feel the glory of his person ? Rev. i. 17. His finished work? Heb. ix. 26. His offices? 1 Cor. i. 30. Does he shine like the sun into your soul? Mal. iv. 2. Is your heart ravished with his beauty? Song v. 16. Again what fruit is there in you of crying after holiness? Is this the one thing you do? Phil. iii. 13. Do you spend your life in cries for deliverance from this body of sin and death? Rom. vii. 24. Ah! I fear there is little of this. The most of God's people are contented to be saved from the hell that is without. They are not so anxious to be saved from the hell that is within. I fear there is little feeling of your need of the indwelling Spirit. I fear you do not know "the exceeding greatness of his power" to usward who believe. I fear many of you are strangers to the visits of the Comforter. God has reason to complain of you, "wherefore should they bring forth wild grapes ?"

Again: what fruit is there of actual likeness to God in you? Do you love to be much with God? "To climb up near to God-Genesis v. 22—to love, and long, and plead, and wrestle, and stretch after him ?" * Are you weaned from the world ?—Psalm cxxxi.—from its praise—from its hatred from its scorn? Do you give yourselves clean away to God-2 Cor. viii. 5-and all that is yours ? Are you willing that your will should be lost in his great will? Do you throw yourselves into the arms of God for time and for eternity? Oh, search your hearts and try them, ask God to do it for you, and "to lead you in the way everlasting!" Psa. cxxxix. 23, 24.

I am deeply afraid that many of us may be like the figtree by the wayside, on which the hungry Saviour expected to find fruit and he found none. Ah! we have been an ungrateful vine, minister and people! What more could God have done for us? Sunshine and shade-rain and windhave all been given us; goodness and severity have both been tried with us yet what has been returned to him? Whether have the curses or the praises been louder rising from our parish to heaven? Whether does our parish more resemble the garden of the Lord, or the howling wilderness? Whether is there more of the perpetual incense of believing prayer, or the "smoke in God's nose" of hypocrisy and broken sacraments?

'I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved

See Brainerd's Diary, Part ii., April 4.

sons I warn you." If there be some among you, and some there are, who are growing up like the lily, casting forth their roots like Lebanon, and bearing fruit with patience, remember "the Lord loveth the righteous." He that telleth the number of the stars taketh pleasure in you; "the Lord taketh pleasure in his people; he will beautify the meek with salvation." Keep yourselves in the love of God. Go carefully through all the steps of your effectual calling a second time.

The Lord give you daily faith. Seek to have a large heart. Pray for me, that a door of utterance may be opened to me. Remember my bonds. Pray that I may utterly renounce myself, that I may be willing to do, and to suffer, all his will up to the latest breath.

May you all obtain mercy of the Lord now, and in that day to which we are hastening. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with your spirits. Amen.

SIXTH PASTORAL LETTER.

Self-devotedness-what it ought to be.

EDINBURGH, March 6. 1839.

To all my dear flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made me overseer to all of you who are of the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood-your pastor wishes grace, mercy, and peace.

I thank my God without ceasing that ever I was ordained over you in the Lord. For every shower of the Spirit that ever has been shed upon us- -for every soul among you that has ever been added to the Church-for every disciple among you whose soul has been confirmed during our ministry, I will praise God eternally. May this letter be blessed to you by the breathing of the Holy Spirit! May it teach you and me more than ever that we are not our own, but bought with a price."

The most striking example of self-devotedness in the cause of Christ of which I ever heard in these days of deadness, was told here last week by an English minister. It has never been printed, and therefore I will relate it to you, just as I heard it, to stir up our cold hearts, that we may give our ownselves unto the Lord.

The awful disease of leprosy still exists in Africa. Whether it be the same leprosy as that mentioned in the Bible

I do not know, but it is regarded as perfectly incurable, and so infectious that no one dares to come near the leper. In the south of Africa there is a large lazarhouse for lepers. It is an immense space, enclosed by a very high wall, and containing fields, which the lepers cultivate. There is only one entrance, which is strictly guarded. Whenever any one is found with the marks of leprosy upon him, he is brought to this gate and obliged to enter in, never to return. No one who enters in by that awful gate is ever allowed to come out again. Within this abode of misery there are multitudes of lepers in all stages of the disease. Dr Halbeck, a missionary of the Church of England, from the top of a neighbouring hill, saw them at work. He noticed two particularly, sowing peas in the field. The one had no hands, the other had no feet-these members being wasted away by disease. The one who wanted the hands was carrying the other who wanted the feet upon his back, and he again carried in his hands the bag of seed, and dropped a pea every now and then, which the other pressed into the ground with his foot-and so they managed the work of one man between the two. Ah! how little we know of the misery that is in the world. Such is this prison-house of disease. But you will ask, who cares for the souls of the hapless inmates? Who will venture to enter in at this dreadful gate, never to return again? Who will forsake father and mother, houses and land, to carry the message of a Saviour to these poor lepers? Two Moravian missionaries, impelled by a divine love for souls, have chosen the lazarhouse as their field of labour. They entered it never to come out again; and I am told that as soon as these die other Moravians are quite ready to fill their place. Ah! my dear friends, may we not blush, and be ashamed before God, that we, redeemed with the same blood, and taught by the same Spirit, should yet be so unlike these men in vehement, heart-consuming love to Jesus and the souls of men.

I wish now to mention to you a proposal which deeply involves the happiness of you and me, and of which I believe most of you have already heard something. Oh! that you would trace the Lord's hand in it. Oh! that "you would be still, and know that he is God." Let me go over some of the ways by which God has led us hitherto. When I came to you at the first it was not of my seeking. I never had been in your town, and knew only one family in it. I did not ask to be made a candidate I was quite happy where

I was labouring in the Lord's work. God turned your hearts to ask me to settle among you. It was the Lord's doing. Since that day "ye know after what manner I have been with you at all seasons," and how, as far as God gave me light and strength, "I have kept nothing back that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house." Ye know also, some of you in your blessed experience, that God has given testimony to the word of his grace, so that "our gospel came not to you in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance."

It is indeed amazing how God should have blessed the word when there was so much weakness and so much sin. But "who is a God like unto our God, that pardoneth iniquity, and passes by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage." We planted and watered, and God gave the increase. Ye are God's husbandry-ye are God's building. To him be the glory.

You know also that I have had some painful trials among you. The state of the mass of unconverted souls among you has often made my heart bleed in secret. The coldness and worldliness of you who are God's children has often damped me. The impossibility of fully doing the work of a minister of Christ, among so many souls, was a sad burden to me. The turning back of some that once cared for their souls pierced my heart with new sorrows. Still I have had two years of great joy among you-unspeakable joy-in seeing souls added to the Church of such as shall be saved. I mav never be honoured to preach again, yet still to all eternity I shall praise God that he sent me to you-" For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy." 1 Thessal. ii. 19, 20. And should I lightly break up such a connection as this? Ah, no! My dear friends, I do not need all your affectionate letters to persuade me, that, if it were the Lord's will, my own vineyard is the happiest place in the world for me to be. Again and again other vineyards were offered to me, and I was asked to leave you; but I never for a moment listened to one of them, for ye were the seal of my ministry; and where could I be happier than where the Lord had blessed me, and was still blessing me? But God sent another message to me. He laid a heavy hand upon my body; I long struggled against it, but it was too much for me. For two months I

have been an exile from you, and I have felt all the time like a widower, or like Jacob bereaved of his children. My constant prayer was, that I might be restored to you, and to the Lord's service. You prayed the same, and when it was not answered, I cried, "Wherefore contendest thou with me ?” That word was sent in auswer-"My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction." Prov iii. 11. God seems plainly to shut the door against my returning to you at present. I am greatly better, yet still I am forbidden to preach. I am not even allowed to conduct the family devotions morning and evening; indeed, whenever I exert myself much in conversation, I soon feel the monitor within warning me how frail I am.

In these circumstances, the General Assembly's Committee on the Jews have this day resolved that your pastor accompanied by Dr Black of Aberdeen, and my beloved friend, Andrew Bonar of Collace,* should travel for the next six months, to make personal inquiry after the lost sheep of the House of Israel.

They propose that we should go without delay to the Holy Land-that we should then return by Smyrna, Constantinople, Poland, Germany, and Holland. Now, I did not seek this appointment-I never dreamed of such a thing. "But he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth," he has thrown open this door to me, while he keeps the door of return to you still shut. My medical men are agreed that it is the likeliest method of restoring my broken health, and that I have strength enough for the journey. You know how my heart is engaged in the cause of Israel, and how the very sight of Immanuel's land will revive my fainting spirit. And if it be the will of God, I shall return to you, my beloved flock, to tell you all that I have seen, and to lead you in the way to the Jerusalem that is above.

I cannot tell you how many providences have been sent to me, every one convincing me, that it is God's will and purpose I should go.

The most cheering one to me is, that a young man has nearly consented to fill my place, and feed your souls during my absence, who is every thing I could wish, and who will make you almost forget that you want your own pastor. Nay, whatever happens, I hope you will never forget me, but re

The Rev. Dr Keith of St Cyrus had not at that time joined the Deputation