RECORD, WRIT DOWN BY HIS OWN HAND.

ALTHOUGH I am no scholar, and am, moreover, greatly lacking in those secret spiritual gifts which make certain rude men write and speak as if inspired, I have undertaken, at the request of my dear friend and master, Mr. John Wesley-a good and great man, whom late in life (yet, thank God, not too late) I have learned to understand—at his request, I say, I have undertaken to set down certain strange things which occurred to me during what I

may term, in all humility, the period of my

conversion.

But first, before I begin to tax my brain for these half-vanished memories, and to set forth how marvellously the Lord hath dealt with me, let me avow that I was never one of those who care to make public inquisition of their own souls for the astonishment and edification of foolish creatures agape for spiritual miracles. I was ever, like all men of my race, one caring little for the sympathy of strange folk; dumb in trouble, loving solitude, dwelling, often sullenly, with my own thoughts; so that when my heart bled, it bled inwardly, and when I was broken on the wheel of despair I wore a brave front to the world, and when I prayed to God I prayed in a secret place.

For a long time, therefore, I have debated within myself whether these things

should be written down at all, savouring as they may of foolish vanity, and magnifying unduly God's dealings with myself, the least of His creatures. For though I would speak of events to me miraculous, as evincing His special and providential care for my poor personal salvation, is not this same miraculous intervention taking place also in the lives of innumerable other men? Is there one poor creature of all the human race-nay, one poor sparrow of the air-of whom He takes not equal heed?

Knowing well mine own insignificance, and feeling duly the mercies which have been vouchsafed to me, I could have been well content to keep these things to myself, as sacred between my Lord and me.

But having spoken in these strains to Mr. Wesley, who alone of all men knows how God hath dealt with me, he was

strongly of opinion that I should write all down holding, firstly, that God deals in precisely the same measure with no two human souls; secondly, that the true record of any conversion is a kind of divine testimony; and, lastly, that there are certain points in my poor experience which may just now, when the world is so filled with the sound of vainglorious battle, the fume of unbrotherly controversy, be of especial value to foolish men. He reminded me, furthermore, of the many spoken and written testimonies of wrathful men made peaceful, and foul men made clean, all through some special and heavenly dispensation, and he held that these testimonies, though so infinitely less precious than those of the martyrs, could not well have been spared.

Reasoning of this sort, coming from so learned a mouth, presently convinced me,