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The early part of my life was spent in open and dreadful profanity, and in all manner of sin against God, so that, as Hart says,

"I boasted I could sin so well."

About thirty-five years since, however, the Lord was pleased to convince me of sin, and for five years I laboured hard to fulfil the moral law, and to obey its rigorous demands, until at length I felt condemned by it in every thought of my heart. This the Lord effected without my hearing the truth preached, for there was no real minister of the truth for many miles near where I was at that time. It is thirty years ago, last July, that the dear and blessed Lord melted my soul with the sweets of pardoning mercy. All one day I was so filled with a sweet enjoyment of pardoning love, and the precious merits of Jesus' redee ning blood, that my soul was ready to burst, and the earnest of heaven I blessedly enjoyed.

In August I went to reaping, and the heavenly dew was still upon my branch. Oh, what a harvest time was this. Every time I had cut a few sheaves, I was down reading, singing, praying, or blessing and praising redeeming mercy.

After this I spent two years in a state of mental backsliding. Though I was not suffered to openly commit flagrant crimes, yet now was the time for the fountain of the great deeps of my heart to be broken up, and being answered by terrible things in righteousness, I cast away all my former comforts. Besides, being blasted to nothing in providence, I made up my mind I must starve to death, and at last perish as an unbeliever. In this sad state I was indeed under double sentence of double death; oftentimes tempted to drown myself in the sea, and filled with misery past description: suffering with my family for want of necessary food, and with a wounded spirit that I could not bear. In this state, under the fears of an

angry God, and no hope that I could efel, I went one morning, but much against my will, to hear Mr. Turner, of Sunderland, at Church Street Chapel, Brighton. I trembled as I sat on the seat, fully believing the Lord had commissioned that good man to cut me off quite. I dreaded to hear him open his mouth. This is now about nineteen or twenty years since. His text was I well remember as follows:

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Through desire a man having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom," Prov. xviii. 1. Blessed night, happy Bethel spot, and glorious season of deliverance! I went to the chapel in awful fetters and chains of cruel bondage; with the spiritual condemnation of the law laying heavy on the heart, as of one that had sinned against light and knowledge; and half-starved in body as well: I went home rejoicing in the Lord. He had set his hand a second time to recover this lost remnant, and the instrument I so much dreaded, I still feel a great love to, as a sent minister of Christ, though I know not that I have ever seen the dear man since. This sweet deliverance to my soul was so gracious, all fear of hell vas taken away, and I could sing Hart's 101st Hymn. This has many times been coufirmed since, by the preaching, as a means, of John Warburton of Trowbridge, and some others. And in the year 1830, the Lord compelled me to go forth and publicly declare what he had done for my soul. My lot has been to move among the men of low estate through the county of Sussex chiefly. Some do not know me at all, and others are moving so much above me, that they do not wish to know me, and yet men of God. May my text come home to them. The Lord has much blessed my poor labours, but it has been among the poor, so the rulers do not regard it at all, and yet men of God

too.

All manner of dreadful, shocking, astounding reports, have been fabricated and circulated against me,

and men of God have received them, and acted upon tnem, to oppose me in all places, London and elsewhere; and many who were once as poor as myself, not fit to be set with the dogs of Job's flock, are exalted temporally, and now ride over my head, having myself to go on foot for want of means to ride. I have walked ten thousand miles, to preach the truth to the Lord's poor, within the last six years, and have often fainted by the way for want of common necessaries, and a poor weary body full of pain. Many of those around whom we hope to be the servants of God, are striving to stop me, by sanctioning the enemies and strengthening their hands, condemning me both in public and private, for acting according to the apostle's injunction at the beginning of this letter, secretly casting envious and jealous invectives out: Ah, he has some unworthy purposes in going there, I fear. Thus it is set on. I have, God knows, suffered as much want and poverty in the work of the Lord, as most men. And as for all the back biters and lying tale-bearers throughout the kingdom, I must say to them, Oh, may Jesus cause me to feel towards you as he often has, kindly to pray for them that despitefully use me, and may they feel their hearts to bleed with godly grief, seeing to a demonstration that men of low estate are not only disregarded, but contemned and hated. Let me ask you, ye elevated preachers of the truth, that receive your hundreds a year, and only keep company with the rich, was it so with Him whose name and truth you preach? Did he act as you do? Did he despise the poor, and encourage false and lying reports. Oh, conscience, art thou scared as with a hot iron. What a distressing spirit now prevails. What Sanballats the professing world now abounds with. Many chapels there are in this land, which once, when the preachers were poor, twenty or thirty years ago, were houses of bread

for God's poor, truth seemed to be there; but alas to tell, now Ichabod may justly be written upon the doors, pulpit, and preacher too; a timeserving system is introduced, and the Lord's family are for the most part driven away, except a few relics in a few half-starved children of God, who are thought less than nothing of, How is the most fine gold become

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dim." Once these men seemed to be like Gideon, valiant for God and truth, whilst as poor as the thresher was, and when under the Lord's reducing hand. But as it was with Gideon, so with them; the people gave Gideon much gold, and he made a god of it, and it became a snare unto him just so it is with these men and their gold. In these places, some infants in grace have to complain, that their tongues cleave to the roof of their mouth for thirst; and young children ask for bread, and no one gives it to them; and the adversary has spread out his hands over all their pleasant things. Money and worldly honour, and carnal respectability, and a great name among the higher orders of society, is what is sought after; a large church, a great salary, a grand house, a glass coach, and flesh-pleasing, eloquent language, with at best but dry doctrine, to suit dead professors, is all you can hear, and the poor, distressed man of low estate, in all things grieves, and comes away saying, "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." Thus the heart of the righteous is made sad, and all are attended to but the men of low estate. "The poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard," Eccles. ix. 16. And yet not

content to let the man of low estate alone, the great, high-minded, unhumbled professors must martyr his character. But the Lord will maintain the cause of his poor. Amen.

Sussex.

J. R.

20

THE BLESSINGS OF THE EVERLASTING

GOSPEL.

"Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things."

My beloved Friend,

How varied and perplexing

are the exercises of God's dear chil

dren, as they make their way onward to their final and everlasting home. Sin within, with all its deadly workings, united with the almost universal power of the prince of darkness, are carrying on a perpetual warfare against the saints of the Most High, if peradventure they might entangle them again in the snares of death;

but blessed he God for the assurance the gospel inspires in the heart of every trembling sinner, whereby he is sometimes enabled to rejoice in “That sin shall not have the dominion over him, because he is not under the law, but under grace.' The gospel, the glorious gospel of the

the fact,

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mercy

blessed God, is a revelation of to a guilty world, in which every blessing is provided, adapted to meet the extreme wretchedness of every

poor, convicted sinner who is sinking in his own apprehension by the weight of his transgressions into the regions of black and everlasting despair:

Why do we then indulge our fears
Suspicion and complaints,
Is he a God and shall his grace
Grow weary of his saints?

Yes, my sister, Christ is the grand storehouse of God's everlasting love, whilst the gospel is an exhibition of the blessings treasured up in him, to be communicated to the heirs of promise as their wants and miseries may demand; hence the sweet singer of Israel celebrates the deathless honours of the Prince of Peace, when he says, "He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor. yea "he raiseth the poor out of the dust, and the beggar from the dunghill," that he may set him among princes, even

with the princes of his people, that they may inherit the throne of glory;" methinks we lose the sweetest consosolation, and the most settled peace of mind, by overlooking in our meditation the glorious person and mighty work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and brought life, and immortality to light, by the shedding of his most precious blood; it is here and here only that

the sin bitten sinner can find a re

fuge, when the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall: and it is here only that the saint of God, who is bearing the heat and burden of the day, can be kept by the communication of divine grace, from fainting in the day of adversity; my dear friend, how often has my troubled soul been comforted by the secret, yet seasonable interposition of him, of whom it is said, The Lord is nigh unto them, that are of a broken heart,

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and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit; many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all." Never can I forget one particular season in my experience, when in an unexpected moment my earthly prospect was blasted, and laid bare before my eyes; besides afflictions in my family, and in my person also was severely felt; and not only so, but the powers of darkness seemed as if they were uniting all their frightful powers, to overwhelm, and destroy me for ever.

Oh how blessed then was the visitation of the Lord Jesus Christ to my fearing and trembling heart, when he pleased to draw near to my soul, like he did to his disciples upon the troubled waters, and said unto them, "It is I, be not afraid, it is I :" so in like manner, when I was about to give up all for lost, and a murmuring unbelieving spirit suggesting that the Lord was dealing very bitterly with me: oh, how sweet was the declaration, how blessed the effect, when the light of heaven rested upon the

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passage, God is a very present help in the time of trouble:" indeed it is impossible to describe to you, the peace that flowed into my soul, when by precious faith the loving kindness and faithfuluess of my hea venly Father was realized, sweetly constraining me to trust in the Lord, and to stay my fainting heart, upon God, the rock of my salvation; it is true, I was not immediately delivered from my distresses, but I felt, as if I had a friend on high; Whose heart was made of tenderness Whose bowels melt with love.

And although many long seasons had to run out their various changes and the faith given was to be tried by delay, and apparent denial; yet he who implanted this heavenly grace, preserved it alive, even in the midst of the fires, causing me to rejoice even in tribulation, feeling the power of Christ resting upon me: you my dear sister, are no stranger to these exercises of joys and conflicts; many deep waters you have waded through; many griefs and sorrows have afflicted your spirit, whilst the enemy of your peace have often said, There is no help for you in God; and yet to your soul's comfort, and the prince of darkness' confusion, you have hitherto been upheld in many a storm, living consolation have been imputed, even when creature-comforts were all dried up, and left to mourn, as a pelican in the wilderness, or as a sparrow upon the house-top alone, over your desolated estate, fearing that as your troubles abounded to day, so they would to-morrow, and much more abundantly but blessed be God our worst fears have never been realized, so that having obtained help, we continue to the present hour, the living, the living to praise him;

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name,

put far away, seeing that he has been with me, and delivered me from so many troubles and death, placed my feet upon the moveless rock of eternal ages, and have put a new song into my heart even praise and thanksgivings;

God my supporter and my hope,
My help for ever near,
Thine arm of mercy held me up
When sinking in despair.

Thy counsels, Lord, shall guide my feet
Thro' this dark wilderness;
Thine hand conduct me near thy seat,
To dwell before thy face.

My sister, I am reminded this moment of bygone days of christian communion with yourself, when after the toils, anxieties, and besetments of the day that bad closed upon us, we hasted to the house of prayer, to hear what God, the Lord would speak unto our souls; it is true we are now in the providence of God, deprived of this privilege, but what a mercy it is to know, that we have now for many years committed the interest of our deathless spirits into the hand of that dear Saviour, who gave himself an offering and a sacrifice unto God, for a sweet smelling savour; and yet also, how limited our knowledge of him, how carnal our affections, how sensual our desires, and how very low we are living beneath the privileges of the citizens of Zion; this should humble us before God, and cover us with shame and confusion of face, remembering that he causes the blessings of his mercy to come down upon us, to refresh, comfort, and bless us. But let me ask you for one moment, what is it that makes our burdens so heavy, our way so thorny, our darkness so impenetrable, and Satan's power so successful. Is it, not by looking too much to ourselves,

And can he have taught me to trust in his supposing that we can find that within, which alone centres in the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, who hath said, Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God,

And thus far have brought me to pnt me to

shame ?

No, such a thought I would wish to

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and besides me, their is no Saviour;" hence we hear one of old saysng "They looked unto him, and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed;" if then we desire to be strong in the Lord, and contend fearlessly with the powers of darkness, let us see that we are not attempting to effect this by the doings of the flesh, but by living entirely and alone upon the merit of that blood, which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel; look at the victories that have been achieved by old testament believers, by precious faith in the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we shall find that Moses when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; yea, in one word, is it not written of the saints as they passed through the wilderness; they quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness, were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens; women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection;" my time, and your patience would fail were I to attempt to refresh your memory with scriptural evidences of the power of a living faith upon the Son of God, but must leave you to carry out the subject in your prayerful meditations, and I am sure you will find, that it is only as we are living out of ourselves. upon the finished work, and glorious intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ, is it possible, that sin, death, and hell can be brought beneath our feet, a new song put into our mouths even praise unto our God. I anxiously wait your reply, and if possible will answer immediately. Do not fail to remember a poor worm when it is well with you at court, and you see the king in his beauty, but tell him

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EXTRACTS OF A LETTER TO A FRIEND.

IN writing to you, my dear friend, I really feel at this time not able to proceed, and in such a state you cannot think I write very agreeably, indeed when the springs are dry you cannot expect much water, and that little that is drawn will most probably partake of the dirt from the bottom of the well; and so I think it is when writing and speaking on spiritual subjects, unless the heart is filled with a good matter, there is sure to be plenty of the corruptions of our fallen nature mixed therewith. I would that we could ever remember this one truth, "Ye are dead," but here is our mercy and oh that we could each rejoice in it," but your life is hid with Christ in God." A knowledge of this sealed home upon the conscience by the Almighty Testifier of Jesus, would well enable us to live above and out of ourselves, and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Sometimes when I am in a barren state, and that to my sorrow is very often, I would hope that he who does bring all things to my remembrance, brings to my mind some remarks of my never to be forgotten pastor, Dr. Hawker, upon the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God;" and from the recollection has arisen a sweet train of thought. But instead of living upon the faith of the Son of God, how often do we live on our own attainments, and judge of our interest from the working of our own minds. And regardless of repeated disappointments, we are such fools as still to continue looking there for comfort. But, O matchless grace, this blessed exhortation yet remains, "Look unto me (even Jesus) and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth, for I am God and beside me there is no Saviour."

J. J.

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