natural disposition and feelings to be encountered? Look at the two different paths before thee, and consider which thy conscience would best approve?' It appeared to me that if the way be made plain and clear, I ought not to shrink from an arrangement which, although it would bring great obligations, would yet leave me at liberty in the disposal of my time for the good of those who want help and attention. I ought gratefully to feel what a dear friend once expressed, that it is a favour to be employed.' And should what I have felt for St. Giles's lead, through unmerited goodness, to some arrangements for their real help and service, both as to body and mind, how deeply should I feel the claim to thankfulness!

"20th. The way appears opening for the desire of my heart, with respect to finding access to the poor in the most neglected districts. On our first visit there was a degree of coldness among the people, an insensibility and closeness of mind that felt discouraging. In a second visit, yesterday, we were received with much more cordiality than in the first, and felt quite cheered in finding the people seemed better to understand us. One person, who had behaved with peculiar coldness to us last week, was now so much altered in her manner that I did not even remember, till afterwards reminded of it, that it was the same person. She has, I think, been softened by hearing we helped a distressed family near her. Another poor woman, who had been out when we were in the district last week, told us her son, a young man who could read, when he heard what we had been about' was much disappointed that his mother was

not at home, that he might have had a book to read. Thus we were cheered with the hope that even these obscure and unfrequented dwellings might be pervaded with some rays of light, through the channels thus opened before them.

"The principle fixed in my mind is, that the very lowest, and worst, and most untaught parts of society should be subjects of both benevolent and religious care, and that meetings for instruction and tract-distribution should be objects of the first care and attention. Have we not the example of our Redeemer, who came to call sinners to repentance, and declared of the joy in heaven over the conversion of one of these? Is not the injury done to Society at large by one of these, who dwell in the extremes of vice, and foster and generate iniquity, to be regarded as a mortal poison, the effects of which should be arrested as speedily as possible, if we desire to see the body preserved in life and health. I long to see more thought and diligent care in the work of prevention. I long to see the instruction of very little children attended to their moral and religious instruction. The worst of the people should not be considered too far in the dark for Christians to follow. If those who have proved themselves guilty are the subject of Christian pity in prisons, why not try to meet them with the exhortations and warnings of the Gospel, in their obscure dwellings, before the crimes to which they are tempted are committed, and whilst yet there may be hope of the prevention of the crimes which would make their restoration the more difficult and hopeless?

"A letter arrived from a dear friend in Africa. In reading it, I longed to see again Wellington

and the dear children of Sierra-Leone.

But as to

a visit to the coast, unless a very clear view induce it, it must be left for the present, until some duties at home are more fully entered upon; yet even now I believe I could most willingly go for the ensuing dry season, if it clearly appeared to my friends and myself that this would be the right time for going. My mind is favoured with quiet in the belief that Divine Providence is guiding some of us, in infinite mercy, into a path of usefulness towards some of those who most need Christian care, and that He will be pleased to direct us in the way. Oh! that the heart may be turned to Him for daily help!

"I feel sensibly that the acknowledgment is due to Infinite Goodness for the peace with which my mind was favoured yesterday, in the course of our visits. There seemed something over us which I could not but regard as an evidence that the Friend of publicans and sinners' was directing our path. May what shall be entered upon in this cause be done as unto Him!

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Perhaps no more interesting duties will ever call my attention than some which are immediately before me. What a favour it is to have health and comparative quiet of mind to enter upon these engagements! It is now thirty years since my mind was decidedly turned to seek its peace in the redemption that is in Jesus: let fruits now appear more evidently than they have yet done, in dedication of heart and life, and daily breathings of spirit to Him whose holy and beneficent pleasure it is to renew strength to them that have no might.

'9th mo. 3rd. The great Parent of the universe

can prepare for every duty, and but one thing is needful, to dwell as at the Redeemer's feet, and hear His voice, and seek to follow Him. How precious is the quiet which the soul thus favoured is led to feel, even amidst varied and arduous engagements! How infinitely great is the goodness of our Heavenly Father who, unworthy as we are, still condescends tenderly to invite and direct to scenes of duty with the indubitable assurance that He will be with His weak, dependent children in every sincere attempt to pursue the path to which He is pleased to direct.

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The 3rd and 4th were memorable as seasons of great peace, I may say of happiness. Opened on the 4th a map to observe the relative situations of Malacca, Singapore, and New South Wales, and while I sat contemplating the map, rejoiced in the belief that good is going on, through the agency of the pious, in many distant districts to which the English have had access, and longed for the yet more visible increase of truth and righteousness on the earth. Have I not been brought, from happy experience, unworthy as I am, yet to acknowledge that there is nothing of enjoyment in this world, not even in our natural and allowed affections, comparable to the precious feeling of Divine love, the indwelling sense of the goodness of the Lord.

"I have lately read the last accounts from Sierra-Leone of the Church Missionary-Society. It is a grief to see one affectionate labourer after another falling in that colony, and it is to me more evident than ever that they labour beyond what European constitutions can support in that climate; I could not but feel sad in reading the

accounts.

Dear Madelane Gerber was one of those lately removed, and I could not doubt her being fitted for an inheritance more to be desired than this world can present; but for the dear little children and poor uninstructed people to lose their teachers one after another,—this is afflicting. I do not think that preaching three or four times a day can be likely for an European to continue and live. They should have readers to occupy a part of the time, and only have short occasional communications from the minister. Oh! that they could give way to silent feeling at times in their meetings. Where they cannot have native readers the female missionaries might read, and might also give out the hymns, as one did in the Gambia. How much do I desire that they would select such hymns as would not violate the truth when sung by a congregation. This subject should be more fully brought forward. On speaking about it last evening to a Moravian minister, he acknowledged immediately that he had felt this, and that it seemed to him the strongest argument we, as a society, could bring forward against congregational singing; but he quickly added, Might not those hymns be sung which, whilst they make a general acknowledgment of the truth, and may tend to excite good feelings, do not profess individual experience ? I acknowledged that this to me would be a much preferable habit. Yet a sacred regard to truth ought ever to be inculcated; but most of all when assembling for the awful purpose of Divine worship. Alas! the great evil is, that many imagine they have performed Divine worship, when they have uttered certain prayers and professions, without considering whether those