priests threshing in a barn. Go on, my son, the flail will never go round thy head so fast, nor down so hard, as when thou art favoured with the presence of the Lord.

I am a thresher, and a threshing instrument having teeth; I work in the barn as well as you: let us thresh as clean as we can, and separate the chaff from the wheat, and pray the master to use the fan and purge the floor, and, while we are sifting the corn, we had need to watch and pray that we do not fall into Satan's sieve ourselves, as poor Peter did.

They tell you that Satan can condemn, accuse, comfort, &c. That he can condemn and accuse I believe; but he must be a miserable comforter, because his comfort generally springs from revenge, as Esau's did, when the murderer influenced him; "Thy brother, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee," Gen. xxvii. 42. But the elect shall all be taught of God, and they shall all know him from the least of them unto the greatest, and great shall be their peace; so that, if any of them are out of the way of public means, yet they cannot be forgotten; or, if they fall into the hands of a blind guide, they cannot be finally deceived nor finally misled: God will either bring them to the means, or call them, as he did me, without means. I have had two persons that have heard the joyful sound under me from Denmark, four from Germany, and several from Ireland.

"I know my sheep," says the Shepherd, "and am known of mine, and they shall all hear my voice." And who teacheth like him? God makes us feel the impressions of his own perfections, and the blessed energy of his own truth. Under the deep impressions of holiness and justice we sink and tremble; under his quickening operations we feel, with the most acute anguish, his anger, his threatenings, and our own guilt and shame; but, under the impressions of his lovingkindness and tender mercies in Christ Jesus, we bow, we bend, we yield, we melt, we resign, we submit, we approve, we wonder, we adore, we weep, we repent, and abhor ourselves in dust and ashes, and love him with all our souls. Here we are less than nothing, and he is all in all; on this mount of transfiguration the covering vail is destroyed; here our interest in him is made plain, and reconciliation takes place: old things pass away, and all things become new; upon this mountain the feast of fat things is prepared, the evidences of our adoption are manifested, and sensible union takes place; jealousies subside, and everlasting light and love discovers the day of espousals, and knits the marriage knot.

presence

Verily there was joy in heaven in the of the angels of God while my poor brother hedger was weeping, rejoicing, and making the faggots. Ah,' say you, and sure the hand-bill never cut so well, nor went through so sweetly; no, nor had even the withes been seasoned a whole

month, and warmed over the fire, they could not have been more pliable, nor have bent better, than at that time, when I found my soul bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord my God,' 1 Sam. xxv. 29.

As thou hast received him, so walk ye in him; beware of remissness in prayer, or in attendance on the means, which leads to backsliding; for backsliding often leads to legal bondage; and, if thou get the old yoke upon thy neck again, every thing will go contrary; the bill won't cut, the eathers they will break, the stakes won't drive, and you will often hit your hands with the beetle instead of the stake, and break great gaps in the axe; the white thorns will run through the cuffs, if not through the buskins, and you will forget the wallet or the bags, and at some places in the bank the spade will have gone in too far, and in other places not far enough; the stuff will not lay, nor stick, but tumble in the ditch again, for two or three yards together; and, when you come to step it out, or to run the pole over it, on the Saturday afternoon, it will not answer to more than three rods per day, and then you will go murmuring home, saying, 'Sixpence per rod is too little; what is nine shillings per week to keep a wife and family?' You read in scripture of some who sowed much and brought in little, for God blowed upon it. Others planted vineyards, but did not drink the wine of them; others oliveyards, but did not anoint themselves. "Ten

their works, for they say and do not;" the next was this, "Whether it be right to hearken to you more than unto God, judge ye." These were as though some one had repeated them over, and over, and over again; and seemed to work some persuasion in my mind that it was concerning the point in hand. This continued on my mind all the week, and on the Lord's day I went to C―――te, and told the minister I could not consent to the terms he proposed. He endeavoured. to prevail with me, but I could not, I durst not, so I ran away like a lusty fellow, as the proverb is; for, in my judgment, it was from the appearance of evil.

Now, sir, all this time my experience lay buried in confusion; when I had any promise come with some degree of power, and caused comfort to spring up, this would come in again, 'Ah, Satan, can comfort;' and then down I went again. Thus, sir, I went mourning many a day: sometimes these words came to my mind, out of Dr. Watts, Why should the children of a king go mourning all their days?' which would make me wonder what this could mean. I have read your account of Little Faith, and I have thought you must know something of my case; but how to express my feelings fully to you I cannot. But thus, sir, I went mourning, staggering, and stumbling, up and down, till providence directed into my hand your Barber, the second part; and, as I was reading it, I felt myself as I thought like

a prisoner who was in humble hope of hearing some one speak the word that I might come out: thus, Sir, as I was reading your answer to the quotation in page 10, where T. Priestley says, 'The most eminent Christians, who have been indulged with the greatest manifestations of divine love, cannot be satisfied with these;' in your answer to this, in pointing out the feelings of a soul in its first love, you describe the first promise that is applied with power, and say, from the word of God, that it is the saint s first landmark,

And to walk in love is the more excellent way.' Ah, Sir, this came to me with such power as I am not able to relate; it immediately brought to my mind the former portions of scripture which I had been plundered of, and thereby stripped and wounded and left half dead. Under the joy and peace which sprung up in believing, I burst into tears, and in these words said to my wife, I felt this as I was going over such a field.' And from that time, blessed be God, my eyes were opened; surely, "Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart;" and thus, Sir, upon this mountain I find the Lord is destroying the vail, the face of the covering, that is cast over all people.

One morning, as I was sitting by the fire, meditating on the goodness of God, my heart was overwhelmed with a sense of God's love, and I verily thought I saw, as it had been, a piece of paper drawn before my natural eyes, and on it,