him.


1819. 9 _mo_. 15.--The tender, merciful Father who shelters our heads
in battle has covered mine when many things were hot upon me. He has
provided a retreat for me until the fury of the oppressor be overpast. I
have often wondered at the cause which drove me from my former residence,
but I now begin to see pointedly the hand of Providence bringing me to
this place of quiet retreat. Should He who has brought me thus far see it
to be for my good to set me on the banks of deliverance, may I have no
desire to live for anything but to sing his praise!


After being recognised by the Church as a minister, he was again tried
with a season of spiritual desertion; and this phase in his religious
history, with his reflections upon it, and the holy resolution and hope
with which he concludes, may be useful in strengthening the faith of
others under similar circumstances.


10 _mo_. 4.--O what a stripping time have I had since I wrote last!
My pen would fail to set forth the inward desertion I have experienced for
months past, so that my poor mind is almost worn out with waiting and
watching in the absence of the Bridegroom of souls. My enemy seems to have
set up his throne in me, and leads my wandering thoughts captive at his
pleasure. I have no weapons of my own to fight him with, and it seems as
if Infinite Goodness had refused me the grant of that armor which I have
before experienced the means of putting my adversary to flight. For what
end this may be I know not, but the suffering time is hard to the natural
part. If I am left to perish, O may it be in praying, trusting and