from the anvil, and the awl, and the counter, and the hovel, to whom God has given grace, and who wait only for means to become the precursors of Millenial glory? The church must look to the Cottages of the poor for the greater portion of her future Missionaries and Pastors. You will forgive these remarks. I will endeavour to lay my hand upon some documents, which shall inform you of the measures we are adopting, with a view to this momentous subject. I am convinced the plans are wise, and will prove efficient, and may perhaps be thought of by our brethren on the other side the water. No ordinary exertions can compass the end. Something must be done hitherto unattempted, or the Church is to see ages of mourning.

Your favour contains an intimation on the subject of "Revivals of religion," which imposes a duty on me I am not competent to discharge. There is no doubt of the reality of these seasons of mercy. It is no uncommon fact for congregations to be visited with very general effusions of the Holy Spirit, so that the result is the hopeful conversion of from 50 to 150 in the course of three, or six months. When I say hopeful conver siou, I mean such a turning from darkness to light, from sin and Satan unto God, as is evinced by a subsequent life of visible holiness.

The public instructions that have been evidently owned of God to produce these revivals, have been those that have dwelt more on the duties than the comforts of piety; more on the immediate duties of sinners, than the sorrows and complaints of God's own people. Congregations that have been favoured with the peculiar smile of Heaven, have been well indoctrinated in the principles of the Christian faith; the infinite majesty and holiness of God; the spirituality, extent, and obligation of the Divine law; the exceeding sinfulness of sin; the total depravity of the human heart; the necessity of regeneration, by the mighty power of God; of justification, not by works, but freely by the grace of God, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; the indispensable necessity of an interest in atoning blood, aud of that holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord; are truths which have been often brought into view, and strongly urged. If I were to particularize still more minutely, I should say, that the sovereignty of God in the allotments of the righteous and the wicked, the disinterested nature of true religion, in opposition to the spurious piety of the supremely selfish heart, and

the present unalterable weighty obliga tions of wicked men to become holy, enter into the most of that course of public instruction which has been so eminently useful. It has been almost uniformly found, that truths the most unwelcome and humbling to the carnal mind, are the truths which in the bands of the Divine Spirit, have done the most execution. Men who are dead in sin have evidently felt the difference be tween being treated as mere machines, and as moral agents; between being addressed as beings, whose only duty was to be passive recipients of Divine grace, and to wait till they received it, and as men who were bound to repent and believe the gospel independently of the grace of God; and who, if they neg lected this momentous duty, must be eternally damned for neglecting it. So far as it regards the agency of means, it has appeared to me that the grand secret has been so to preach, as to make the ungodly feel the tremendous weight of obligation; to seize and hold their con sciences by the thought that they are bound, irresistibly bound, to become holy. Nor is this strange, for it is in this one thought that all the weight of a moral government consists. You might perhaps suppose from what I have said, that I have left out of view the agency of the Holy Spirit in these conversions; or, at least, that I am disposed to place too great a reliance on human instru mentality. Let me not be misunderstood. Perhaps no conviction is deeper on the minds of Christian ministers and Chris. tian people, in such seasons of refreshing, than that the work is all of God. The chief means which are attended with a blessing, therefore, appear to be the spirit of prayer among Christians. In deed, in the instances which have come to my knowledge, revivals of religion have begun with the people of God. They have been deeply impressed with a view of their apathy and declension; deeply impressed with the awful condition of ungodly men: this has led them into their closets: this has led them to multiply their meetings for conference and prayer; and with an exclusive view to the outpouring of the Divine Spirit upon themselves and sinners around them; to pray for this blessing, not as a matter of course, but as a particular, distinct, and most desirable object. Evenings are set apart for this object; the church is divided, male and female, into little associations for prayer; days of prayer and fasting are also devoted to this blessed employ. ment; and with how much sweetness

Zion's sake they will not hold their peace. Most deeply do they feel that Divine power and grace must be engaged in behalf of bis sinking cause: and I need not say, that if Christians persevere in this spirit; if they are not weary; if they wrestle till break of day, and will not let the angel of the covenant go, until he bless them that he is faithful who hath promised." No, I never knew, I never heard of such a spirit without multitudes turning to the Lord."

It is not to be denied, that in some, though a very few of our revivals, there has appeared something of extravagance. But it has been owing to the ignorance of the people, or the want of Christian wisdom in the minister. Almost universally the subjects, though not without great power of feeling, have been free from the appearance of wildness and enthusiasm. The seasons of worship are sacredly still and not tumultuously violent. The speechless agony of multitudes who have been brought to see their sinfulness, and danger, and duty, has been more the effect of truth, bearing down upon the conscience, than that transient and violent emotion, excited by natural fear and cherished by animal feeling.

It is with great diffidence, my dear Sir, after these general remarks, that I venture to give, without descending to minute detail, a brief narrative of what God has been pleased to do in my own congregation. I have abundant reason to be Thankful and humble that he has been so kind to the people of my vows, and to so unworthy an instrument as he has been pleased to make use of in the ministry of his dear Son.

God has favoured us for a number of years. We have not often been without very considerable attention among our people. Several times antecedent to our revival, the cloud seemed to linger in our sky, and leave a few drops of mercy. During the year 1816 the day spring from on high visited us. Seven months of the year proved the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. At our quarterly church prayer meeting, previous to our communion in September 1815, I well recollect there were some tokens for good. These however apparently subsided, and the month of November was a season of increased and alarming stupidity. But blessed be the God of grace and power, it was when we saw that the waters

A Saturday evening prayer-meeting, which had been established for more than two years, for the special purpose of imploring the effusion of the Holy Spirit, and composed chiefly of young men, began to be deeply affected with a view of our stupid and desolate state, and to beg the Lord to arise and plead his own cause. In the mean time, the people of God, throughout the church, began to be encouraged. Very many believed that the Lord was near. Our Sabbaths began to be more solemn; our weekly lecture to exhihit symptoms of still greater solemnity; and particularly a weekly exercise of young people, who had been in the habit of assembling as a kind of theological class, began to be unusually serious. Nothing, however, of a very marked character appeared, till a prayermeeting, held on the morning of the new year, 1816. It was a meeting for the express purpose of entreating the Father of Lights to appear in his glory, and bless the year. And God was with us of a truth. It was a season of great nearness to the mercy-seat. It was the time of Jacob's trouble, but it was the time of his relief. Those who were present, then entered into a solemn and public engage ment with God, and each other, to be more holy, more watchful, more prayer. ful; and particularly did they engage to meet each other at the throne of grace, at two o'clock every Lord's-day, each in his own closet, to wrestle with the hearer of prayer for the out-pouring of his Spirit. It is worthy of being recorded, that God appeared to smile upon this solemnity, and was pleased, I had almost said, to seal it with his visible presence. No sooner was this engagé ment formed, than every eye was suf fused with tears, and every heart animated with hope. The glory of the Lord filled the house. From this hour we expected an out-pouring of God's Holy Spirit. The spirit of prayer began to increase, and faith to fasten on the promises of him that cannot lie. I can truly say, that we had never before felt the import of that life-giving sentence, "Oh thou that hearest prayer." Soon after this we began to hear of several instances, in which former inpressions, that had been effaced from the minds of the impenitent, were revived. Five or six cases of newly awakened sinners also came to our knowledge. I need not tell you that we had been looking out for this; we were disappointed that we saw

no more. It pleased God, however, to show us that there was an awful weight of guilt upon us as a church. We saw the black cloud that hid the Sun of Righteousness from our view; and it pleased the same God to put it into the hearts of about twenty of our members, privately to set apart a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, to inquire of the 'Lord wherefore he contended with us, and why he withheld the larger manifestations of his presence. It was on the third Thursday of January, a day never to be forgotten, so long as God is to be honoured for the fulness of his mercy. Blessed be his name! there, in a little upper chamber, he manifested himself to us as he does not unto the world, and shewed us why he withheld the brighter manifestations of his glory. The sins of the church and congregation bore with distressing weight upon the meeting; and it was truly a season of humiliation and self-abasement. It was the beginning of days of power. With deep selfabasement, there was also great boldness of access into the holiest of all, by the blood of Jesus, and great confidence that God would not send us away empty : nor was one of our hopes defeated. The promise was verified; " Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." The same evening was to assemble us at a weekly lecture; and what deserves to be mentioned, we separated to convene in our place of worship, with no doubt, with not the least peradventure upon our own minds, that it would be our privilege that very evening, to stand still and see the salvation of God.

Nor did our expectations sustain the least disappointment. "Marvel not that I said unto you, ye must be born again," was the subject; and that very evening did the Lord appear in his glory. No one could account for it, except those who had seen it in that upper chamber, by the eye of faith, but not a child of God could enter the lecture-room, with out feeling that God was there. Never before, perhaps, was the house so full; never so deeply solemn; never was it so clearly seen that the arrows of the King were sharp in the hearts of his enemies. More than one hundred, so far as we can judge, were brought low on that evening. There was a shaking amid the bones of the valley: great fear came upon every soul. The whole assembly was as evidently moved at the presence of the Lord, as the trees of the forest are

VOL. XI.

shaken by a mighty wind. From that period the work assumed a more marked character. God had so evidently taken it into his own hands, that all exclaimed, "This is the finger of God." Our reli gious assemblies now put on the appear. ance, not so much of excitement, as deep and motionless solemnity. We felt it. an early duty to pay particular attention to the young. On the following Sabbath, an evening exercise was appointed exclusively for them, at which about two hundred were present; and from which period, numbers of whom, now hopefully the children of God, date their first impressions. This exercise was deemed of such high promise, that it was repeated. On the second evening the house was filled exclusively with youth; and at the close of the service, upwards of one hundred remained to inquire, What they should do to be saved?

This fact was the means of diffusing the spirit of deep concern over the whole people. It was within ten days of this period, that the solemnity was almost universal. Scarcely a family, or an individual in the congregation, it is be lieved, who did not think seriously of the concerns of the eternal world. God was thus pleased to continue with us until toward Midsummer. Indeed I may say, these showers of mercy were protracted, sometimes in large effusions, and sometimes in gentle droppings, but for the most part soft and still, till the months of August and September. Of the actual subjects of this work of grace, we shall never know till the last day. I have supposed they were more considerably than two hundred. Not unto us, but to thy name, give glory, for thy mercy, and thy truth's sake.

As it respects the present condition of my people, I can also say, I am much encouraged with the hope, that the time is not far distant when I can tell you greater things than these. I am thirtythree years old, and have been nearly nine in the ministry; and shall hope to see better days the longer I live. I have lost time enough, and been sinful enough, to redeem my time now, and grow in grace, as fast as I have heretofore grown in sin. But, alas, my dear brother, this will never be. I hope I shall have your prayers. The night cometh. keep our lamps trimmed, and burning, and count not our lives dear, so that we may finish our course with joy, and the ministry we have received of the Lord Jesus.

3 M

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