Upon the very threshold of the volume before us, we behold with admiration the goodness of God in disposing his servant to record the mode of his dealings with him. Surely such an inclination, when, as in this instance, it is powerfully impressed upon the mind, should not be thoughtlessly disregarded. Rather let the individual, whose mind has been thus led, seek to lay it before the Lord; and venture to ask the church's great Remembrancer, if the inclination be from himself, and to his glory, graciously to vouchsafe a recollection of all the way by which He has conducted him; to seek ability to record the same; and then consign the whole to the keeping of Him who takes the liveliest interest in his church, to dispose of it as seemeth good in his sight. The inclination which possessed the mind of William Nunn, just ten years before his removal from the church militant to the church triumphant, we doubt not, was of and. from the Lord; and while we rejoice that it has found its way to the public through the medium of the press, we do entertain the strongest belief that it is a work which will be peculiarly owned of God.

Turning to the Memoir itself, we cannot but discover a very striking illustration of the truth alluded to in Zechariah, iv. 10, "Who hath despised the day of small things?" when we see that a hasty resolution to take a rambling tour, encompassing a considerable route-and that, too, in the face of opposition from one of the members of his own family-should have been overruled of God to bring about the conversion of his servant. In a conversation with an elder brother (ah! cannot some of us call to remembrance such highly-favoured opportunities? though many years have passed since then, is not the recollection of such seasons impressed upon the heart in indelible characters?) light gradually broke in upon his previously benighted mind; a spirit of inquiry took possession of his breast; and the arrow of conviction sank deeper into his heart. The simple, yet touching, manner in which he has alluded to this all-important period, emboldens us to ask the reader's permission to quote Mr. Nunn's account thereof.

In 1808, the year after my father died, I was actively employed in assisting my second brother in getting in the harvest; he having left the calling to which he had been brought up, in order to attend to the farms which my mother still retained. One day, during the getting in of some wheat, as we were taking our repast in the barn, I said to him, "Joshua, I intend to take a walk to Shrewsbury, to see our brother John." He replied, "Why so? a rolling stone gathers no moss." I owned it, but said, "I was bent upon my plan, and was resolved to undertake the journey." I had been reading, some time previous to this, a tour through England and Wales; and was much inspired in reading it, with a desire to see the places which the traveller had visited: such as the Peak of Derbyshire, North Wales, &c. The motive itself could not indeed be considered of sufficient importance to induce such an undertaking. But I can now see the wonder-working hand of God in thus bringing me out from my home, and both causing and enabling me to accomplish on foot, a long journey of 800 miles. On that journey, it pleased God to bring me to a knowledge of my lost and undone condition by nature, and to afford me a blessed manifestation of acceptance into his favour, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The particular circumstances attending the revelation of his redeeming love, I will relate by and by. Having drawn out maps from Carey's Atlas, of the different counties through which I intended to pass, and having a strong leathern portfolio, containing a drawer for pens, ink, &c., and sufficiently large to carry linen for the journey, I covered the whole with leather, furnished with straps for a proper knapsack; and

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providing myself with a stout iron-heeled pair of shoes, a staff, and sixteen guineas, commenced my excursion on Wednesday morning, five o'clock, September 7th, 1808.

It was my wish to have taken with me, as a companion, Martin Taylor, an old schoolfellow, brother to the authoress of "Original Poems," &c.-I had been intimate with the family some years; his parents, however, were unwilling he should go. Without entering into a detail of the occurrences I met with, or of the various places through which I passed (having written at length an account of my journey), I shall only state a few particulars, which now appear to me worth noticing. On the first part of the journey, I was much fatigued: incessantly walking at the rate of thirty miles a day, I found the journey a toil rather than a pleasure. My route lay through Cambridge and Derby, direct to Castleton. On perusing the journal, mentioned above, and which I wrote while on the journey, I perceive I had some knowledge of a right and a wrong sort of preaching; for I find inserted this remark, dated at Coventry-" As it is Sunday, heard two sermons; but am afraid the preachers are blind teachers of the blind." And I must have had some consciousness of sin; for I well remember how much my mind was forcibly impressed with the singular circumstance of coming suddenly to a hand-post, having on it "You'lgreave;" for it occasioned in me some reflection upon my state as a sinner, and seemed to indicate, that some day I should know what repentance meant. The musings I had on this subject were, I doubt not, in some measure produced by the weariness of body to which I was then subject; having travelled 200 miles of my journey. The weather had been very unfavourable, and the frequent rains had made it bad walking. To what extent the associated idea of my travelling through the dirty roads, and my travelling through a world of sin, then led me, I cannot now remember. After seeing the caverns, and travelling over the hills of the Peak of Derbyshire, I took the road for Shrewsbury, by way of Buxton, and reached Shrewsbury, after having walked about 300 miles in ten days; and now I come to a most important era of my life, inasmuch as the time was arrived at which it pleased the Lord to bring me to a saving knowledge of his grace. It should be observed, that at this time I was a moral young man, without any pretension to the character of a religious person. had a sort of veneration for the preaching of the Gospel, and estimated highly my brother's preaching, whom I had heard once or twice in my native town. I reached his lodgings on Saturday at noon, and accompanied him on the following day into the country, to the place where he preached. I thought there was something peculiar in his dwelling much in his sermon upon the blood and righteousness of Christ, and, as far as I can recollect, I could not understand what he meant. We returned to Shrewsbury. I said nothing to him about the sermon; but on the following day, Monday (Sept. 19th), after we had dined, I was led involuntarily to open my lips, and ask him some questions on religious subjects; and stated to him what I thought of myself. I certainly knew at this time, that there were in the sight of God but two sorts of characters, the righteous and the unrighteous; and I believed that the former had a special knowledge of their state. I knew I had not that knowledge; the want of it, rather than any weight of conscious guilt, made me unhappy. I was led on to unfold to my brother what I thought of myself, and our conversation became more important as we proceeded. What he said to me was, I firmly believe, the appointed means eternally designed by the Lord, for bringing me unto himself, by the regenerating and enlightening operations of the Spirit on my soul.

me.

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I cannot remember any expressions which dropped from either of us, but I have a distinct recollection of the effect which his answers to my questions produced upon Tears dropped from my eyes, and I, naturally hard in mind, was brought down under the conviction then wrought in me of the unmerited grace of God, set forth in what my brother said to me. I believe, too, I was angry with myself in that I wept, accounting it a weakness which the pride of my heart would have suppressed; our conversation lasted about an hour. From that hour I became a new creature. Happy period! Why ever blessed with the mercy then manifested? All! all! may be traced to the everlasting union of my soul to him in whom I was chosen before the foundation of the world, to the possession of all spiritual blessings. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as he hath chosen us in

him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will; to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph. i. 3—6). Shortly after his return from the tour just alluded to, Mr. Nunn's mind became impressed with an increasingly ardent desire to enter the ministry. This we gather from his diary, which, though the effusions of a mind but partially enlightened, breathes forth here and there the simple, the sincere desires of a heart panting after God; the ebullitions of a soul being under a course of meetening tuition for its Master's service.

Destined, as was William Nunn, to enter on a ministerial course by a college route; to exchange commercial occupations for a course of study-the hey-dey of business life for the retirement of a university; the effort could not have been inconsiderable, more especially as his mind, from his own representations, appears not to have been constituted for study, or a close application to the higher pursuits of literature. But these very facts-to him at that time so great a source of sorrow-render the hand of the Lord so much the more conspicuous. "Tis no surprising matter that a man endowed with a taste for studywith a persevering intellectual research-with confidence and courage should address an auditory; should seek to follow out the bent of his inclination in a university education, and, if his heart God has wrought in and upon, to embark in his Master's employ; but it is a matter of surprise-a source of grateful admiration, to watch the operations of a mind under divine leadings; its possessor a man of no apparent genius, no prominent talent, nothing perhaps predominant except a restlessness of spirit, a dissatisfaction with present pursuits as if he were not in his right place. Such appears to us to have been the condition and circumstances of William Nunn, when first the Lord met with him in a manifestative way. Immersed in the cares of business, he subsequently could more correctly enter into the circumstances of those engaged in commercial life; limited in circumstances, he was led more to the acknowledgment of God and the observance of his hand, and afterwards could more freely enter into the feelings of those in a similar situation; sensible of his own inaptitude for study, he was compelled thereby more scrupulously to investigate his motives, and necessarily to cast himself unreservedly upon the Holy Ghost for divine guidance and instruction? And what is the result? In the very onset of his ministerial career-making preparation by pen and paper it is true--but nevertheless, by tenderness of conscience, and a sense of divine sufficiency, compelled, even in his opening discourse, to abandon fleshly trammels, and cast himself, a poor helpless one, on Him by whom he had been led. This we gather from page 77 of his Memoir.

I had written a sermon from the words, "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you" (John, xx. 21), purposely as my first discourse. Having, though, for a long time, made up my mind not to read sermons, and having attended Mr. Simeon's lectures upon the composition of sermons, I was resolved to take some notes from the sermon I had written, and use them instead. Fearful, however, I should never get through, I took the sermon with me. The chapel was completely filled. The people had heard my voice, and wanted to know what sort of a preacher I was.

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prayers being over, I went trembling from the desk to the pulpit. Could not decide whether to read or use notes. Took both from my pocket, and a small Bible. The hymn before the sermon was just closed. Rising from my seat, I laid the sermon on the cushion, but I could not brook its being there. I lifted up the cushion, put the sermon under it, shut my eyes and my Bible, offered a prayer, and giving out my text in a far louder tone than was necessary, proceeded to speak upon the mission of the ministry as the Lord gave me utterance, and without the embarrassment I expected.

Does the reader happen to be engaged in the ministry, or from a deep sensibility of its being the Lord's mind concerning him, is he about to embark therein? See well to this, then. If you would have abundant and abiding testimony of the Holy Ghost's calling you to the work, set out upon this very principle. Meet the Lord upon this condition. Humbly yet earnestly importune him, that, if he has destined you for his work, he would demonstrate the same by giving you a simple resting upon him for light into his word, an unloosed tongue to express it, and power to attend it. As we have said before, be looking more to the Lord than to the people. And the more frequent and earnest your wrestlings with him, the more conclusive your steps; the greater dependence of spirit upon himself will you possess; and the clearer the conviction on your own mind that the work is the Lord'sthe cause His. When do men, taught of the Spirit, speak with most freedom-with the greatest heart-participation—and with fullest conviction that the power of the Holy One attends the word? When they have been most diligent in study, and enter the pulpit leaning upon their preparation? Nay, but when most helpless-most destitute in themselves-and most compelled to fall into the hands of the Lord, be the result what it may, whether their mouth be stopped before the people or not. Oh! this is bold-'tis blessed venturing, beloved. It is in these sweet seasons you will feast with your hearers, and they with you, the Lord himself being present. These apparently "shut up"-these seemingly "forsaken" seasons-however trying to flesh and blood, and mortifying to the pride of the heart, are the precious Bethel-seasons of the Lord's ministers. Ask them, did they ever enjoy the presence of the Lord in the work, they will point you to such opportunities.

And yet, readers, we have not a word to say against study; by no means. On the contrary, we would say, be much in your study-less in the company of professors (ay, and possessors too) and more in the closet with the Lord; and then, after all your readings and close study, trample it under feet," as it were, as we once heard the late Henry Fowler remark, "and venture (yea venture, we respond) upon the

Lord."

We dwell upon this subject when occasion seems to require it, because we know that there are some of the Lord's ministers fettered with these leading-strings, whom we long to see brought forth to their own souls' establishment, as well as to the edification and encouragement of the church. When we term them the Lord's ministers, we are not alluding to such as practise a species of the basest hypocrisy in the pulpit-who tell a practical falsehood, secreting their book, and even

interleaving the word of God with the pages of their manuscript, and then (with devilish artifice-we can call it no less) turning over with studious effect, the pages of the sacred volume, as if in possession of an unlimited acquaintance with its holy contents-but at the same time only replenishing their barren minds with what, in all probability, was stolen from others of less pretensions, but who nevertheless possessed a clearer knowledge of the mystic page. For such ministers we tremble; and yet these are they by whom large and respectable auditories are content to be professedly nourished in what they term the divine life. Oh! sad delusion! fatal enthusiasm!

With such, it was Mr. Nunn's lot to come in contact. Soon after the Divine Husbandman had engaged him in his vineyard, he whose kingdom threatened to be invaded roused the enmity of even his coadjutors in works of benevolence; a spirit of jealousy took possession of their hearts, which soon betrayed itself in acts of hostility against him, and against his Lord and Master through him; thus serving to make known the divine mind respecting him that he must stand separate and alone, and leading him into a more thorough investigation of the great and glorious doctrines he had espoused. Thus, as the winds of heaven which threaten to prostrate the noble oak, cause its roots to take a deeper and a firmer hold in the earth, the opposing principles (if principles they may be called) by which Mr. Nunn was assailed, and which, doubtless, at intervals, deeply wounded his own mind, drove him to a throne of grace, and, by the power of Him who will avenge His own elect that cry day and night unto Him, brought him forth with dauntless intrepidity: thus causing the power of the Holy One to shine forth in and by his servant with ten-fold splendour and attraction.

For the Holy Ghost, in the ministration of his word, to make use of a man of bright intellectual parts, is glorious; but how much more astonishing, and to be admired, when he condescends to lay his hand, as it were, upon a man of no particular pretensions-a man, in the natural eye, of no promise-and adapt and qualify him for one of his ablest messengers to the household of faith.

Reader, if with you the creature is nothing, and the Lord Jehovah All in all, you will gaze with wonder and admiration on these mighty acts, and through such men as William Nunn, adore the grace, the wisdom, and the love of Him who has condescended to "place His treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."

Having thus far trespassed in the pages of our readers, we feel it imperative though with considerable reluctance-to close our notice of the Memoirs of that highly-favoured man of God, William Nunn. We may, if our minds are so led, return to them again. But, in the meantime, we do most heartily commend the work to the perusal of our readers. It is fraught with interest, and will be read, we doubt not, with peculiar satisfaction; and we pray that the blessing of the Holy Three in One-the great Jehovah-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost -may accompany the work.