which can be looked back upon with delight, is like the sweet herbage, and the refreshing stream, here and there only to be found on the barren heath; and which are, beyond all calculation, precious to the traveller.

If the reader cannot enter into a full participation with the writer, in these enjoyments, he hopes he will at least suffer them to remain às so many episodes in the history. It is possible, from an unison of hearts, some fellow-traveller on the road to Zion, may find in them an harmony of sound corresponding to his own song of praise and to him they will be not uninteresting.

One reflection, I think, cannot fail to strike. the gracious mind with force, in the review of a long period of unawakened nature, when once brought out of it; and that is, the distinguishing properties of preserving grace. I never knew, until grace taught it me, how much I owed, and was continually accumulating the debt, during the season of my unregeneracy, to this one principle. But now, under Divine teaching, I have learnt somewhat of this spiritual arithmetic, and can enter into the full apprehension of what the Apostle means, when he says, 'preserved in Jesus Christ, and called *? * Jude i. 1,

Do you ask what that is? Every man's personal experience becomes the truest commentator. But for the grace of preservation in Jesus Christ, there never could have been a calling to Jesus Christ. Calculate, if you can, how long a space you lived, unconscious of your state, without God and without Christ in the world.' And had you been cut off in the awful state of an unawakened, unregenerated mind; where would have been your portion? And were there no seasons of peculiar peril, no sickness, no intemperance, no hair-breadth escapes, in which life hung as by a thread over an hopeless eternity? Oh! the countless instances of preservation in Christ Jesus, before the redeemed of the Lord are brought to the apprehension of divine things which are of Christ Jesus! Have you never seen the unconscious babe watched over, in all its helpless defenceless hours, by the sedulous tenderness and care of its anxious parent? Such, and infinitely higher, must be his preservation of his people, who not only watches over them 'every moment lest any hurt them*;' but, what peculiarly endears his loving-kindness to the heart, he watches over them for good in those moments also, in the days of their unregeneracy, * Isaiah xxvii. 3.

when they are making Him to serve with their sins, and wearying Him with their iniquities *. Is this view of the subject wholly unprofitable to the soul, not in the actual possession of grace? I trust not. Is not every one a monument of sparing mercy, while continuing on praying ground? And if preserved in Christ Jesus, why not hope there may be yet a calling to Christ Jesus? I have often thought, that if the most senseless mind could be but brought to stop in the mad career of folly, and put the question to the heart: "For what purpose am I preserved to this hour; and why is the morning light again vouchsafed to one who but lives to abuse it?" Such a solemn appeal to the heart, in the cool moment of reflection, might be blessed by divine grace; and induce a new train of thought, and new principles of conduct in the mind. How doth the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you? and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you; for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him †.'

I hardly know at what period to commence my history. All that part of life which I spent prior to my conversion, I cannot reckon in the estimate of really living. He only lives, who

* Isaiah xliii. 24.

Isaiah xxx. 18.

lives to God's glory. All else is but a blank in creation. And were the sum total of my days to be made up under this numeration, it could only correspond to the character of him, who being regenerated after he had attained the age of three-score, ordered for the inscription of his tomb-stone; "Here lieth an old man of four years old."

I can only tell the reader, that if from my first apprehension of divine things must com. mence the calculation of my real life, I have but a little path to go over. But from this æra would I desire to date my history.

What were the secondary means which the Lord in bis providence was pleased to employ, it is not so interesting to the reader to be in-. formed of, as to behold their efficacy under grace. It will be sufficient for him to know, that from an ardent pursuit, like that of the generality of the world, of the several objects which attract attention in the circle of life, I found my. mind suddenly arrested by matters of an higher nature; and among the first evi, dences of the renewed life, I discovered two or three leading principles manifesting the mighty change. As for example, From being occupied in an unremitting regard to things temporal, I now found my heart earnest to pursue

the things which are eternal; and if at any time, the necessary and unavoidable claims of the world broke in upon me, to call off my attention; my heart, like the needle under magnetic influence, which cannot be long diverted from the object of its attraction, soon was turned again to its favourite pursuit. In like manner the troubles of life, and the disappointments necessary to the present preliminary state, which in the days of my unregeneracy operated with all their severity, now lost their power, or at least became lessened, in the greater anxiety of what might be my situation in the world to come. This, like the ocean, whose boundless bosom takes in all the rivers flowing into it, swallowed up every lesser stream of sorrow; and an awakened concern for the one thing needful,' made me forget every other consideration. Add to these, I had been so exceedingly prodigal of time, while I knew not its value; and have been literally sending out into the streets and lanes of the city to invite passengers to take it off my hands. But when it pleased God to call me by his grace, I found every part of it to be so precious, that like the fugitive man-slayer hastening to the gate of refuge, I dreaded every moment lest the adversary should seize me before I had found a sanctuary