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can be realized or conceived, at an infinite distance. Fix it in your mind, my dear friend, as a most certain truth, that there is nothing deserves to be pursued for a moment, but in subordination to God and for God; and then act accordingly, and you will probably soon find a strange change for the better. Exposed as you necessarily are to the society of many who have either no religion or feel but little of its vital power, you are in peculiar danger of forming slight ideas of its importance, of being taught to look upon it as a secondary thing, an occasional law, whose authority is to be interposed, like the law of the land, to regulate other things,-instead of looking upon it as a vital, prevailing principle of the heart and life. Many, it is to be feared, never attain the blessings of religion, because they never form that estimate of its dignity which is consonant with the oracles of God. Did it not seem like presumption, I should earnestly recommend the daily perusal, besides the Scriptures (which I take it for granted you cannot omit), of some practical and experimental divinity. We have great store of it: Doddridge's Rise and Progress, his and Watts's Sermons, and above all, if I may speak from my own experience, the wonderful Howe-particularly his Blessedness of the Righteous, his Living Temple (the latter part), his Treatise on Delighting in God. Perhaps you will say you have not time for this; but here the question recurs again, What is of the most importance for a creature that is to live for ever-to be rich in this world, or to be rich towards God? I hope you will pardon the liberty I have taken, from a regard to the motive, which, you will do me the justice to believe, is pure and disinterested.

I remain, my dear Sir, yours affectionately,

XXV.

ROBERT HALL.

TO THE SAME.

My dear Sir, Leicester, July 17, 1809. I duly received yours. Be assured, I sympathize with you in your spiritual trials, having had a large share of them myself. I wish I could adopt the language of Dido to the Trojans throughout―" Haud ignora mali miseris succurrere disco." The "haud ignora malı” is fully applicable to myself; but I am afraid I have not yet learned the art of suggesting what may be useful to others in similar circumstances. I want "the tongue of the learned, that I may be able to speak a word in season to him that is weary." I congratulate you on your retaining your religious sensibility: the most dangerous spiritual symptom is apathy, or a stupid indifference to our real situation. While we have feeling enough to complain, we give unequivocal indications of life; however disordered its functions, or languid its actions, may be. What

advice, my dear sir, can I possibly give you, but what your own good sense will suggest that of giving all diligence, and following on? "Then," says the prophet, "shall ye know, if you follow on to know the Lord." Set a firm resolution against the indulgence of sin in any form. I know you too well to suspect external irregularities; but we are both fully convinced "the commandment is exceeding broad," and that, if we would walk in the light of God's blessed countenance, we must keep the heart with all diligence, or, as the expression signifies, "above all keeping." You will doubtless find your account in the serious, punctual, undeviating attention to private prayer, and reading of the Scriptures.

I feel a pleasing confidence that you are too much impressed with the importance of religion to suffer these exercises to be superseded by any worldly enjoyments, or to be attended to in a slight, perfunctory manner, resting in the opus operatum, instead of improving them as means of nearness to God, and growth in grace. Would it not be advisable for you to give yourself up publicly to the Lord? Might not your solemn engagement to be his, in the ties of a Christian profession, have a happy influence on the train of your sentiments and conduct; not to say, that if you truly love the Lord Jesus Christ, you must necessarily feel a desire to keep his commandments? I am glad to hear you are happy with Mrs. Please to remember me affectionately to Mrs. -'s family in all its branches, to Mr. and all inquiring friends.

to

I am, dear Sir,

With great respect, yours, &c.

XXVI.

ROBERT HALL,

TO THE REV. JAMES PHILLIPS.

My dear Friend, Leicester, Sept. 1, 1809. Whether I owe you a letter, or you me, I cannot say; but this I know, that it seems a long time since I heard from you. My affection for you renders me uneasy under so long a silence, and makes me anxious to hear how you go on. The last letter you favoured me with gave me a pleasing account of your religious prosperity: your prospects in this respect are, I hope, brighter and brighter. Among the very elegant and polite part of your audience, you are too well acquainted with human nature to flatter yourself with much success; but you have been honoured as the instrument of drawing a considerable number of the poor and of the middling classes to a place where they had no thought of attending before. Here you will, in all probability, find your most favourable soil. I am sure you will cultivate it with care; and hope you will, under the blessing of God, reap an abundant harvest.

Were we but more strongly and abidingly impressed with the value of immortal souls, with what godly simplicity, what earnestness, and what irresistible pathos should we address them! Perhaps the inequality of the effect produced by different preachers is to be ascribed more to the different degrees of benevolent and devotional feeling, than to any other cause. Job Orton remarks, in his Letters, that he knew a good man of very slender abilities, who was eminently useful in the conversion of souls; which was, in his opinion, to be ascribed chiefly to the peculiarly solemn manner in which he was accustomed to speak of divine things.

I had hoped to have seen you during the summer at Leicester, which would have been a very high gratification, as I know not when I shall reach London. I have no spirits for such an undertaking: my complicated afflictions have left me but half a man. The apprehension of mingled society, of being exposed to various sorts of company, is too formidable for me at present to surmount. I am severely and habitually afflicted with my old complaint: but have I any room to murmur?

I am happy in my domestic connexion, being blessed with an affectionate, amiable woman, and a lovely little girl, about five months old. My dear wife enjoys a better state of health than for some time past; and the dear infant is quite well. We have lately enlarged our place of worship, and have the prospect of its being well filled. I hope we experience some little of the presence of the Lord in the midst of us. I beg to be most respectfully remembered to Miss Wilkinson, and to thank her for her very kind congratulations and good wishes on my marriage. Remember me also most affectionately to dear Mrs. P—, and to all inquiring friends; and pray let me hear from you very soon. I am, dear Sir,

Your affectionate Friend and Brother,

ROBERT HALL.

XXVII.

TO EBENEZER FOSTER, ESQ., CAMBRIDGE.

Dear Sir, Manchester, Nov. 4, 1809. I write this from Manchester, to which your letter was sent from Leicester. I am obliged to you for it. It gives me much pleasure to hear of the very flourishing state of the congregation; though I am concerned at the poor account you give me of Mr. Chase's health. I hope he will be speedily restored, and be continued as an extensive blessing among you. The prosperity of the kingdom of Christ is the most delightful object a real Christian can contemplate. May he speedily take "upon himself his great power and reign." I cannot

but indulge the belief that real Christianity is increasing in the world; and that what we perceive of this kind at present is but the dawn of a more glorious era, which will shortly arrive. The convulsed state of the world, and the limitation of popish power, announce the speedy accomplishment of prophecy, in the triumphant establishment of the kingdom of Christ. Wherever the gospel is preached, there is a disposition, unknown in former times, to attend upon it.

Poor M- ! he has finished his career.

When we look back upon those who have been too much addicted to the love of the world, what a dream, what a vanity does it appear! how unworthy the supreme pursuit of a creature who is hastening to his final account! May we, my dear sir, be preserved from this fatal snare, and possess as though we possessed not.

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Dear Sir,

XXVIII.

TO THE REV. JOSIAH HILL.

Leicester, Jan. 23, 1810. I thank you for your kind letter. I am happy to hear you are so comfortably settled, and that God has provided you with a suitable companion, with whom I wish you may enjoy many years of felicity. As to the proposal you are so good as to urge, of my visiting Pembrokeshire next summer, it will be quite impracticable. I have one summer excursion in view already; and a visit to so remote a part would occupy far more time than it would be proper for me to be absent from Leicester. I have had, in a manner, a new congregation to form; so that any considerable absence is attended with serious inconvenience, as the people are, as yet, by no means compacted and consolidated. I consider it as the first duty of my life well to cultivate my own field, which is such at present as demands all my care: which I may say, with humble gratitude, it rewards, the Lord having, in various instances, set his seal to my poor labours. The congregation which I serve consists mostly of the poor, many of whom are, however, "rich in faith;" so that I can truly say I never found so much encouragement in my work as since I have been here. The effect of time, and of spirits broken by a series of afflictions, has been to make me very reluctant to travelling. Nothing but the claims of absolute duty can surmount that reluctance. My ambition is to spread the savour of the knowledge of Christ in the connexion where I am placed, content to leave the more enterprising and brilliant career of an evangelist to persons of more active and ardent minds. It would give me much satisfaction to meet my dear friend Phillips anywhere, and more especially under your hospitable roof. That pleasure, however, I must postpone till I go to London, or until he will favour me with a visit in

Leicestershire. I shall be always happy to see you, and to hear of your success and prosperity in your great work. Of this you say you can speak nothing at present. The congregation, I fear, from the character of its former pastor, has sunk into a very lethargic state. It will be your study and ambition, I am persuaded, to awaken them, and to recall them to the power of that religion which "makes all things new." Whatever speculative difficulties you may have felt, or may still feel, you can be at no loss to discover, that the warm and affectionate preaching of Christ crucified is the grand instrument of forming lively Christians. May you in this glorious attempt be abundantly honoured and blessed.

I return you my warmest thanks for every expression of esteem and affection with which you have honoured me, and remain, with sentiments of high esteem, dear Sir,

You affectionate Brother,

ROBERT HALL

XXIX.

TO WILLIAM HOLLICK, ESQ.

ON THE DEATH OF MRS. HOLLICK.

My dear Friend, Leicester, July 6, 1810. I sincerely sympathize with you in the heavy stroke with which your heavenly Father has seen fit to visit you in the removal of your dear partner, with whom you have so long trod the paths of this weary pilgrimage. I hope she has gone to eternal rest; and you, my dear friend, will, I trust, meet her in that world where no separation, no sorrow or sin will ever enter. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in him."

I have endeavoured already, and often shall, "to spread your case before the Lord," and to entreat him to support you under, and sanctify you by this dispensation. You have learned, my dear friend, the terms on which all earthly unions are formed; the ties on earth are not perpetual, and must be dissolved; and every enjoyment but that which is spiritual, every life but that which is "hid with Christ in God," is of short duration. Nothing here is given with an ultimate view to enjoyment, but for the purpose of trial, to prove us, and "to know what is in our hearts, and if we are upright before God, to do us good in the latter end." You had, no doubt, often anticipated such an event as the inevitable removal of one from the other; and I hope neither of you were wanting in making a due improvement of the solemn reflection, and laying up cordial for such an hour. Still I am well aware that the actual entrance of death into the domestic circle is unutterably

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