will be no strength to bring forth.-Where there is strength, there will be activity. Continual exertion is as indispensably necessary to keep the soul in health as it is for the body. There is no other way to preserve and increase the strength we have already attained or to make any progress in the divine life. Spiritual life and strength are given for this very purpose, that we may always abound in the work of the Lord. Spiritual sloth, if indulged, will infallibly ruin the soul, at least it will speedily ruin all its strength, peace and comfort and instead of the graces of the Spirit, sensual lusts and corruptious will inwardly prevail, aud disorder the whole soul as bad humours the body. The mere form of religion may perhaps be preserved, but all walking and communion with God will be entirely over. To walk with God, there is required a readiness of mind to engage cheerfully in any thing he commands and to follow him whithersoever he leads, whatever obstructions there may be in the way and whatever self-denial may be required.-a willingness to shake off sloth, to part with our own ease and to give up ourselves to God and his work. Indeed a soul that is healthy, vigorous and strong, finds neither comfort nor happiness, but in doing something for God. Though the believer does not enquire what he shall do is sedulous to know what he shall do to glorify him who has graciously and freely saved him.-The way is Christ. It is a new and living way. In him only we meet with God; and as we walk in him, we walk with .God. 66 As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord" says the apostle, "so walk ye in him." We may walk indeed and exert ourselves much; but if we walk not in him, we are after all walking from God and from heaven,

to be saved, yet he

and to eternal misery.-Let me especially remember one thing-That those only who walk in Christ walk with God."

It is not usual in the present day, for people to go far to hear the gospel. A mile or two is considered a great distance. Four or five miles are viewed by many as a sufficient excuse for neglecting a place of worship altogether. This of course is the case only with those who are strangers to spiritual things. But the hunger and thirst for divine blessings are not now so great even in real Christians, as they were in former times. What would we in the present day think of going fifty or sixty miles to hear the gospel preached. Such was the case formerly; as it will appear by the letter we shall next introduce. When the late Rev. DI. Rowland by the mighty powers of his extraordinary eloquence roused some of his countrymen from that lethargy into which the whole country had sunk as to religion, such was the value attached to his preaching and such were the benefits derived from it, that many flocked to hear him from every part of the principality. There were on some Sundays at Llangeitho, the place of his ministry, persons from almost every county in Wales. On sacrament Sundays, which were observed monthly, the multitude assembled was immense, filling an area of about sixteen hundred square yards. The communicants every month were between twelve and fifteen hundred, and sometimes nearly two thousand. Those from great distances could not regularly attend: and therefore all who belonged to the communion never attended at the same time. One or two sermons from this great and good man, it seems, fully satisfied them for the toilsome journey of fifty, sixty, seventy or eighty

miles, (for many of them came on foot) so that they went home rejoicing and often made the hills and valleys echo with their hallelujahs.-These facts sufficiently prove his great talents as a preacher. An aged wellknown clergyman, now resident in England, who has heard the greatest preachers in this country, has often said, 'that he never heard but one Rowland,' meaning thereby that he far excelled all that he had ever had the opportunity of hearing. But we are diverging from our point.-Parties from Bala, about sixty miles or more from Llangeitho, from twenty to thirty in number, some on foot, and some on horseback, were often going there. The lady whom Mr. C. afterwards married, occasionally formed one of the company. The following letter was written to her after her return.

"Dec. 25. I am glad that you returned safe from Llangeitho. Now that you are returned, I am very glad that you have been there. I join you most heartily in wishing I had been there also. The remembrance of the sermons I heard there six or eight years ago, does me more good than any thing I have since heard. When at school at Carmarthen my excursions there in the holidays, twice a year, were more profitable to me than all the sermons I heard in the intervals between. I have therefore every possible reason to think highly of that great and good man of God. It was a great disappointment to me not to hear him last summer: and there is nothing I so ardently long for as seeing him before he dies. I thank you much for the excellent account you have given me of his sermon. I can evidently trace that great man in the outlines you sent. And there is also something of the Llangeitho taste and relish in the second edition given by you. I evi

dently perceive that you have not been there in vain; but that your journey answered the purpose. A spiritual blessing is worth obtaining, were we to go for it on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem."

SECT. VI.-Diary and Letters during 1783 till the month of August of the same year.

There are no thoughts in the Diary on the first day of this year: the only instance of neglect during the time it was written. Intervals of inattention are incident to the most active minds. The most sedulous occasionally let pass unnoticed seasons and opportunities capable of being advantageously improved. This never happens without some loss to the spiritual interest of the soul; as the neglect of attention to any worldly concern is to our worldly advantage. Labour and profit, attention and improvement, are as connected and dependant on each other in spiritual as in temporal things. "The labour of the righteous tendeth to life." "The hand of the diligent maketh rich." Such is our proneness to neglect or forget improveable opportunities, that it is well sometimes to have customs or usages to obtrude them on our attention. case in some parts with respect to new year's day. Divine service is usually had on the occasion. And for several important seasons of the year, particular services are enjoined by our church; which is of no small advantage, being means of conferring great benefits and of preventing that forgetfulness so incident to our depraved minds. We shall begin with the Diary.

"

The good and fruitful ground.

This is the

Jan. 15. That grace may thrive and grow in

our hearts, and that we may abound in all the fruits of the Spirit, it must have full possession of our hearts, it must grow singly there, with no "root of bitterness" growing up with it. Hence in part the church is called "a garden enclosed;" where nothing is permitted to grow but what is planted there for real use, profit and delight. The seed of God's word will not grow together with "cares, pleasures and riches;" but only in a single heart, which is entirely appropriated to it only. It is not the passing of these things through the mind, that prevents the growth and perfection of grace, but their taking root there and growing as in their own proper soil, peculiarly suited to them. "Cares and riches" do often fall in the way of a Christian: and he is sometimes obliged to handle these "thorns" to his great uneasiness. But they must be carefully kept out of the heart, that no such bitter roots may grow there. The thorns and briars exhaust the soil and prevent the influences of the sun. Though the good seed may have taken root and grow, yet it will bring forth no fruit unto perfection there will be only appearances of fruit in the ear, but no real grain. If the cares, or the riches, or the pleasures of the world, no matter which, whether singly or together, are rooted in the heart together with the word, the fruits of the Spirit cannot thrive. Can love, joy, peace, grow with the riches, pleasures and cares of this world? No: they are as different and as opposite to each other as light and darkness. Who has ever yet seen meekness, patience, longsuffering, goodness; gentleness, temperance, &c. growing and thriving with such thorns and briars ?"

"We may have been enlightened and may have tasted of the heavenly gift, the good word of God, and