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"I seem to need the

"Nov. 4, 1797.

voice that would be constantly crying to me, Arise, and shake thyself from the dust!' I was thinking this afternoon, if I had not an active life, I should not have a happy one. The Lord orders all things in wisdom: from a grateful heart I can at this moment say, 'The Lord does all things well!'

"H. S."

"Nov. 14, 1797.

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"At chapel to-day E. O. spoke in a very forcible and affecting manner on our Lord's being a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.' My heart was much affected with the remembrance of the tenderness of feeling which Jesus showed, when expiring on the cross, towards her who, after the flesh, was His mother. He knew the sorrows which pierced her heart, and, while finishing the great work in which the dearest interests of mankind were all concerned, He was not dead in His feelings towards her, but commended her to the care of his most faithful friend. I cannot but lament that mankind are not more faithful to the grace of God. Why was it that His disciples forsook Him after He had spent His time and His strength for their good? We know not that we should have done otherwise. Oh, that this view of the treachery of the human heart may humble my soul, that I may fear always, lest I also be overcome! I can recollect many seasons when I was almost ready, like the first disciples, to forsake my Lord; and if I feel this proneness to start aside in this bright gospel day, what should I have done in an hour of

darkness, discouragement, and gloom like theirs? The Lord has been unspeakably good to me, or I should have fallen a thousand times:-a thousand and a thousand times He has delivered me! His light has shone on my heart, and on my path. We will praise Him, my dear friend; we will love and adore Him for ever! He is unbounded in His mercy to us. The springs of gratitude rise in my soul, surely they will rise to all eternity! Oh, may we never forget that we are both the purchase of a Redeemer's blood! and whatever cause we find to love each other, may our love abound the more toward Him by whose grace we are what

we are.

"H. S."

"Nov. 18, 1797.

"You say you rejoice that my mind leads me to desire an active life, because the providence of God is leading me into a scene where I may have plenty of exercise in the vineyard of the Lord. I do, my dear friend, desire an active life; but when I mentioned it to you I was considering it only as a negative good, a preservative from melancholy and vain reasonings. You give me a more animating, a far more desirable idea of it, when you say, Labour is delightful, when the heart is truly engaged,' &c. I need not repeat your own words, but only this, you say your heart burns for more unction, that all your works may be begun, continued, and ended in God. May the Lord grant you the desire of your heart in this thing. It is this unction, this life and power from God, which can only bear you up above the fear of man, and the fear of evil.

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I suffer as well as rejoice with you: your friends are fearful, and your opponents mighty, but the Lord is with you; and I trust His mercy will never forsake. I believe He will be with you always, even to the end. When it occurred to your mind, What doest thou here, Elijah ?' I hope you did not forget Elijah's upright, yet dejected mind, had given him too dark a view of the state of the church. We may sometimes, in particular cases, conceive things to be worse than they really are. There is, I trust, a scattered seed all over the earth who are accepted of God in Christ Jesus; and the hour will come in which the Lord will collect them together, and they shall feel they are one fold under one Shepherd, and none shall think or act as though they thought church-fellowship a more powerful bond of union than the Spirit of Christ. I fear there are persons in the world, who would almost think it a sin to dispute the experience of any in their own church, who yet find it difficult to believe that any person can be alive to God who does not worship with them. Is not this making too much account of outward churchfellowship, and too little of the spiritual union of the whole body of Christ?

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"H. S."

"Nov. 19, 1797.

My mind has been exercised by the unaccountable conduct of my opposers, and from a deep conviction of their acting out of character. I was grieved to think that men professing godliness should have so little grace, and that they should seek to injure me when I was seeking to do them all the good in my power. But the Lord

has convinced me that suffering from this quarter was what He himself endured; and He assured me if I suffered with Him I should also reign with Him. I am now willing, by His grace, to bear reproach from any quarter, so that His glory may be advanced on the earth. Indeed I expect to have my name cast out as evil. I look for crosses daily, and seek a preparation of mind to bear them for His glory. By this means bard things become easy, rough ways are smooth, crooked things are straight, and my soul both sees and feels the salvation of God. The more I am resigned to the will of God, the more comfortable I feel in all the conflicts which infinite wisdom appoints. Indeed I frequently find that my soul rather wishes for, than attempts to shun the cross, because, while we suffer for following Christ fully, the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon us.

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I think you condemn yourself on some points too much you will never be delivered from evil reasonings unless you venture constantly by faith on the Son of God. Remember Peter walked on the waves as on a pavement, while his eye was kept on the Lord Jesus; but when he looked down he saw the waves and began to sink.

"Let us live by faith, and not by our feelings. The weather, exercises from various quarters, &c., may alter our feelings, but God is unchangeable. We often have too gloomy thoughts of Him:--we view Him as looking up

on

us with a great deal of harshness and inflexible justice, when we ought to remember that mercy is His darling attribute, and that as a kind father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. Let us view Him as our

1

reconciled covenant God, and cast all our care

upon

Him!

"A. K."

"Nov. 23.

"As you observe, the views which God gives us of Himself in the Holy Scriptures are calculated to fill our hearts with admiration and love. My soul has always the most exalted, yet most encouraging views of God when I behold His glory in the face of Jesus. In looking to Jesus we cease to have gloomy thoughts of God. We remember that in Him the Lord is our reconciled Father, full of compassion and love towards us. This view is the most assimilating and strengthening, as well as comforting to our minds. I can never so well obey the Lord, (whether in pleasing or painful circumstances,) as when I feel that He loves me. There is no other way of obtaining this feeling, except by looking to Him who has given himself to restore us to God.

"Last night I went with a heavy heart to the class; but how great was the mercy of God to me! my bonds were broken before we had been five minutes together, and while we were singing the hymn,

'Jesus, my truth, my way!'

my heart melted into tenderness and love; such gratitude sprung up in my soul toward God that I felt power to give up my cause into His hands; darkness fled away, and the day-spring from on high visited us. I think if mercy and goodness can affect the heart I shall be the Lord's for ever! I was thinking this morning that we who have

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