I am truly afflicted to hear of your trouble, and yet I pray it may turn out to the furtherance of the gospel. The time of my absence from my flock in 1839 was more blessed to my people than even my presence had been. Our God can work through means or above them. He that puts the treasure into earthen vessels, often allows the vessels to be chipped and broken, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Fear not for your flock. The Chief Shepherd who sent you to them is faithful, and his name is The Mighty God. He can feed them with or without you. And none that are his can perish.

Use all prudent means for your recovery. Commit yourself entirely to God, and he will turn the shadow of death into the morning. I have been often brought very low, but it has been always good for me. In this way God educates his ministers, both for his temple below, and for being pillars in the temple above.

I do not think Broughty Ferry a safe place for you, if your lungs are at all affected. The air is damp, and east wind cold. If it is only your stomach that ails, then it will do well; but if you have any chest complaint, do not think of the east coast. Blairgowrie would be much more suitable; when you would have the kind care of a good Christian Doctor, and the ministry of dear R. M.

I fear my illness will prevent me leaving home this summer; but I do not know. Your absence will make us pray more that your flock may not be forgotten.

Do not be afraid at leaving home. His compassions are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. He doth not afflict willingly.

All grace be with

Ever yours, &c.

you from the fountain of living waters.

TO THE REV. H. BONAR, Kelso.

Ministerial arrangements-Breathings after holiness.

August 18. 1842.

MY DEAR HORACE-I laid aside your note, and cannot find it again. I think you ask me for the second Sabbath of November, on my way back from London. I fear I must not do it, but abide by my former arrangement. Mr Hamilton presses me hard to stay two Sabbaths, and I would have agreed, but am to elect elders on the second Sabbath of November. According to the new law of the Church, the signed

S

lists are read in a meeting of session on the third Sabbath after the intimation is given, so that I will need to be back, even though I should need to be in Edinburgh the week after. If spared then, I shall hold to our former arrangement.

We have had a very sweet season here during the Concert, which was also our communion week. Andrew, Candlish, Cormick, Cumming, Milne, and Graham from Ireland, all assisted me. We had meetings every morning.

Your scheme was very helpful; I enclose mine. About 700 people attended each morning; and on the Fast-day, and Sabbaths too. Several souls have been deeply awakened.

I have great desire for personal growth in faith and holiness. I love the Word of God, and find it sweetest nourishment to my soul. Can you help me to study it more successfully? The righteousness of God is all my way to the Father, for I am the chief of sinners; and were it not for the promise of the Comforter, my soul would sink in the hour of temptation.

Did you observe that the Charlinch Revival took place in the week of the Concert for prayer last year?

The trials of the Church are near. May we be kept in the shadow of the Rock. Farewell! May Jesus shine on you. Yours, &c.

TO THE REV. R. MACDONALD, BLAIRGOWRIE.

Inward life-Words of counsel

DUNDEE,1842.

MY DEAR FRIEND-This is Friday evening, and I do not know what to preach on Sabbath next, else I would have written you at greater length; but as I am to see you so soon face to face, there is the less need of communing with ink and pen.

I hope your health keeps good, and your labours abundant —that you have a continued interest in the blood which speaketh peace-a sense of forgiveness and acceptance in the beloved

-that you feel "his right hand under your head," and the power of his indwelling Spirit dwelling in you and walking in you. These sweet experiences alone make the minister's life calm and serene, like this autumnal evening. Ah, how easy it is to speak or write about them. What a different thing to feel them. It is my constant desire, and yet I am constantly disappointed. I think I never was brought to feel the wickedness of my heart as I do now. Yet I do not feel

it as many sweet Christians do, while they are high above it, and seem to look down into a depth of iniquity, deep, deep in their bosoms. Now, it appears to me as if my feet were actually in the miry clay, and I only wonder that I am kept from open sin. My only refuge is in the word, "I will put my Spirit within you." It is only by being made partakers of the divine nature that I can escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.

All things go on here much as they did. I cannot say that my sermons are much shorter, though I have tried to shorten them. My meeting is still the hour and half, nor do I see how I can shorten it. It is very well attended. A stranger started up and prayed one evening. I did not interrupt him, or take notice of it, but have thought it best to forbid it. None but ordained servants should speak in churches.

I hope you have got all your preparations well forward. Deal faithfully by all that speak to you for the communion, especially the young. If you would have a clear conscience, none but those who are seeking really to close with Jesus Christ should be allowed to take the bread and wine, if a word of yours can help it.

Be decided in keeping back the scandalous. Stir up your elders to this. They are very apt to be remiss. May you have much grace given you at this time and peace-droppings of the Spirit, and refreshings of peace in the heart. I invite all who have any wish to speak to their minister before communicating, to do so. May you have much fruit at this time that shall appear many days hence! I have been surprised to find even a poor table service blessed. Expect much, and much will be given. Pray for me, for I am all but desolate. Yours faithfully, &c.

TO ONE OF HIS FLOCK, WHO HAD BEEN APPOINTED TO THE CHARGE OF A FEMALE SCHOOL IN THE COUNTRY.

Do what you can.

COLLACE, July 25. 1842.

DEAR FRIEND-I have been laid aside for a short time, and did not receive your letter till it was too late to send the communicant's line, which you desired. I have no doubt Mr B. would give you a token, however, even without a line. I am truly glad to hear that you are so fully employed, and earnestly trust that your labours may be owned by God.

Souls are perishing every day, and our own entrance into eternity cannot be far distant. Let us, like Mary, "do what we can," and no doubt God will bless it, and reward us openly. Sit under a living ministry if you can. Seek much personal holiness and likeness to Christ in all the features of his blessed character. Seek to be lamb-like; without which all your efforts to do good to others will be as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.

Pray for dear St Peter's, that the dew may never cease to fall there; continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Ever truly, &c.

TO ONE AWAKENED.

Call upon a soul to choose Jesus.

DUNDEE, Sept. 1842.

MY DEAR G.-I was glad indeed to see, by the line you sent me, that though your mind is dark and troubled you have not gone back to the world. Ah, it is a false, deceiving world. It smiles only to betray. Fain would I lead you to taste the peace that passeth understanding, and that is to be found only in Jesus. You are quite wrong in thinking that I do not understand your misery. I know it well. It is true Jesus does give me peace. He washes me from all sin in his own blood. I often feel him standing by my side and looking down upon me, saying, "thou art mine.' Yet still I have known more misery than you. I have sinned more deeply than you. I have sinned against more light and more love, and yet I have found mercy; why may not you? Remember what James Covey said: "Tell poor sailors that none of them need to despair, since poor blaspheming Covey found mercy." I was interrupted just while writing this, by a very little girl coming to ask, "What must I do to be saved?" Poor thing, she has been weeping till I thought her heart would break. She lives several miles off, but a companion was awakened and told her, and ever since she has been seeking Christ with all her heart. I was telling her that sweet verse, 1 Tim. i. 15, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief." It will answer you also, dear friend. Christ Jesus was God's dear son. He made all things, sun, moon, and stars, men and angels. He was from all eternity in the bosom of the Father, and yet he came into the world. He did not say, "I will keep my

66

throne and my happiness, and leave sinners to die and perish in their sins.' No; "He came into the world." He became a babe, and was laid in a manger, for there was not room in the inn. The inn was like your heart; it was filled with other lodgers, and had no room for Jesus. He became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." He bore our sins upon his own body on the tree. While we were sinners, "Christ died for us.' Why did he do all this? Ah! it was to save sinners. Not to save good people-not to save angels -but sinners. Perhaps you will say, "but I am too bad a sinner;" but Paul says, "of whom I am the chief." Paul was the chief of sinners, and yet he was saved by Christ. So Christ is willing and able to save you though you were the chief sinner on the face of the earth. If Christ came into this world and died to save such as you, will it not be a fearful thing if you die without being saved by him? Surely you have lived long enough without Christ. You have despised Jesus long enough. What has the world done for you, that you love it so much? Did the world die for you? Will the world blot out your sins or change your heart? Will the world carry you to heaven? No, no! You may go back to the world, if you please, but it can only destroy your poor soul. "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth," 1 Timothy, v. 6. Read these words in your Bible, and mark them, and if you go back that mark will be a witness against you before the great white throne, when the books are opened. Have you not lived long enough in pleasure? Come and try the pleasures of Christ-forgiveness and a new heart. I have not been at a dance or any worldly amusement for many years, and yet I believe I have had more pleasure in a single day than you have had all your life. In what? you will say. In feeling that God loves me—that Christ has washed me— and in feeling that I shall be in heaven when the wicked are cast into hell. "A day in thy courts is better than a thou

sand;" Psalm lxxxiv. 10.

I do not know what is to be the result of your anxieties. I do not know whether you will be drawn to Christ, or driven back into the whirlpool of a perishing world; but I know that all will soon be settled for eternity. I was in a very wicked family to-day, where a child had died. I opened my Bible, and explained this verse to them over the coffin of their little one, Heb. ix. 27, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Solemn words! we have only once to die, and the day is fixed. If you die wrong the first time,