of love from a friend when we are wavering in our fealty is also always very full of rebuke. But I have withstood Satan according to my ability, and he hath not been allowed to prevail over me, nor will, I trust, by the continuance of unfailing prayers.... So you see, my dear, what tokens I have of the Lord's blessing: there are not fewer than thirty-five who have come seeking to be joined to the Church at this time; and no' other season have I observed the same zeal, and intelligence, and faith. Oh that the Lord, for their sakes, would furnish me with good!'I lament much that so few of the Scotch youths are drawn. I think there is not much above one'third Scotchmen. I trust the Lord will draw near to them. I think they can hardly fail either to leave the congregation altogether, or to join the Church, my preaching has been of late so separating.... This letter will reach you at Annan, where, individually and collectively, I pray my dutiful affection and ministerial blessing to be given by you. Farewell! and may the Lord be your shade to-morrow in your journey southward! "Thursday, 1st December. The beginning of a new month, my dearest, wherein let us stir up our souls to more lively faith in these great and precious promises which we inherit from the death of our Lord, which you have so lately, and which we are so soon about to commemorate. I look back upon the last month as one in which I have had various experiences of good and evil-encouragements beyond all former experience, and trials of Satan proportioned thereto.... I have had many revelations, and beckonings, and overtures to enter into the temple's inmost place, which I shall yet do, if the Lord permit. If I allowed anxiety to prey upon me, I would now be anxious for you and the child, having seen by the papers that so much snow is fallen in the North. But the Lord, who sendeth His ice as morsels, and giveth the snow like wool, and scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes, will not let it alight upon you without good and gracious ends, for the very hairs of your head are numbered. I have had a good deal of conversation this night with Mr. Hunter, who is returned from the North, concerning the comparative fatigue and comfort of posting and traveling by the mail, and he says for both reasons, but especially for less exposure to the cold, the mail is to be preferred. Take wise counsel in the matter. I had a very pleasant call this morning from Mr. W, desiring, by conversation with me, to express his forgiveness of his friend, and to purge himself of all malice and revenge before bringing his gift to the altar... After he was gone I sought to continue my discourse, and, when I had laid down my pen to enter upon my Hebrew studies, I was interrupted by the call of a young lady, who had stolen to me, having heard me preach, and thinking me likely to listen to her. I thought the struggle between shamefacedness and fear on the one hand, and her desire of counsel on the other, would have wholly overpowered her. I found she had been taught of the Spirit without knowing it, and, when I taught her by the Word, it was sweet to witness the response of her soul pronouncing the Amen,' That I know," That I feel is true.' She is one in a family, and the rest have no fellowship with her.. "A proof-sheet occupied me till dinner, and after dinner I read the Roman History till toward six, when I had to meet my young communicants, to introduce them to the session. There was a goodly number of them present, to whom I addressed a word of instruction concerning the infinite honor to which they were admitted, and the duties which devolved upon them in their Christian calling..... I had received a letter from Andrew P. —-, desiring that his mother might be remembered in our prayers as one looking for death. This moved me to go and see the afflicted servant of Christ, whom I found brought very low, and not likely to recover again, her children rejoicing in her joy, and content to part with her to the joy of her Lord. So the arrows of the Lord are flying on all sides of us. This made it past eleven when I got home, and I found Mr. Murray sitting to inform me that he was about to become'a Benedict,' which means blessed-which means a: husband. I wish them all happiness. And so was I hindered from fulfilling this duty, being overladen with sleep and worn out with labor... "Friday, 2d December. This morning, dearest, I felt, when called at seven, the effects of yesterday's labor, and was not able to arise from headache, which I durst not brave, having such a weight of thought and action before me; therefore I lay still, endeavoring to sleep it off, and rose not till half past nine, when, descending quietly, I sought to get to work without interruption, and, thank God, have made out a good day's work, being well-nigh finished with my action sermon; and, for the rest, I am very much disposed to depend upon the Spirit to give me utterance; for to-morrow, all the morning I have to be helpful to Mrs. H —, and the evening I have to preach to the people. After working with my pen, I took an interlude of history, walking in the garden, when my thoughts are fullest of our darling. But, indeed, I know not how it is, I think the last two or three days I have been thinking of him too much, and last night I dreamed he was in life, and, though drooping like a flower, giving hope of health again. He was on your knee, and I thought I caught the first sign of hope to seize him and carry him into the fresh air, when it all vanished before me into the sad reality. Then I addressed myself to my Hebrew studies, at which I continued till I went forth to minister comfort to Mrs. H --—'s family, with whom I worshiped, opening to them that Psalm of divine sorrow (the xlii.) where the Psalmist, in all his sorrows, sees nothing to lament but his distance and separation from the house of God and the communion of His people. I came back at half past eight, having several appointments with those who had not spoken to me in time, yet sought with earnestness to approach the table of the Lord. And now, more briefly and less feelingly and spiritually than I would have desired, have I set forth to you the incidents of Thursday, which to my soul hath been a day of consolation. Oh that the Lord would break these bands of sleep-these heavy eyelids of drowsiness, my beloved wife, and awake us to the full vision of the truth and possession of the things of faith! You are now, I trust, by the mercy of God, seated beside my most honored parents, to whom I present my dutiful affection, praying the Lord to compass them with His grace; and oh, tell them to press inward to the temple; not to rest, but to press onward. Exhort them from me to have no formality. Tell them that, until religion cease to be a burden, it is nothing —till prayer cease to be a weariness, it is nothing. However difficult, and however imperfect, the spirit must still rejoice in it, after the inward man.... If I write much longer you will not be able to read, for there is a great combination against mea weary hand, a heavy eye, a pen worn to the quick, a dull mind, and a late hour, and a day before me of much occupation. Therefore, farewell to all that are with you, and to all with whom you abide! " Saturday. I thought, my dearest, to have finished this before the post, but have been taken up all the morning, till two o'clock, doing the last duties to our beloved friend M. H ——; and having to preach to-night, I rather choose to take up the only hour that is left me in meditation for so many souls. The Lord bless you, and the house in which you dwell! I trust in the grace of God to sustain me to-morrow, and to give you a good journey. "The Lord bless my father's house. " Your affectionate husband, EDWARD IRVING. "If you take the mail from Carlisle, you should take it only to Kattrick Bridge, or perhaps a stage farther. I think it is but eighteen miles from Kattrick Bridge, and the landlord seemed to me a very pleasant old man. If the time of leaving Carlisle be too soon, you could perhaps go on a stage or two the night before. The Lord direct you in all things. "Forget not the shoes —I care not how many pairs, only pay for them; for my mother will always make herself a beggar for her children." Thus concludes a journal which, perhaps, has no parallel in modern days. A picture so minute, yet so broad-a self-revelation so entire-a witness so wonderful of that household love, deepened by mutual suffering and sorrow, which so far transcends in its gravity and soberness the more voluble passions of youth, has never, so far as I am aware, been given' to the world. It is not wonderful that over the vicissitudes of more than a quarter of a century, the scattered remnants of the family, once admitted, even in part, to the secret soul of such a man, should remember these letters with a certain tearful exultation, the traces of the departed glory; nor that the wife, to whom all were addressed, should have cherished them to the last as too sacred for common sight. This is the first and only journal of Irving's life. On various occasions afterward he was separated from his wife for considerable periods, but never again produced any thing like the affecting history, at which he labored day by day and hour by hour, to cheer the mother of his dead baby, as she lay, weak and sorrowful, in the faintest hour of a woman's life, in the sad, affectionate shelter of her father's house. Few men or heroes have been laid in their grave with such a memorial as envelops the baby name of little Edward, and I think few wives will read this record without envying Isabella Irving that hour of her anguish and consolation