all-seeing eye settled on you in love, and repose in his almighty arms. Cry after divine knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding. Seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasure, according to the word in Prov. ii. 4. See that v. 10 be fulfilled in you. Let wisdom enter into your hearts and knowledge be pleasant to thy soul; so you will be delivered from the snares mentioned in the following verses. Let your soul be filled with a heart-ravishing sense of the sweetness and excellency of Christ and all that is in Him. Let the Holy Spirit fill every chamber of your heart; and so there will be no room for folly, or the world, or Satan, or the flesh. I must now commend you all to God and the word of his grace. My dear people are just assembled for worship. Alas! I cannot preach to them to-night. I can only carry them and you on my heart to the throne of grace. Write me soon. Ever yours. &c.

TO HIS SABBATH SCHOOL TEACHERS, DURING A WEEK OF ABSENCE FROM THEM.

(Accompanied by notes on the Scripture Lesson that was to be taught in the classes that week.) KELSO, Feb. 24, 1841.

MY DEAR FRIENDS AND FELLOW-LABORERS-I send you a few notes on the parable for next Sabbath evening. May you find them profitable. You cannot tell what a sweet comfort it is to me, when I am so far distant from my flock, to know that you are in the midst of the lambs, speaking to God for them, and speaking to them for God. I thank my God without ceasing for your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope. Be not weary in well-doing, dear friends, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Do not be impatient-wait on the Lord. The blessing will come. Use a few spare half hours in seeking after the lambs on the week-days. This will prove to the parents that you are in earnest. To bring one child to the bosom of Christ would be reward for all our pains in eternity. Oh! with what glowing hearts we shall meet in heaven those whom God has used us as humble instruments in saving! Meditate on Phil. i. 8. And may the Lord meet with you and the lambs on Sabbath-day, and bless you, and do you good.

Farewell, dear fellow-laborers. Ever your affectionate friend and pastor, absent in body, not in spirit, &c.

TO A SOCIETY IN BLAIRGOWRIE FOR DIFFUSING THE
KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH.

Advices.

DUNDEE, March 27, 1841.

MY DEAR FRIEND-I was happy indeed to receive your letter, and the Rules of your Society, which interested me very much. I would have answered you sooner, but have been laid down by my heavenly Father on a bed of sickness, from which I am just recovering by his grace. Spared fig-trees should bear much fruit; pray that it may be so with me. Luther used to say that “temptations, afflictions, and prayer, made a minister." I do trust that your society may be greatly blessed, first, in the comforting, enlivening, and sanctifying of your own souls, and then in the bringing others to know the same fountain where you have found peace and purity. Let Jesus come in to your meetings and sit at the head of the table. It is a fragrant room when the bundle of myrrh is the chief thing there. Let there be no strife among you, but who to be lowest at his feet, who to lean their head most fully on his breast. Let all your conversations, meditations, and readings, lead you to the Lamb of God. Satan would divert your minds away to questions and old wives' fables, which gender strifes. But the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus-draws to Jesus--makes you cleave to the Lord Jesus with full purpose of heart. Seek advance of personal holiness. It is for this the grace of God has appeared to you. See Titus ii. 11, 12. For this Jesus died-for this he chose you--for this he converted you, to make you holy men-living epistles of Christ--monuments of what God can do in a sinner's heart. You know what true holiness is. It is Christ in you the hope of glory. Let him dwell in you, and so all his features will shine in your hearts and faces. Oh! to be like Jesus, this is heaven wherever it be. I think I could be happy among devils, if only the old man were slain in me, and I was made altogether like Jesus. But, blessed be God, we shall not be called to such a trial, for we shall not only be like Jesus, but be with Him to behold His glory. Pray to be taught to pray. Do not be content with old forms that flow from the lips only. Most Christians have need to cast their formal prayers away, to be taught to cry, Abba. Arrange beforehand what you are to pray for. Do not forget confession of sin, nor thanksgiving. Pray to get your closed lips open in intercession-embrace the whole world and carry it within the vail. I think you might with advantage keep a small book in which you might mark down objects to be prayed for. I pray God to make you very useful in the parish and in the world. Do all things without murmurings and disputings; see Phil. ii. 14, 16. Live for eternity. A few days more, and our journey is done. Oh! fight hard against sin and the devil-the

devil never sleeps. Be you also active for good. The Lord bless you and your dear minister. Pray for us. Pray for the dead parishes around you. Ever yours, &c.

LETTERS TO A SOUL SEEKING JESUS.--NO. I.
Seek to know your corruption.

DUNDEE, 1841.

DEAR FRIEND-According to promise, I sit down to talk with you a little concerning the great things of an eternal world. How kind it is in God that he has given us such an easy way of communicating our thoughts, even at a distance. My only reason for writing to you is, that I may direct your soul to Jesus, the sinner's friend. "This man receiveth sinners." I would wish much to know that you were truly united to Christ, and then, come life, come death, you will be truly and eternally happy. Do you think you have been convinced of sin? This is the Holy Spirit's work, and his first work upon the soul, (John xvi. 8; Acts ii. 37; xxi. 29, 30.) If you did not know your body was dangerously ill, you would never have sent for your physician; and so you will never go to Christ, the heavenly physician, unless you feel that your soul is sick even unto death. Oh! pray for deep discoveries of your real state by nature, and by practice. The world will say you are an innocent and harmless girl; do not believe them. The world is a liar. Pray to see yourself exactly as God sees you; pray to know the worth of your soul. Have you seen yourself vile, as Job saw himself? Job xi. 3, 5; xiii. 5, 6-undone, as Isaiah saw himself? Isa. vi. 1, 5. Have you experienced anything like Psalm li.? I do not wish you to feign humility before God, nor to use expressions of self-abhorrence, which you do not feel; but, O pray that the Holy Spirit may let you see the very reality of your natural condition before God. I seldom get more than a glance at the true state of my soul in its naked self. But, when I do, then I see that I am wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; Rev. iii. 17. I believe every member of our body has been a servant of sin-Romans iii, 13, 18-throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet, eyes. Every faculty of our mind is polluted; Gen. vi. 5. Besides you have long neglected the great salvation; you have been gainsaying and disobedient. Oh! that you were brought to pass sentence upon yourself, guilty of all. Hear what a dear believer writes of himself-" My wickedness, as I am in myself, has long appeared to me perfectly ineffable, and swallowing up all thought and imagination, like an infinite deluge, or mountains over my head. I know not how to express better what my sins appear to me to be, than by heaping infinite upon infinite, and multiplying infinite by infinite. When I look into my heart and take a

view of my wickedness, it looks like an abyss infinitely deep, and yet it seems to me that my conviction of sin is exceedingly small and faint." Perhaps you will ask, why do you wish me to have such a discovery of my lost condition? I answer, that you may be broken off from all schemes of self-righteousness; that you may never look into your poor guilty soul to recommend you to God; and that you may joyfully accept of the Lord Jesus Christ, who obeyed and died for sinners. Oh! that your heart may cleave to Christ. May you forsake all and follow Jesus Christ. Count everything loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. You never will stand righteous before God in yourself. You are welcome this day to stand righteous before God in Jesus. Pray over Phil. iii. 7, 9. I will try and pray for you. Grace be with you. Your friend in Jesus, &c.

TO THE SAME.-NO. II.

Seek the righteousness of Christ.

DEAR FRIEND-I was glad to hear of your safe arrival, and that your health had not suffered by the voyage. I trust the Lord is dealing gently with your frail body, so that your mind may get leave freely to fix itself on Jesus Christ and him crucified. Above all, I pray that the Holy Spirit may sweetly and silently open your heart, to relish the way of salvation through the blood and obedience of Immanuel. Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things; Acts xiii. 38, 39. You would be deeply concerned to hear that your room-mate has been so suddenly and awfully called away. Should it not be a solemn warning to you? Oh, that you may be even now clothed in the righteousness of Jesus! so that, if you were called away, you may meet God in peace, and hear Jesus say, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." In yourself you never will stand righteous before Jehovah. Psalm cxliii. 2, answers your case. "Enter not into judgment with me," must be your cry. In your nature, in your past life, in your breaking of the holy law, in your contempt and neglect of Jesus, in your indwelling sin, God can see nothing but what he must condemn. O that you would be of the same mind with God about your own soul! Do not be afraid to look upon its loathsomeness; for God offers to clothe you in Jesus Christ. Romans v. 19. By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. There is only one in all the world on whose face God can look and say, "He is altogether lovely." Jesus is that one. Now God is willing that you and I should hide in Jesus. I feel at this moment that he is my righteousness. Jer. xxiii. 6. This is his name whereby he shall be called, "the Lord our righteousness."

I feel that the love of God shines upon my guilty soul through Jesus. This is all my peace. Your tears will not blot out sin; they do nothing but weep in hell, but that does not justify them. Your right views of the gospel will not justify you; you must be covered with a spotless righteousness. Your change of heart and of life will not justify you; it cannot cover past sins-neither is it perfect. Your amended life is still fearfully sinful in Jehovah's sight, and yet nothing but perfect righteousness can stand before him. Jesus offers you this perfect righteousness; in him you may stand and hear God say, "Thou art all fair, my love." There is no spot in me. Do you thus look to Jesus? Do you believe the record that God has given concerning him? Do you receive Christ with open arms? Do you cry," My Lord and my God;" my surety, my all? Dear friend, do not tarry. Eternity may be near. Now is your best time, perhaps your only time, of closing with Christ. How many worlds would a lost soul in hell give for such an opportunity of cleaving to Christ as you have now. "He that hath This is all my prayer and desire for your precious, precious soul. Ever yours in the gospel, &c.

the Son, hath life."

TO THE SAME.-NO. III.

Joy in believing

DEAR FRIEND I send you another line to tell you Jesus is the way. I would like much to hear how your weak body prospers, and whether your soul is resting under the apple tree, (Song. ii. 3;) but till some opportunity occurs, I must just content myself with committing your soul and body into the hand of Jesus, your faithful Creator. 1 Peter iv. 19. We are now looking forward to another communion season, and I am busy instructing young persons for that holy and blessed ordinance. I think you said you were a good deal impressed at our last communion, and wished that you had been one of those seated at the table; perhaps you may never be permitted to sit at the table on earth; perhaps your first communion may be in glory. There is a text in Romans xv. 13, which expresses all my desire for you, "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." You see here who is the author of conversion-"The God of hope." He must open your heart to attend to the things that are spoken. The truths that are presented to you will not convert your heart, the God of hope must breathe on your heart and water it oft. Then see how he gives you joy and peace-"in believing." When Jesus revealed himself to Thomas (John xx. 28), Thomas cried out with joy, "My Lord and my God;" if Jesus reveal himself to you in all the glory of his person-the completeness of his work,