AH, that night was the turning point in the history of a soul. Satan's empire in a human heart was assailed and overthrown. The kingdom of God came not with observation-silently, unostentatiously, wrought the power; and that night angels beheld One Come to Life, from the dead in trespasses and sins! Yes, that night one of the wildest hearts that ever beat to the sound of wordly pleasures was touched by the hand of Omnipotence; one of the most iron wills that ever rebelled against the authority of a holy God was paralyzed before Him; one of the most thirsty spirits that ever sought to satisfy its cravings from this world's broken cisterns, found the draught of creature pleasure pall upon the palate; one spirit buoyantly sailing down the stream of worldly delights, was stranded upon the rocks of conviction; one harp, which had hitherto discoursed its sweetest melody in praise of the worldling's joy, found its joyous cadences turned into a solemn wail, slowly stealing through the heart's lone chambers, and sounding a wild dirge of penitential sorrow. That one came to our little meeting confessedly for the purpose of gleaning substance upon which to vent its sarcasm; all the artillery of the carnal mind was in position to storm the feeble instrumentality raised for the defence of the Gospel; the shafts of ridicule lay impatient upon the bow-strings of nature's pride, ready to assail the truth with their fierce and deadly shower.

And why was the assault not made? why was the attack abandoned? Let the tongues of angels tell the tale who saw the issue. Let the sons of light who watched the contest tell, how one glance of His eye caused the proud spirit to quail; one touch of His hand rent the caul of that heart, and tore the veil from that understanding. Instead of the shafts of carnal enmity flying at the heart of truth, and searching -out its vitals, the arrows of conviction were sharp in the heart of the King's enemy; instead of the sparks of creature-kindling burning up and consuming the truth, the light of leaven gleamed into that soul, and, like another Saul, it arose from the place where the Lord met it, and saw no man. In that mind all was darkness, in that heart all was confusion-the stronger than the strong had come and taken away all his armour in which he trusted; it was the hour of God's power and of the creature's mercy; it was the time of removal, out of the wilderness of nature and condemnation, into the garden of adoption and grace; it was the hour of angels rejoicing over an heir of glory born; the time when they witnessed another gem taken from the pit of nature to adorn the diadem of Jesus, and sang of another trophy of his sovereign power and grace, of another brand plucked from the everlasting burning. Ah, had I but known this as I pursued my way over that lonely down on that dark desolate night, I should not have sighed, I have laboured in vain and spent my strength for nought. Methinks the assaults of the enemy, striving to insinuate hard thoughts of God into my mind, as I almost staggered homeward on that wild night, would have been ineffectual to have marred my joy; and even I should have lost the sense of desolation which brooded in my breast. Nay, could I but have known what angels saw, I too should have joined their song of praise which celebrated the

marvels of His grace. Ah, ye who talk of calling dead sinners to believe, to arise to come to Christ, here was proof that Christ comes to the sinner's soul, comes to dead souls, and speaks with resurrection power to the spirit. Then, and not till then, will there ever be a broken heart.

Such was the issue of this night's work; from this came not the sickly sentimental profession but a coming out of the world; old habits broken off, old acquaintances and partners in sin and folly forsaken, and old debts paid, until the question was bandied about, From whence so great a change? And the children of God rejoiced when they discovered a love manifested to themselves for the truth's sake; in that soul the lesson of the heart's total depravity was slowly unfolded; the silent watches of the night were witness to the bended knee; the yearnings, the strugglings, the lispings of the new-born principle of grace which wrought in that soul, and over which there was joy in the presence of the angels in heaven. O ye toiling servants of the Most High; often weary and cast down, could ye but see with the vision of those bright beings for one moment, you might behold that which would make your souls thrill with delight, and make ye gird yourselves afresh, to be instrumental for other conquests, and the gathering in of the outcasts of Zion. Let this little episode in the history of an unworthy brother encourage you, as it did myself when I became acquainted with it some time afterward; while it laid me in the dust, caused my heart to adore the grace which used me as the instrument to gather one of His hidden ones, and fold it in the Visible Church.

V. THE STUDY.

How many persons visited, how many hours employed, how many meetings held, how many attendants, how many times read Scripture and prayed, how many sermons preached, how many times visited sick, how those who departed this life died, how many persons induced to attend public worship, how many hopeful conversions, how many tracts given away-such were the ITEMS I had to enter in the journal which was sent for me to keep. The place and date of every meeting, and the visits to be specified, and such journal to be submitted to the inspection of the committee once in each month. I laid down the pen; it was a question with me whether I should throw it (the journal) back into the portfolio or into the fire. Could I ever continue to bear this as a cross? Did not the filling of it up prove me to be one of the most abject slaves of an associated despotism? My soul revolted against it; my liberty was gone; I was the tool of a party instead of the Lord's free man. I cast it back into the portfolio. A letter was brought to me requesting me to make a report of my services to lay before the committee, in order to show how I spent my time! Bondage! bondage! bitter bondage! I sat down and covered my face; truly I felt the galling fetters. I knelt down and told the Lord all about it. I had accepted the call to the post of labour which I occupied from a love to the work; I had fondly expected that the glorious Gospel of the grace of God would have gladdened the hearts of the Church to which I was called to minister, the articles of which were as clear as noonday, instead of which I found a very nest of Arminianism, covetous formality, and downright worldliness; and with the exception of three or four poor old nobodies, stowed away in odd corners, whom few knew and fewer noticed, none received my testimony. But those few unknowns rejoiced in liberation from

fetters in which they had long been held, by the insidious Arminian mixture which had been dealt out as Gospel, and which, while it puffed up the genteel professor and ignorant formalist, starved the children of the kingdom, and kept them in legal bondage.

But the reputed props and pillars of the Church rejected the counsel of God against themselves, sneered about hyper-Calvinism, and proclaimed unblushingly that I did not preach to sinners, although I never had any other class in view, and to which class the Lord had taught me that I belonged. Marvellous! I did not preach to sinners! Yet these fastidious gentry, who were among the righteous, could not accept the Word, which they declared was only fit for such. I told the Lord all about it, and begged Him to show me whether He had yet a purpose of mercy toward that Church. I yearned over it; I would be spent for it; and long did I struggle before the Lord for it; and could those four walls become vocal, they could bear testimony to many such struggle. Before God I cast myself on the ground, and lay there before Him, but I could not feel one grain of faith work in my heart. One word seemed to express the impression on my mind; and that word-I shrink as I write it was ICHABOD; and I felt as I arose that it had a name to live, and was dead.

Various were the ways in which feeling was expressed toward me. Those who had conveyances, and formerly carried the preacher back to the station nearest their residence, several miles distance, suddenly became advocates for pedestrian exercise, and manifested more sympathy for their horses than the poor preacher. One exceedingly great pillar of the church compelled his family to walk to chapel, a distance of three miles, on one of the stormiest Sabbaths in mid-winter, when I had to preach at the station near his house, in order, as he expressed himself to a friend after his own heart, not to begin it with me-meaning, that he would walk, and I must do the same; and after which exploit he had wife, daughters, and himself laid up, and a medical man quartered upon his household, and enjoyed, no doubt, the intelligence that his carefully kept horse ate his hay with his accustomed relish. All this passed before my mind as I leaned back in my chair, in a state of moody abstraction, by that little study fire, weary, spent, worn down, exhausted by exposure to the weather, and preaching almost every night in the week. Could it be that the Lord had brought me here? Would He not have given evidence thereof if it had been so? Ah, poor blind humanity; my eyes were too crooked to look along the straight lines of God's providence. I knew myself to be the theme of the professing churches around; preached against, talked against, and wrought against. I stood a mark and a butt for the Pharisee's venom and the Arminian's hatred; the doctrines of which I had felt experimentally to be true, were branded as abominable doctrines, most awful teachings; and gentle professors denounced me as impostor, Antimonian, deceiver, and prophesied that God would make an example of me. Aye, and all this uttered in the hearing and silent approval of a minister of long standing, professing great love and anxiety for the spiritual welfare of the little church of which I had the oversight. Poor, poor heart, how it heaved! Ah, I was as a sparrow alone upon the house top. But this would not do; I must at it. Again, another meeting, and that upon the scene of a modern revival.

grace which were dear to my heart,

THE HARVEST.

BY PASTOR W. FRITH, BEXLEY HEATH.

THE inspired penman has said, " Everything is beautiful in its season," and the sanctified observation of the Christian cannot but assent to the same. The season of harvest presents extensive scope for pious reflection. In it we observe Divine Sovereignty, Divine Mercy, and Divine Bounty.

The sovereignty is seen in the fact, that the covenant of Noah, which insures it, was made by Jehovah as the Sovereign of the universe. He insured a perpetual harvest when He might have insured a perpetual desolation, without violating the sanctity of His justice; and ever since the declaration of that covenant sovereignty has ruled, more or less, in every harvest. For, although the industrious husbandman does expect a good crop after his toils, and in general has one, yet we see that he does not always secure it; because, though God generally "reserves unto us the appointed weeks of harvest," yet sometimes" He withholdeth the rain (as Amos says) when there are but three months to the harvest;" causes it to rain upon one city, and upon one field, and not upon another; and "withholdeth the rain in the time of the latter rain ;" and makes the earth like the summits of Gilboa, "for the iniquity of them that dwell therein," to show us that "all our springs are in Him."

Divine Mercy is also seen in the harvest. All that any man receives this side "the blackness and darkness for ever," must be of

the nature of a mercy. Life continued and life sustained is a mercy, for "His tender mercies are over all His works." Indeed, it is through mercy that the world stands at all after man's apostasy. Thus, the cup of cold water, the crust of bread, the cottage home, the cruse of oil, the flowing brook, the vital breath ;-all, all are mercies. But, O how infinitely better are those "sure mercies of David," by which we "eat and live for ever!" O, is that our portion? Do we "eat of the finest of the wheat" produced by the sufferings of a crucified Redeemer? This harvest "truly is great." "The barns are filled with plenty," for "it hath pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell."

Divine Bounty must also be visible in the harvest-home. Go to the fields of Boaz in Bethlehem, and there you see 66 enough and to spare." There is "barley harvest and wheat harvest" there are

handfuls of purpose," and "shocks of corn fully ripe;" reapers busy, and Ruths gleaning, and all indicating a plenitude which is the offspring of the Divine Bounty. Not an ear picked up by the industrious fingers of the pious and dutiful Ruth but is the gift of His liberal hand, who "giveth us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our souls with food and gladness."

O, who will not "praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men?" Shall we not say for these and all other mercies, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and FORGET NOT ALL HIS BENEFITS?"

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