over follies and failures, over purposes broken, and temptations yielded to; but the end of all is a fresh visit to the cross, and renewed cries for spiritual succour. His papers show how he was ever striving to bring his thoughts and affections under the mastery of his will. He instituted a kind of spiritual police, to keep in order the refractory, and too often mob-like, dwellers in the soul's republic; a method by no means to be despised, for it is one which has proved astonishingly effective in the experience of certain hard-willed men. Doddridge seems to have been benefited by the expedient, though, like so many of us, he had immense trouble with some of the vagrant thoughts which frequent and hang about the mental thoroughfares. He had still more trouble with those vigorous affections of his; and, after pruning their wild luxuriance, he often had to lament their rapid re-growth. Like the mariner, who ever and anon takes the sounding of the sea, and looks at the bright stars overhead, to ascertain where he is, and whither he is going,—so did the divine mariner, in his heavenward voyage, carefully at the same time noting down in his spiritual log-book the

result of his observations.

Having marked

the passing religious experience of one period, he would review it afterwards, in order to measure the progress or retrogression of his

course.

With all his religious exercises there was blended the spirit of prayer; and if one thing more than another appears conspicuous in the revelations of his inner life, it is the habit of enlarged and frequent intercourse with God. The intensity of this habit was remarkable, especially in the latter periods of his history. From his diary, it appears that on certain occasions he devoted a large portion of the day to supplication: he had strong faith in the power of prayer. How he agonized for others, as for himself, interceding for flock, pupils, and children by name! In yonder vestry did he spend many of those seasons which he marks conspicuously in his spiritual calendar. Again and again does he speak of

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my asylum, the vestry," thus crowding that spot with hallowed memorials, which like rich spiritual tapestry hang round the walls, in the eye of those familiar with his secret confessions. "An asylum" no doubt it was from

rough storms, by which his gentle spirit was ofttimes overtaken; but in reading his meditations at these times, we find it was many things besides an asylum, presenting to our view the chequered landscape of a pilgrim's journey, becoming "a slough of despond," journey,—becoming and "a wicket-gate;" "an interpreter's house," and “a hill difficulty;" a "valley of humiliation," and "an enchanted ground;" "a delectable mountain," and "a land Beulah;" and all of these by turns, perhaps in one short day. It was a place of conflict. John Huss once dreamed he saw, on the one side, the powers of the world busily effacing from the walls of his chapel of Bethlehem the pictures of Jesus, and on the other, angels' hands restoring them in more than their original beauty and brilliancy. And so, as we look on Doddridge in his vestry, do we seem to see the image of Christ brought out in fresher colours by the heavenly influence of prayer and meditation, after earthly and still more potent powers for evil had been striving to wipe it out. It was a mount of vision. Humboldt describes the Peak of Teneriffe, when the current of heated air pierced the veil of vapour, and the traveller,

standing on the edge of the cinder-circled crater, saw through the opening the vinecovered slopes of Orotava, and the orange gardens, and bananas of the coast. And how, on that hallowed spot to which we have just referred, did our spiritual pilgrim catch enchanting views of spiritual things—of regions the sight of which refreshed his cloud-covered soul, and filled him with unutterable delight!

At the Lord's table did he, with pre-eminent energy, endeavour to lift up his soul to God for his own purification and comfort, himself feeding upon the spiritual provision which he proceeded to distribute among his flock. Sometimes the ingushing of his joy was too impetuous even for his large heart to hold,like Arnold, who told his wife, three weeks before his death, that he felt "quite a rush of love in his heart towards God and Christ." The morning of one of his sacrament days he mentions in particular, as a period when God was pleased to meet him in his secret retirement, and to pour into his soul such a flood of consolations, in the exercise of faith and love, as he was scarcely able to sustain. It would have been a relief to him, he said, to have been

These days

able to utter strong cries of joy. were, indeed, as the days of heaven dropped down on earth-transfiguration days, when, in the bright cloud, and his Lord's presence, he could cry with Peter, "It is good to be here." From one of the beautiful landing-places in his heavenly ascent, which such seasons afforded, we find him taking a survey of his spiritual duties; and how sweetly he talks of them, as they lie spread around him, like a delightsome land!" It is pleasant to read, pleasant to compose, pleasant to converse with my friends at home, pleasant to visit those abroad-the poor, the sick-pleasant to write letters of necessary business, by which any good can be done-pleasant to go out and preach the Gospel to poor souls, of which some are thirsting for it, and others dying without it-pleasant in the week-day to think how near another Sabbath is; but, oh! much more pleasant to think how near eternity is, and how short the journey through this wilderness, and that it is but a step from earth to heaven."

At a later period he states, in a letter to his wife-"Last Lord's-day was our sacrament day, and indeed it was a most comfortable one