SWANSON TO MILLEB. 191 



ments of pleasure draw away my affections, and the old 

 man is again put on. 



' The town clock has struck the hour of twelve so, 

 for the present, adieu ! ' 



Swanson replies on the 9th of October. The specula- 

 tive part of Miller's letter he passes by, and fixes on the 

 statement that he had begun to pray. ' Have you indeed, 

 then/ he exclaims, ' set your face towards Zion ? Have 

 you indeed begun to call upon the name of the Lord ? 

 Feeble as your beginnings may be, can you doubt that 

 He will hear you ? Can you dare ? Would you wish to 



draw back ? You have now closed with Christ, 



and, closing with Him, I trust closed more fully (if that 

 were possible ; and it was) with me. Oh, it is sweet to 

 join heart and hand and to put them thus joined into the 



hand of Christ O Hugh, I have not a single 



complaint to make my cup is running over. With re- 

 gard to the manner in which God will dispose of me, I 

 am at present quite ignorant. I have no prospect, and 

 no earthly friend who, while he would wish to do any- 

 thing for me, has it in his power. Before the end of this 

 session I believe I shall be without a shilling, and I have 

 no hand to look to. No hand, did I say ? Nay, I have 

 the hand of Omnipotence to look to, and He will aid me. 

 Oh, it is sweet to depend on Him for everything coming 

 directly from Him ! ' 



A month elapses before Hugh replies, and his an- 

 swer has none of the warmth of feeling for which we 

 might have looked. 'After perusing your last letter/ 

 he writes, ' I sat down to tell you that I was not a little 

 alarmed by your recognizing me as a Christian Brother : 

 I then stated my grounds of alarm ; and willing to 

 furnish you with a kind of data by which you would be 

 enabled to judge of the spiritual state of your friend, I re- 



