ours, in order to prepare us for looking to the source of strength.

"12th mo. 1st. Africa will, I believe, be ever dear to my heart, and I would pray that no shrinking from danger might interfere with what is called for from me in this injured people's cause. What is that to thee, follow thou me,' may well be said, when anxious reasoning would, in any degree, cloud the path of duty. I do feel indeed that some deeply interesting concerns about home involve my mind at present, yet unless a release from African prospects were clearly proclaimed, I do trust my mind will never be turned from what has so evidently been impressed as a duty-that is, the resignation to go when my friends can see it right for me; and, oh! let me gratefully remember the sweet peace that flowed in my mind when the way was thus prepared for a former visit, and trust in the Lord for whatever shall be before me still.

"Oh! that an appeal on the present general distress could be made to reach the understandings and the hearts of people, on true Christian principles! It is righteousness that exalteth a nation, and it is righteous conduct toward the more dependent classes that will tend to general prosperity, not the accumulation of immense riches. There are limits placed in the order of Divine Providence to all the enjoyments that wealth can give. Oh! that I may be strengthened cheerfully to undertake whatever duty shall devolve upon me at this season of difficulty in the cause of the poor! May I feelingly remember how, by day and by night, the sound has been heard in my mind of Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.' If thou draw

out thy soul to the hungry, &c. If thou sayst Behold I knew it not, doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it ?' Doth not He see thy indifference, thy anxiety for the preservation of thine own ease, and thy disregard of the just claims of the poor and needy. It is said, there are causes of poverty for which the people have to blame themselves; idleness, recklessness, drunkenness, &c. True it is indeed that these enemies of a man's own household are his most powerful foes. Try, then, what can be done through Divine help, to convince those who are thus going astray of the error of their ways. Encourage the system of friendly visitation, with appropriate books and tracts from house to house-send them everywhere through your districts, and let them be accompanied by the warm recommendation of Christian feeling.

"28th. Read J. Woolman on the right use of the Lord's outward gifts, and on serving the Lord in our outward employments. How I long to see these Christian declarations printed and widely circulated. It is a day in which they are very much needed. Had we but kept our place as a society, how might the savour of true Christian feeling, and that which promotes the true harmony of mankind, have been increased! We ought to have been as a city set on a hill that cannot be hid, whose light should have shone to the glory of the Father which is in heaven. Examples of Christian moderation, Christian benevolence, are much needed. As a society, I believe we shall have to come back to first principles, before we can expect the life to flow in an unobstructed course in our solemn assemblies. May it not be said of us as a society, What hast thou to do in the way of

Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor, or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?' Are the manners and maxims of the world to govern those who have been taught the lessons of a higher wisdom? Are we to shrink from singularity, when so many are walking in the paths which lead to oppression, pride, and deceit ? Oh! that the call might be heard, Come out of Babylon, my children; my people, be not partakers of her sins, lest the fearful declaration should be uttered, The glory of the Lord is departed from thee.'

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3rd mo. 30th. My mind is solemnly impressed with a feeling of the awful position in which we stand as professors of the religion of Jesus; pure and spiritual as it is, and calling for consistency in holiness of heart, and a life in which the spiritual nature has the evident and obvious ascendency over that which is natural; and, oh! what watchfulness is called for, lest we suffer our feet to wander into some of the labyrinths that lead away from the plain and direct path into which our Redeemer calls His sincere and devoted followers! this path is doubtless one in which the sacred flame of Divine love is ever alive and ascending to the glory of Him from whom it is derived. In this feeling there will be a desire that all who live may be rightly cared for; and more than all, that the immortal spirits of the children of men may be the subjects of the renewing influence of the Redeemer's power; this feeling will induce solidity of character. It is in that devout aspiration of the heart toward God in which the language is arising, Teach me thy statutes,' 'Draw me and I will run after thee.' It

is in this state of mind, shielded by living faith, that strength is received to overcome all the fiery darts, and the more insidiously poisoned arrows, that may be cast out against us. 'Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.' Oh! that we were all, who profess the name of Christian, redeemed from the love and pursuit of the things of the world. We often need reminding of these truths, that no man can serve two masters, and that God requires our first affections.

"4th mo. 9th. This is the day called Good Friday,' and although every day is in itself good, and the great and mysterious event on this day commemorated should be with us in perpetual and grateful remembrance, still those who in sincerity of heart think it right to set apart a day in which peculiarly to revive the remembrance, and thus regard the day as unto the Lord, will no doubt be accepted in their intentions; whilst the folly and profaneness which often accompany both feasts and fasts, might induce one to desire that the present observance of them should be superseded by a more general and earnest pursuit of the substance of true religion.

"11th. The sense of happiness, and even of mental strength, is accompanied in my view with a certain feeling of calmness, of quietness, of divestment of anxious and perplexing cares, to which the habits and principles of our Society are, I think, peculiarly favourable. To attain to this state of quiet, and at the same time to pursue with steadiness and diligence objects of Christian and

benevolent interest, in which much exertion is often needed, appears to me a desideratum in Christian experience.

"13th. Last evening, in closing an address to the sub-committee of Friends on anti-slavery concerns, entreating their consideration of introducing the work of African translations into this country, I was reminded of H. More's account of the mother of Moses placing her infant in the cradle, and her description of the feeling in which she had prepared the little bark for its reception;

'With sighs to Heaven I did the cradle weave,
And twisted every osier with a sigh.'

This cause of African translations has been nearer to my heart than language can describe; and I believe I may truly say, that my eye has often been directed to the Friend of the oppressed-to Him who is the beneficent Parent of all the families of the earth, whilst my hands have been proceeding with the work. At the same time I cannot but feel my own want of diligence, my numerous deficiencies, and inadequate sense of the claims upon me in this interesting pursuit.

"I was yesterday in a house surrounded by beautiful gardens, but I think including in view only their own premises. My mind was greatly impressed with a sense of how little all this beauty in nature could afford to the mind where the love of Christ did not enkindle the affections, and extend them in desires to do good to others. How much more interesting would it be to live in the midst of Spitalfields, and be trying to do some good, than there, surrounded with every accommodation, and have no engagement of this kind.