this confidence, by his recovery, that I could but think there was something peculiar." Mr. S. adds, "On his recovery, this man for a time went on very well; but afterwards he gave up all attention to religion, and became very wicked; and, when I reminded him of what has been now related, he treated the whole with indifference, not to say with profane contempt. But I have since learned, from very good authority, that, after I left that part of the country," the neighbourhood of Olney, "he was again brought under deep conviction of sin; recollected and dolefully bemoaned his conduct towards me, and with respect to his dream; and became a decidedly religious cha*racter."

This narrative is transcribed for the purpose of annexing a very gratifying confirmation of the correctness of the latter part of it, which has lately been furnished to the compiler of the Life by a very respectable dissenting minister, the Rev. T. P. Bull, of Newport Pagnell.

name was

Having alluded to the anecdote, Mr. B. says, "This person I well knew; and I cannot resist the disposition I feel to communicate to you his subsequent history. His After his recovery from the sickness referred to, though he never became grossly immoral, yet he discovered a re-markable enmity to the Gospel; gloried in his own righteousness, and despised others.' On one occasion, after hearing your good father preach a sermon, in which he spoke in very strong language against the doctrine of justification by good works, he came from Olney church very indignant, and declared he would go no more. In this state of mind he continued for some time, till a change was effected under the following circumstances: one Lord's day evening, as he was sitting drinking with some men with whom he was at

that time in the habit of working in the woods near Stoke, and a minister passed them, who was going to preach at that village, his companions made use of some contemptuous expressions which directed his attention to the minister. His conscience smote him, and he resolved on leaving the company of these sinners, and following to the house of God the object of their contempt; thinking, as he said, that he should be better employed in hearing a sermon, than in spending the evening of the Lord's day in drinking. He did not, however, venture into the chapel, but listened at the window. It pleased God to apply his word with powe to the man's heart; his former convictions returned, and he resolved on hearing the Gospel again. The following Sabbath he came over to Newport, and heard my late dear father*; whose subject was, the insufficiency of our works to justify us before God. This discourse, as he expressed it, threw down the Babel he had been building.' From that time he renounced all dependence upon the merit of his good works, and read his Bible with peculiar diligence and much prayer. In 1805, he became united to the Christian church of which my father was then the pastor, and adorned the profession he made, holding forth in his conduct, the word of life.' 'The latter years of his life, he suffered extremely from a nephritic complaint, which rendered it very painful to him to walk. He, however, persevered in going on foot every Sunday eight or nine miles (going and returning) to hear that 'Gospel which was dear to him; till at length, compelled by the severity of his disorder, in 1814, he very reluctantly gave up his attendance at Newport, and went as often as he was able to the chapel in his own village, where religious opportunities were

now so

* The well-known late Rev. W. Bull.

enjoyed on a Lord's day evening. As his complaint increased, he seemed evidently to grow in grace. His conversation was remarkably -spiritual and edifying; and having scarcely ever read any book but the Bible, and having read that incessantly, he had acquired a very accurate and extensive acquaintance with it. In his conversation, there was a continual reference to the Scriptures; he was eminently a Bible Christian. Amidst the severest bodily afflictions, his soul was refreshed with the consolations of the Gospel, and he expressed himself on all occasions in the most interesting manner. The Lord afflicts me,' said this suffering man, ⚫ but I feel thankful for his strokes; they are the strokes of a Father, who scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.' He often spoke of the days of his apostasy, and of his spiritual pride; and in the strongest language expressed his thankfulness to God for showing him the plague of his own heart. I bless the day,' he said, 'that ever I went to Newport to hear your father! Many, many years I lived in the service of sin; and still my corrupt nature is not destroyed. I should think it was, if it did not sometimes make a movement.'

"At length this excellent old man was released from the most excruciating agonies, by falling asleep in Jesus, in November 1818.

"I ought to have mentioned, that he frequently lamented his ungrateful behaviour towards your father, and especially the enmity he discovered to the scriptural doctrines he preached; and expressed an earnest desire to ask his forgiveness: but an opportunity never occurred. Your father came to Stoke only once after this happy change had taken place in his views and conduct, and called at the house of a pious man, who immediately went in quest of but unfortunately he was that day gone to work at a distance from the vilJUNE 1823.

lage; and thus an interview was prevented which no doubt would have given much pleasure to both parties.

6

"In the same house with this good man lived his daughter and her husband, both of them strangers to real religion, and the latter of them immoral. The affectionate exhortations, the holy life, and the prayers of the old man, which were offered every day in the presence of this son and daughter, as often as he could prevail upon them to come to his bed-side, produced no effect upon them. A child, who boarded with them in the cottage, never failed to attend on these occasions; and on the evening of the day on which the old man died, the child'said to his daughter, 'Mother,' for so she usually called her, though no relation, we shall have no prayer to-night, now grandfather is dead: will you not pray?'-' I cannot,' was the reply. The child, with much simplicity and fervour, urged her request. At length the poor woman, overcome by her entreaties, and her mind perhaps somewhat softened by the loss she had that day sustained, made her first attempt to call on the name of the Lord. The result was a happy one; for she has been a praying person ever since, and consistent in her conduct. Her husband soon after became convinced of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment' to come, and is, I have every reason to believe, a truly pious man. A powerful encouragement the case surely affords, to parents to persevere in offering up fervent prayer for the conversion of their children, in the hope that their petitions may be heard, though they may not live to witness the answer of them."

Such is Mr. Bull's account; from which it appears that this person, who so sinned against both the judgments and the mercies of God, who seemed to have had the warning of the parable of the barren fig

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tree almost supernaturally applied to his own case, and all without effect, became eventually not only a sincere, but even an eminently pious Christian; and, after having died without seeing any success attend his endeavours to promote the good of his family, proved, and through means at once affecting, instructive, and encouraging to contemplate, a blessing to those belonging to him!

To Mr. Scott's narrative it is subjoined, "If what I have heard be true, his case certainly furnishes a most striking instance, as of the force of human depravity, so also of the long suffering and tender mercy of our God." This will appear still more strikingly, when it is considered for how long a period he was as a sheep going astray," before he was 66 brought back to the Shepherd and Bishop of souls." His illness and dream were about the year 1778; he did not join the late Mr. Bull's church till 1805; and the writer of the above letter states, that it was "but a short time before that event that the change took place in his character. For twenty-six or twenty-seven years, therefore, he forgot all his impressions, and went on "frowardly in the way of his own heart;" and yet, after all, was recovered and blessed! I surely need not warn any reader, that this is not what may ordinarily be expected in the course of God's dealings; not what any one may

presume upon meeting with in his own case. If any one is disposed thus to "harden his heart," he has no right to expect that God will soften it, but rather that he will 66 swear in his wrath that he shall never enter into his rest.” But the sincere Christian will not contemplate such a history without the deepest sympathy. He will be ready to weep with the returning penitent while he looks back over the long, dark period in which all God's goodness was forgotten, and the strivings of his Spirit resisted: and assuredly his heart will melt in unison with this now happy man's, while he looks up with him, and says, in grateful admiration, Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

Neither will the feelings excited by this narrative be damped, I hope, by the circumstance of its giving the honour, or must we not rather say by God's having given the honour to our dissenting brethren of finally recovering this poor sinner" from the error of his way." No; let us be assured, that the time is coming when all who have been sincerely employed, though amid many minor differences, in the blessed work of "winning souls" to God, shall for ever joice together." I am, &c.

April 14, 1823.

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re

J. S.

but she took it as a lamp to her feet, and a light unto her paths.' She looked there to see, not what other people were to do, but what was her particular duty in her situation. According to the precept of the Apostle, then, she obeyed her master and mistress with a respectful deference to their persons and authority; she feared to displease them; but she feared still more to offend and dishonour her Lord by any improper behaviour. Christ was her supreme Master, and the only master she was implicitly to obey, and her main desire and endeavour was to please him in all things. She did her work, not as an eye-servant, who is diligent only in her earthly master's presence, but as the servant of Christ her heavenly Lord, whom she knew and felt to be always present with her, Whether her fellow-creatures saw her or not, made no difference in her conduct, because she at all times said to herself, Thou, Lord, seest me.' Living, therefore, with a sense of his all-seeing eye upon her, and with a view to his authority and fayour, she did his will in all her secular employments, and thus her business became her delight. I would here observe to such of you, my friends, as fill similar situations, that even if you are called to serve harsh and tyrannous masters, your duty, whilst you continue with them, remains the same. You are not to suppose, that the ready and faithful service of which I have been speaking is to be paid only to the good and gentle, it must be rendered also to the froward; for this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God, endure grief, suffering wrongfully; for what glory is it, if when ye be buffetted for your faults ye shall take it patiently? but if when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God; for even hereunto were ye called: for Christ also suffered for us,

leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who when he was reviled reviled not again; when he suffered he threatened not; but committed himself to Him that judgeth righteously.' You are to be obedient to your own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that you may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.' Remember too, that these injunctions were given not to free men, as you are, not to the happy servants in our land of liberty, but to slaves: to such as were the property of their masters, who often treated them with great severity; yet even they were required, for the sake of Christ, to obey without murmuring the often unreasonable commands of a severe and perhaps idolatrous tyrant. What excuse can you have then for not fulfilling your duties, even under the most trying circumstances? Very few, indeed, have here any just subject of complaint, and the greater advantages you enjoy the more cheerfully and faithfully should you yield obedience. Should you ever fail of pleasing your earthly masters, you will sanctify thereby all your employment, and secure to yourselves at last an ample and gracious reward from your Master which is in heaven.

"It is acting from a principle of duty to God that will render men universally conscientious. Thus did our late faithful servant act, and thereby obtained a comfortable and well-grounded assurance that she was a child of God, and therefore interested in all the inestimable benefits and blessings secured to his children and servants through the blood of Christ. From the age of fifteen, she had been a devoted servant of God. At that early period, when she was going to her first place of service, though