DCIV.

September 25, 1807.

The Coalheaver to his old weather-beaten Sister, wishing grace, mercy, and peace, through Jesus Christ.

BELOVED,

EVERY one of God's family do not meet with so many crooks, roughs, eclipses, fiery darts, and perilous hours, as have fallen to our lot; but all work for good. Had we remained ignorant of the stubbornness and rebellion of our perverse wills, we had been freewill-mongers to this day. The filth and foulness of our nature have made us sick of sin, and loathers of self; have sapped all trust in our own hearts, and driven us from all confidence in the flesh; and thus these very things have wrought together for our good. In God's light we see light, in God's life we feel sin, in God's faith we overcome it, and in God's love we hate it. Sinless perfection, human power, and self righteousness, may feed the proud, the presumptuous, the insensible, the worldly wise, and the self

husks. Let us not envy them; all this stock is theirs but Christ, a whole Christ, is ours. They have got the lamp, but we the oil; let them boast, but let us beg; and the time shall come when they shall beg and we shall boast. "Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out."

There are such things as natural confidence, natural hope, natural love, and natural joy: we are all born with this stock in trade, and God's furnace is intended to consume this dross, that we may buy of Christ gold tried in the fire, that we may be rich. And there is a deal of difference between Christ's gold and man's dross. Let me be a bankrupt, and an insolvent debtor, trusting alone in the Surety; let me be naked, trusting alone in the best robe; let me be poor, trusting alone in the unsearchable riches of Christ; let my soul have no bread but the bread of God, no provision but what is obtained by begging, no treasure but the alms of heaven. Not those who are rich in themselves, but" Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God." And it is our heavenly Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom. It is not to be merited or purchased by the dead works of self-con

great, too glorious, too weighty, and too permanent, to be procured by the imagined merit of fools.

Be constant in your approaches to God; all good frames are God's gifts; and, if in bad frames, still the incense should be offered twice a day, morning and evening, by a statute for ever. Be watchful of his providence and grace. "He that will observe these things shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord."

My love to Mr. P. Jacob was known by his voice, and Esau by his hands, but my name is

Q in the Corner.

DCV.

October 17, 1808.

DEAR FRIEND,

GRACE and peace be multiplied unto you. I am at present pinched with rheumatics, which in winter are often my unpleasant attendants. But now and then a ray of light, a grain of faith in exercise, a beam of hope, a glimpse of the Saviour's sweet countenance, a cheering promise, a transient joy, a little enlargement of heart, freedom of access to the throne in prayer, and a sense of his presence in the work; these are my reviving cordials, my composing draughts, and my encouraging refreshments; and indeed faith is fed and strengthened by all these things. A smiling providence, a cheering deliverance, seasonable support under sore trials, with freedom and fervour at a throne of grace, greatly cheer, animate, and embolden faith. "He hath delivered (saith Paul), and we trust that he will yet deliver" us.

The passover was always eaten, not with

as rue, featherfew, or wormwood. The lamb was delicious food, though eaten with the most nauseous of herbs. Ezekiel's roll and John's little book were both bitter sweets; sweet to the taste, but bitter in digestion. And our Lord's garments smell of myrrh and aloes; and with myrrh and aloes was his body embalmed: and the truth of all these types is now found in the hearts of all the children of God. "In the day of prosperity be joyful; in the day of adversity consider; God hath set the one against the other." And under these contrary days the heart moves in concert. Under the Under the day of adversity the heart knows and feels its own bitterness; but in the day of prosperity the stranger intermeddleth not with its joy.

These fiery trials stir up the lees of the vessels of mercy, that they may not settle on them; they damp our love to this world, which is not our rest; they discover the dross and tin which the furnace sends up, and which mercy and truth purge off; that golden faith and honest conscience may appear more bright and pure. And of this, my friend, be assured, that every cross, trial and trouble, is appointed by lot, and dealt out by measure; and we shall have no more