me, and in my room and stead?" And, O how sweetly did the Lord appear again to my soul! Such a sight had I of his person, his promises, sufferings, and glory, that there was no room for doubts and fears. Indeed, for nearly twelve months, it was little else with my soul but joy and peace, expecting, hoping, and desiring that the time would soon come when I should die and be for ever with my dear Saviour, to see him as he is, and to be like him. Three times, in particular, during the twelve months, the love of God was so powerfully shed abroad in my heart, that for a time I really did not know whether I was in the body or out of the body. One of these times, I well recollect, I was returning from Manchester, one Lord's day after service. I felt very happy and comfortable in soul, but languid and faint in body, and exceedingly hungry. And powerfully it came into my mind, "Yes, and you know you have nothing to eat when you get home, and not a farthing will you have to buy with until to-morrow when you take home your work." This brought me for a moment to a stand still. What shall I do? thought I; but in came the Lord with some precious portions of his dear word, and dropped them into my soul like honey from the honey-comb; yea, sweeter were they than the honey-comb, and more beautiful, a thousand times, than apples of gold in pictures of silver! "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matt. iv. 4.) "Bread shall be given him, and his waters shall be sure." (Isa. xxiii. 16.) "The cattle upon a thousand hills are mine, and all the gold and silver." (Ps. 1. 10.) It seemed as if the whole Bible were opened from beginning to end, that God was my God, and not one single blessing that I stood in need of, whether for body or soul, but that I had in promises, and should have in possession too, as I needed them. He who had promised was God, and his promises were sure. I was led also to see that all these blessed promises originated in his love; and such an opening had I to my soul, of his everlasting love, grace, and kindness, that I had not power to stand on my feet, but was obliged to lie down upon the ground. How long

I lay there, I know not; but this I know, that the mercy, love, grace, and glory of God shone so gloriously into my soul, that I earnestly begged the Lord to take me to himself, or otherwise to stay his hand, for I felt the glory too much for the body to stand under. When the glory was a little withdrawn, I got up, and went on my way home, singing, praising, adoring, and blessing his precious name for such matchless discriminating love to one so vile as I. O! thought I, what a place must heaven be! O! if these are but drops, what must be the fountain! "O! time,” cried I, "fly away, stop not, but waft me quickly to that Jordan of death, where my soul shall be dislodged from this poor clay tabernacle, which is too weak to bear even the drops of my Saviour's glory. O death, death! when wilt thou come? welcome be thy presence! O happy messenger, haste thy speed, and let my longing soul loose, that it may fly to my God and Saviour, there to drink immortal joys!" O, thought I, what glory will be mine, when undressed of this body of flesh and blood. I shall dwell for ever with the Lord, and never, never sin through all eternity. O the heavenly journey I had home!

Upon arriving there, I found that my wife had borrowed several little necessaries, so that we had a cup of tea, and plenty left for breakfast the next day, which enabled me to rise early in the morning to get my piece out, finish my work, and carry it home, all of which I had to do before we could have any dinner. "O bless the Lord," cried my soul, "here is my bread and water, according to his promise." Soon after this the Lord began to withdraw his comforts little by little, and I began to find that I had not such meltings of heart, nor yet such free access to him as formerly. The word of God was not so precious to me, and darkness began to gather upon my mind. I read the sweet portions of God's word that had hitherto been so precious to my soul, but I could no longer feel them so sweet. What all this could mean I could not tell; and such evil thoughts began to work in my heart, that I was quite astonished. "O!" cried I, "what can be the matter? Surely my sins were all forgiven. Surely they were

taken away by the death and sufferings of Christ. What means this?" I ran to the Bible; again I read the old promises that had formerly been so sweet, with all the earnestness and prayer that I could muster up; but, alas! not one drop of comfort could I get out of them all. What can be the cause? thought I. Surely I must have neglected my duty, or I never should have been in this state. Then I determined to follow up prayer until I should again enjoy the same comforts as before; but, alas! this I could not do, for such terrible abominations arose in my heart, as made me tremble. The more I determined to keep them down, the more they rose up. Fears also began to arise, whether I had not been deceived, whether I had not been too secure, and whether it had not been all wild-fire. Here I was, day after day, and things appeared worse and worse. "O!" thought I, "those dear Christians told me that I was deceived, and that it would be known what I was, and warned the people to have nothing to do with me; and that dear minister, Mr. Ely, told me that I was in an awful error. And all they said and believed of me is now coming to pass! O that I had never said a word about it to one soul. O if I had never opened my mouth about it, nobody would then have known anything about me, and all would have been quiet. But all the parish knows what I have said about my religion." I really believe there never was such a fool with his comforts, for I scarcely ever entered a house without asking them whether they had been born again, and telling them that if they had not, they were sure to be lost. I could not help telling to any person who would talk with me, that I was born again, what God had done for me, and that I was sure of going to heaven. Besides which I used to talk about my afflictions and trials in providence, in short, one thing upon another, until I was almost at my wit's end, and was hated by all around, alike professors and profane, worse than the devil. But my greatest grief was the loss of God's smiles. I had nothing but sighs and groans for days and nights together, until I actually began to fear that I must have been deceived, and that I must give

it all up together. O how my poor soul did cry unto God, "Do, Lord, if I am indeed thine, appear once more unto my poor soul, and say unto it, "I am thy salvation."" At last, the Lord blessedly spoke again, and with such power and sweetness in these words, "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." (Jer. xxxi. 3.) Then all was right in a moment; joy and gladness entered my poor sorrowful heart, and I could then sing with cheerfulness, "For he hath not despised nor abhorred the afflictions of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard." (Psa. xxii. 24.) O how was my soul led to see a little of his unchangeable love and faithfulness. I saw that whatever change I might experience, his love and faithfulness were the same. Surely, thought I, I shall never distrust him who has thus appeared to me again. But, alas! this state of mind did not last long. I soon had fresh exercises in providence and in grace. At this time I had two small children, and my wife was near her confinement with the third. Trade was very bad, and provisions were very dear, flour being fivepence or sixpence a pound, and other things in proportion. It was what we called "barley times," for there was scarcely anything for the poor except barley; so that our table was very scantily provided. Indeed, at the very time my wife was taken in labour, we were without a single sixpence, and had not in the house two shillings worth of provisions. Off I was obliged to go for the doctor; but what to do for a little money, or where to go and borrow it, I could not tell. On my way to the doctor's, I did nothing but cry, "O Lord! what shall I do? Where shall I go? Thou, O Lord, knowest how we are situated. Do, dear Lord, direct me what to do, and whither to go." As soon as I had sent off the doctor, it suddenly struck my mind that I would go to the master for whom I worked, and ask him to lend me half-a-guinea. He lived in Manchester, and for that place I accordingly set out, praying all the way to the Lord, that he would open the man's heart to lend it me, telling him that the

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hearts of all men were at his disposal. When I arrived at my master's house, and asked him to do me the favour, he fetched me the half-guinea, without either a frown or a cross look, for I watched him closely, and saw that he did it pleasantly. Then I knew that the Lord had been before me, for he was not in the habit of lending money to his weavers. I saw that it was all the Lord's doing, and O what thankfulness I felt to him for opening the man's heart. As I was walking down the street from the warehouse, on my way home, blessing and praising the Lord for his unmerited kindness to one so utterly unworthy of the least notice of either God or man, I suddenly met, as I was crossing the road, a man whom I knew by sight, from having often seen him at the chapel that I attended, which was in Mosley-street. I did not know the man's name, but in passing, he blessed me in the name of the Lord, and held out his hand to shake hands with me. "God bless you," said he, and ran off, leaving me in the middle of the street utterly astonished to find that he had left half-a-guinea in my hand. There I stood for some time, admiring, praising, and blessing God, and should have stayed longer, had not a coachman, who was driving a coach up the street, called me a fool, and told me to get out of the road. Upon looking round, I perceived, for the first time, that there was a number of people collected together to gaze at me, in doubt, I dare say, whether I had not made my escape from the mad-house. On my return home, I got out of town as quickly as possible, and O the blessed journey I had! The very trees appeared to clap their hands! "O," cried I, "can I ever cease blessing, praising, thanking, extolling, trusting, and loving my dear Saviour!" "O," cried I, "thou hast done great things for me, whereof I am glad." When I reached home, I found that my wife had been safely delivered, and was doing well. I had now plenty of money for present circumstances, and plenty of faith to trust God for more when we needed it; for I really did believe it impossible for me to distrust God again, seeing the very great things he had done for me, and the wonderful way in which he had done them. I soon, however, had plenty of work for