few artificial flowers about us? If you were not very weak-minded, you would not name such things." But, my dear reader, if I am so, so were the apostles Paul, Peter, and John; for they have all written about these things. The first said," In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;" (1 Tim. ii. 9;) the second, "Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; (1 Peter iii. 3;) the next, "The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." (1 John ii. 16.) Were these weakminded men? Did they not write under the dictates of God the blessed Spirit? Surely you will not give the Bible the lie!

But, indeed, there are so many branches of "conformity to this world," that to enter into them separately would not suit these pages, as it would occupy too much room. But what are the taking of "Sunday evening walks," (as they are termed,) the indulging in worldly conversation on a Lord's Day, the frequent visiting of carnal relations when business does not require it, the expensive and extravagant adorning and decorating of dwelling rooms merely to gratify the carnal heart, and many more such like things, but being "conformed to this world ?"

My dear friends, my soul has suffered much in some of these things; and I therefore know, from experience and feeling, that they are not right in God's sight. They tend to "grieve the Spirit," to encourage that devilish thing-pride, to produce a deadness and barrenness in the soul, and to make us appear more like real carnal worldlings than saints of God.

I could enlarge here, but must not. May the Lord enable us, by his grace, to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. November, 1843.

J. T. H.

CROOKED THINGS MADE STRAIGHT.

The crooked

My very dear Brother,--All is well once more. things are all made straight, the rough places are all made plain, and the darkness is all made light; whilst unbelief, all the devils, and every enemy have fled. My stony heart is made soft, my dead soul is made spiritually alive, my barren spirit is made fruitful, and my hard conscience is made tender. All my doubts and fears are fled; and light, life, faith, hope, love, confidence, joy, peace, meekness, gentleness, forbearance, and long-suffering, with joyfulness, are flowing into my heart like an overflowing river. O, my dear friend, what a wonder-working God our God is! "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Truly, every battle of the warrior is with a confused noise, and with garments rolled in blood. Ah! my dear friend, the saints of old overcame their enemies with the blood of the Lamb; and my poor soul is once more favoured to feel that it has overcome all its enemies, both external and internal, by the

blood of the Lamb-blood that makes the black Ethiopian white, washes all the spots out of the old leopard, and makes my soul once more feel clean, through the words which the dear Lord has spoken unto me and into me. This makes my very soul leap for joy; for he hath turned my mourning into joy, my misery into comfort, and my bondage into liberty.

O, my dear brother, what scenes of misery, wretchedness, and darkness, has my soul passed through of late! and the fits of unbelief that I have had I cannot describe; for I could believe nothing that was of God or Godlike towards his dear children, or rather towards me, but could believe everything that made against me. Every bright evidence and every way-mark were quite hid from me; and the Lord only knows the discontent, the fretfulness, and the rebellion that my soul had to labour under and struggle against. I had no heart either for reading or praying. And what I have passed through, both by day and by night, I cannot tell to any one. My dear wife was almost weary and tired of living with me, to hear me, morning, noon, and night, grumbling and murmuring; and sometimes she would say to me, "It is a wonder that the Lord sends you anything." But, poor soul, she was just taken out of the furnace, with a little of her scum and dross purged away; whilst I myself was just put into it, and had my scum and dross stirred up, which made a considerable difference. I told her a little of what my poor soul had to contend with within, what a hot war it was engaged in, and how I feared that I should never stand; yet she would only smile at me. But, as I said before, she was just out of the fire, and I was in the midst of it; she had had her filthy garments taken off for a little time, and I had mine put on, all over filth.

But, bless the name of the dear Lord, when he had tried me, he brought me forth as gold; and I will try to tell you a little how it came about, in an unexpected way. I had a terrible night. Towards morning, and just before I came down from my bedroom, my daughter brought up to me a letter. I opened it, and read it; and I saw that it was a strange handwriting to me. I could not believe the contents. of the letter. It came from T. Sometime after I had read it, 1 had a great deal of exercise about it, which I just hint at. The man that wrote the letter said, "Dear Sir, I have the pleasure of informing you that your "corruption-preaching," as some call it, "was not in vain ;" and he said that his brother came to him, and told him that the sermon that I preached on Lord's Day evening was made a blessing to him. He called it "The snare sermon;" and he said that his brother could say, like the woman at the well, "He hath told me all things that ever I did;" but I could not believe it. Some time after, I took up the Bible; and my mind was led to the 24th chapter of Genesis. When I came to the 27th verse, I felt that the Lord had not left my soul destitute of his mercy; and I felt that notwithstanding all the unbelief and wretchedness that I had passed through, yet there was a secret cry to be found in the right way. My soul had been begging of the Lord to make me useful to his dear children, and also to be kept near to himself; and the

few artificial flowers about us? If you were not very weak-minded, you would not name such things." But, my dear reader, if I am so, so were the apostles Paul, Peter, and John; for they have all written about these things. The first said," In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;" (1 Tim. ii. 9;) the second, "Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; (1 Peter iii. 3;) the next, "The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." (1 John ii. 16.) Were these weakminded men? Did they not write under the dictates of God the blessed Spirit? Surely you will not give the Bible the lie!

But, indeed, there are so many branches of "conformity to this world," that to enter into them separately would not suit these pages, as it would occupy too much room. But what are the taking of "Sunday evening walks," (as they are termed,) the indulging in worldly conversation on a Lord's Day, the frequent visiting of carnal relations when business does not require it, the expensive and extravagant adorning and decorating of dwelling rooms merely to gratify the carnal heart, and many more such like things, but being "conformed to this world?"

My dear friends, my soul has suffered much in some of these things; and I therefore know, from experience and feeling, that they are not right in God's sight. They tend to "grieve the Spirit," to encourage that devilish thing-pride, to produce a deadness and barrenness in the soul, and to make us appear more like real carnal worldlings than saints of God.

I could enlarge here, but must not. May the Lord enable us, by his grace, to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. November, 1843.

J. T. H.

CROOKED THINGS MADE STRAIGHT.

The crooked

My very dear Brother,--All is well once more. things are all made straight, the rough places are all made plain, and the darkness is all made light; whilst unbelief, all the devils, and every enemy have fled. My stony heart is made soft, my dead soul is made spiritually alive, my barren spirit is made fruitful, and my hard conscience is made tender. All my doubts and fears are fled; and light, life, faith, hope, love, confidence, joy, peace, meekness, gentleness, forbearance, and long-suffering, with joyfulness, are flowing into my heart like an overflowing river. 0, my dear friend, what a wonder-working God our God is! "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Truly, every battle of the warrior is with a confused noise, and with garments rolled in blood. Ah! my dear friend, the saints of old overcame their enemies with the blood of the Lamb; and my poor soul is once more favoured to feel that it has overcome all its enemies, both external and internal, by the

blood of the Lamb-blood that makes the black Ethiopian white, washes all the spots out of the old leopard, and makes my soul once more feel clean, through the words which the dear Lord has spoken unto me and into me. This makes my very soul leap for joy; for he hath turned my mourning into joy, my misery into comfort, and my bondage into liberty.

O, my dear brother, what scenes of misery, wretchedness, and darkness, has my soul passed through of late! and the fits of unbelief that I have had I cannot describe; for I could believe nothing that was of God or Godlike towards his dear children, or rather towards me, but could believe everything that made against me. Every bright evidence and every way-mark were quite hid from me; and the Lord only knows the discontent, the fretfulness, and the rebellion that my soul had to labour under and struggle against. I had no heart either for reading or praying. And what I have passed through, both by day and by night, I cannot tell to any one. My dear wife was almost weary and tired of living with me, to hear me, morning, noon, and night, grumbling and murmuring; and sometimes she would say to me, "It is a wonder that the Lord sends you anything." But, poor soul, she was just taken out of the furnace, with a little of her scum and dross purged away; whilst I myself was just put into it, and had my scum and dross stirred up, which made a considerable difference. I told her a little of what my poor soul had to contend with within, what a hot war it was engaged in, and how I feared that I should never stand; yet she would only smile at me. But, as I said before, she was just out of the fire, and I was in the midst of it; she had had her filthy garments taken off for a little time, and I had mine put on, all over filth.

But, bless the name of the dear Lord, when he had tried me, he brought me forth as gold; and I will try to tell you a little how it came about, in an unexpected way. I had a terrible night. Towards morning, and just before I came down from my bedroom, my daughter brought up to me a letter. I opened it, and read it; and I saw that it was a strange handwriting to me. I could not believe the contents of the letter. It came from T. Sometime after I had read it, 1 had a great deal of exercise about it, which I just hint at. The man that wrote the letter said, "Dear Sir, I have the pleasure of informing you that your "corruption-preaching," as some call it, "was not in vain ;" and he said that his brother came to him, and told him that the sermon that I preached on Lord's Day evening was made a blessing to him. He called it "The snare sermon;" and he said that his brother could say, like the woman at the well, "He hath told me all things that ever I did;" but I could not believe it. Some time after, I took up the Bible; and my mind was led to the 24th chapter of Genesis. When I came to the 27th verse, I felt that the Lord had not left my soul destitute of his mercy; and I felt that notwithstanding all the unbelief and wretchedness that I had passed through, yet there was a secret cry to be found in the right way. My soul had been begging of the Lord to make me useful to his dear children, and also to be kept near to himself; and the

Lord the Spirit gave my soul such a sovereign display of his distinguishing mercy and grace to my soul, and I had such a feeling sense that my soul was in the way, that I felt confident I should be brought into "The house of my master's brethren." Therefore, my friend, my soul was like a bird let loose. And how sweet it is to be indulged with "the kisses of his mouth!" for his mouth is most sweet, yea, altogether lovely. O, my dear brother, how easy it is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in all his blessed declarations and promises, when the soul is set all on fire with his precious love! Truly, the faith of God's elect is "faith that works by love;" and it has dealings with the blessed Three-One God,-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

That the dear Lord may ever bless thee with sufficient grace and strength to stand against all thy enemies that are on earth, and in hell, and in thy own heart, is the desire of yours,

Pewsey, Nov. 11, 1843.

T. G.

A THIRD LETTER FROM THE LATE MR.

MARRINER.

Dear Tom,-I have at last taken my pen to write a few lines to you; but I can assure you that I am become such a fool that I hardly know what to say, or where to begin. But, however, I intend to keep blundering on with such things as shall come uppermost. Therefore, I must begin with the matter that lies most heavily on my mind; and that is, I am at present under a heavy and keen sight of what I am as a sinner. No language can describe what a vile, filthy, helpless wretch I feel myself to be; and sure I am, were it not for the unseen goodness of God, I should sink into black despair. O how suitable, how precious is a whole salvation to my base yet helpless soul! And I assure you that I am compelled to bless him for daily as much as I ever did for my eternal salvation. I have observed many times that if the Lord leave me in a dead, formal frame, when I have no sense of what I am as a sinner, nor of what he has done to save my soul from hell, there is very little sighing and crying to the Lord, nor any feeling sense of his suitability and preciousness. You know, when in this state, that we walk on in a careless, stupid independency; all our prayers end in a form; and our conversation is barren and unsavoury. If Christ is spoken of, he appears as a root out of a dry ground; we see no comeliness in him; we feel no real want of him. An everlasting salvation through his precious blood becomes light in our eyes; free grace loses its beauty; and the faithfulness, immutability, and tender mercy of the Lord leave no sweet wonder and humble adoration in the soul. Christ, with his full salvation, is not wanted; for we are become whole, and do not sensibly need the great Physician. Now, in order to bring matters into place, the Lord, in wisdom, lets the devil loose, to work upon our corrupt nature; and here such things boil up as startle the poor soul; and he thinks that he shall be swept away. The devil presents such things as are suitable to our corrupt nature; and, for a few moments, in the con