the preaching of Mr. Wesley, his brother Charles, and others of his preachers, again humbled me in the dust, sunk down at the feet of Christ, and washed them with my tears. Sorrow, joy and love, were sweetly mingled together in my soul I once more, after so many years, knew (a little of what these lines express :

The godly grief, the pleasing smart, artike
The meltings of a broken heartJud
The seeing eye; the feeling sense, d
The mystiq joy of penitence,se

** The guiltless shame, the sweet distress,
Th' unutterable tenderness, D

The genuine, meck humility, ban
The wonder, why such love to me?'

The o'erwhelming power of saving grace,
The sight that veils the seraph's face,
The speechless awe that dares not move,
And all the silent heaven of love.

I was now convinced that the pardoning love of God, which forty years since was first manifested to my soul, was a divine reality, and not the ef fect of a heated imagination. Thousands, and tens of thousands, who are gone to glory, have borne testimony to the truth of this doctrine; and I learn that there are still tens of thousands of living witnesses to the same glorious truth, and can joyfully sing

Thy mighty name salvation is,

And keeps my happy soul above,
Comfort it brings, and power and peace,

Oye cold-hearted, frozen, formalists!
On such a theme, 'tis impious to be calm;
Passion is reason, transport temper, here.
Shall heav'n, which gave us ardor, and has shewn
Her own for man so strongly, not disdain
What smooth emollients in theology
Recumbent virtue's downy doctors preach,
That prose of piety, a lukewarm praise !
Rise odours sweet from incense uninflam'd?
Devotion, when lukewarm, is undevout;
But when it glows, its heat is struck to heav'n;
To human hearts the golden harps are strung;
High heav'n's orchestra chaunts amen to man,

Talk they of morals? O, thou bleeding love!
The grand morality is love of thee.

Thou most indulgent, most tremendous pow'r !

Still more tremendous for thy wondrous love!
That arms, with awe more awful thy commands:
And foul transgression dips in sev'nfold night;
How our hearts tremble at thy love immense!
In love immense inviolably just!

Thou, rather than thy justice should be stain'd,
Didst stain the cross; and work of wonders far
The greatest! that thy dearest far might bleed.

YOUNG.

DEAR FRIEND,

DIVINE truths now rush'd upon me like a flood, and swept away all objections. I

Feel the great truths, which burst the tenfold night
Of heathen error, with a golden flood
Of endless day: To feel, is to be fir'd;
And to believe, LORENZO, is to feel.'

I am at last constrained to acknowledge, that the mighty power of God has been manifested from the beginning amongst the Methodists; and that the same Almighty arm is still exerted in overturning the kingdom of darkness. Sinners are still brought from darkness to light; and res cued from the power of sin and Satan. God is still adding daily to his church such as shall be saved. It is built on a rock, the Rock of Ages; nor have the powers of earth and hell been able to prevail against it.

The Lord is King, and earth submits,
'Howe'er impatient of his sway

• Between the cherubim he sits,
• And makes his restless foes obey.

e

All power is to our Jesus given;
'O'er earth's rebellious sons he reigns:
He mildly rules the hosts of heaven,

And holds the powers of hell in chains.'

I now can scarcely think it possible for an unprejudiced person to read the Life of Mr. Wesley, and not acknowledge that the path he took, and ever after continued in, was pointed out by the finger of God. By going out into the streets, highways and hedges, and calling sinners to repentance, and preaching salvation by grace to a lost world, what countless numbers have thrown down the weapons of their rebellion, and enlisted under the banner of the cross. Sinners of every description have been compelled to come in. Old, daring, hardened sinners have been made humble and gentle as lambs. The wise, in the things of this world, have given up their wisdom, and have become teachable as little children. The selfrighteous have been brought trembling to the foot of the cross, where they gladly accept of pardon and salvation as the free, unmerited gift of God through Christ; and feelingly join in singing,

I the chief of sinners am;
Yet Jesus died for me!

Ι am astonished that no more of those good, well-meaning ministers, (for many such there are, both in the church of England and also amongst the Dissenters,) who have a concern for the welfare of mankind, and would gladly turn sinners from the error of their ways, but yet from year to year, and even for ten, twenty, thirty, or

forty years together, keep on preaching without ever converting one soul to God, or even making any serious and lasting impressions on their congregations, are not convinced that there must be something materially defective in their ministrations. They see the drunkard still gets drunk; they hear the swearer blaspheme as much as ever; they see the sabbath-day still profaned; fornication and adultery are still practised; the unholy continues unholy still; parents still bring up their children in forgetfulness of their Creator, and the things of another world.

in as

In short, when they die, they leave the poor creatures over whom they were overseers, bad, or worse state than they found them.

How is it that such men do not reflect, and see that something must be fatally wrong either in the matter or manner of their preaching?w

These gentlemen will occasionally dwell on the inefficacy of moral philosophy to reform mankind. They will point out the deplorable state which the heathen world was in before Christ came. They will clearly prove that the doctrines taught by Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, and Epictetus, did but very little towards the reformation of manners. They will also, sometimes, treat of the wonderful effects produced by preaching of Christ crucified; and some of those will preach sermons, where the name of Christ is not once introduced. They seem to have forgotten him: and Plato's Commonwealth, Plutarch's Morals, and Tully's Offices, are substituted for the New Testament. They forget