5 Beth 943 Fri 8 M533 ANDOVER-HARVARD PREFACEEOLOGICAL LIBRARY THE Yearly Meeting having directed that a selection of the Testimonies concerning deceased Friends should be made by the Meeting for Sufferings, the following have been taken from the Records, as being most likely to convey that instruction and benefit, to which a work of this kind is peculiarly adapted. In contemplating the mercy and goodness of an Almighty Providence, who hath so amply furnished the world with the means of subsistence and comfort for all his creatures, according to their respective spheres of enjoyment, the mind is led into humble admiration and praise; but when, through the influence of his Holy Spirit, we are enabled to view his unspeakable love, in sending his beloved Son a light into the world, to redeem his rational creation from sin, and its consequent misery in the world to come, we are truly prostrated in reverent adoration, and prepared to exclaim, in the language of the Psalmist, What is man, that thou art mindful of him! and the Son of man, that thou visitest him!"Here we can appreciate the blessed efficacy of Divine Grace, reproving, wooing, and seeking to instruct man in his fallen, unregenerate state, that he may not frustrate the design of his creation, but make straight steps to his feet, and come |