In some cases, the work of God is sooner discovered by a looker-on, than by the person who is the subject of it. God's work is only made manifest in God's light. God gives LIFE before He gives light. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." There are often both life and feeling, where light is wanted to show that this work is the work of God.

Why is it that you reverence the Most High ?-Why do you desire a tender conscience?-Why do you hate sin?—or, when you cannot find that you hate it, why do you DESIRE to hate it? How comes it that you hate free will and merit?-Why do you love the saints above all other men and women upon earth ?-Why is it that you secretly wish to be like them, so far as they follow Christ ?-Why are you more dark and dead in your feelings at one time than another?-Why are you uneasy when you feel your state and your burden; and why are you uneasy when you feel them NOT?

How is it that you dread carnally SECURE frames ?How is it that you dread presumption?-Why is Christ, now and then, PRECIOUS to you in your feelings-more precious than your money, or your life?-What would you take for Him?-Why is it that you cannot live without prayer?-Why is it that now and then you take more delight in waiting upon God than in anything else ?-Why are you cast down when you go away from prayer, or from hearing? Is it not because the Lord did not MANIFEST HIMSELF TO YOU?-Why are you in trouble when Jesus seems to frown upon you? and why do you secretly rejoice when you are raised to a comfortable hope?-Why is your hope of mercy in Christ alone?

Are not these THREE desires, now and then found in your heart, that the Lord Jesus Christ would be pleased savingly to MANIFEST Himself unto you, KEEP you from all unto death, and TAKE you to heaven when you die?

And what is it now that would raise your soul to a transport of joy, but this, that Jesus should REVEAL HIMSELF to you, and enable you to say with experimental evidence of Him whom your soul loveth-"My beloved is

mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies." Does not your soul now and then, in some little measure, in some poor faint way, thus thirst for God, for the living God?

If your breast has not, at one time or another, been the seat of all these desires, I have missed my mark! As the Lord thy God liveth, these are the EFFECTS of the Holy Spirit's quickening power, saving grace, and sovereign operations; and it is your privilege, and the privilege of all such as have known these things to say, Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.

Fear not, O thou of little faith! Wherefore dost thou doubt ? ED. BLACKSTOCK.

I FEEL but ill qualified for writing: may the Lord's all-sufficiency furnish me with power and unctuous matter, that what I write may be made very profitable to you.

You will readily acknowledge that it is a great thing to be CALLED from a state of SIN and IGNORANCE, into the marvellous light of the Gospel. From a state of SINbecause however decent a youth may be before conversion, in his external deportment, you are well aware that his life is wholly a life of sinning and rebellion against God. All his thoughts, affections, words and actions, are not only sinful, but they are nothing but SIN in the sight of a holy God. The best action of our lives deserves eternal damnation. This you see and believe.

From a state of IGNORANCE also-for the best informed youth in a state of nature is very ignorant of the glorious holiness of God, of the sinfulness of sin, of the sins of his own life, and especially of the sins of his own HEART, therefore he is proud and lifted up. And is he not perfectly ignorant of the mercies of God in Christ ?-he knows nothing of the benefits of a Mercy-seat, nothing of God as a dear Father, nothing of Christ revealed to the soul as

a sweet Saviour, nothing of pardon and peace, nothing of power and unction, nothing of walking with God, or of fellowship with the Spirit! He knows nothing of grace and mercy, or of the sweetness of divine love, when shed abroad in the heart. In a word, he knows nothing of the mystery of the Gospel, of the nature of true holiness, the blessedness of heaven, or of the way to it.

Every unconverted person is ignorant of the revelation. of that righteousness which is the saints' title to heaven, and is also a stranger to that holiness which renders the saints meet for heaven. The light that is in him is only darkness, and therefore, how GREAT is that darkness!

To bring the soul from this state of ignorance, sin, and death, into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, is a very GREAT WORK. Be it remembered that it is God's own work, and He will take his own time in the doing of it. Now, I have this confidence that God has sovereignly QUICKENED your soul, and I will try to prove it; and may the Holy Spirit grant us his precious unctuous light.

Has He not shown you that this world is a sinful, vain, and empty world, unsatisfying, delusive, and perishing, so that at times you dread the thoughts of having to be exposed to it, and would sooner die at once than be deluded by it? Do you not also see, that there is nothing which can separate a man from God but sin, and therefore that SIN is the worst thing upon the earth?

Do you not find that it clings very closely to you? You would fain serve it as Paul did the viper, (shake it off,) but you cannot, it over-masters you. Do you not believe that sin is your worst enemy, and especially the sin of unbelief? Do you not sometimes hate sin, and loath yourself on account of it? And are you not often afraid that you have never seen its exceeding sinfulness, and that you have never hated it perfectly? You would wISH to hate it, as you hate the devil. You never see it as you would see it, nor hate it as you would hate it; nor do you ever loath and abhor yourself as you could wish.

Do you not sometimes feel that you can neither believe, nor repent, nor pray, nor turn to God, if it were to save

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Fear not, these things at Na 5. Thi you think you can:. mwardy compelie. :

last. It is nearer day-break than you think it is, for e Day-spring from on high has surely visited you. It is our privilege to say, I shall not die but live, and declare e works of the Lord

"However sinful, weak, and poor,

Still wait and pray at mercy's door-
Faithful Jehovah must remain,

Nor shalt thou seek his face in vain."

As the Lord shall help you, still keep begging and prayig, waiting, hoping, trusting and cleaving, "For he that all come will come, and will not tarry. There is a set ime to favour Zion," and a set time to favour THEE. The ord only waits to be gracious. Even now, He is ON HIS VAY. The hour of your deliverance comes on apace, every ay brings you a day nearer to it.

If you can help it, do not indulge in hard thoughts of od, do not NURSE unbelief, doubts and fears; "be not aithless, but believing;" grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by evil questionings, and sullen behaviour-remember, hat, Blessed is she (and consequently, blessed is he) that believeth.

Remember that unbelief, pride, and rebellion, are three of the greatest stumbling-blocks in your way: pray frequently and fervently for what you feel your need of, pray for a tender conscience and a closer walk with God.

Consider these things, and the Lord give thee an understanding in all things.

ED. BLACKSTOCK.

LETTERS TO FRIENDS.

1834.

MAY the good Lord furnish me with the well-spring of wisdom, and make it as a flowing brook! May the Lord the Spirit counsel me, that I may counsel you that I may be as the mouth of God to comfort you!