6o 



MINISTRY AT STAND. 



[Chap. III. 



mind and body that S. has, and that I had by nature ; and 

 I accordingly get through very little work, and should live in a 

 constant state of self-reproach, if I had not left that off, as being 

 sinful. I am in hopes that the great variety of employments I 

 shall be now having will make me more active and lively. . . . 

 I talk slow, I eat slow, I think slow ; when I try to talk fast 

 (as e.g. last night, at the lecture, when I had too much matter), 

 I bungle and can't get out the words. [He expresses his 

 desire not to think so much of results, as how to sow the seed 

 in the right way.] Rules will not do any good. I think 

 nothing but constant reliance on God, and observation, will do 

 it. I find more practical good to be derived from attending to 

 one or two cases, on which I spend most of my thoughts and 

 prayers, than taking a cursory view of a great many. ... I feel 

 a particular interest in young men, who, I think, are going 

 through the same state of mind that I have done." He ends 

 thus : " My heart's best affection is with thee : we know each 

 other but in part : but there will come a day when we shall 

 know as we are known. We must live mostly for others here. 

 In heaven we shall have more time for that dear interchange 

 of thought and affection which will be one of its chief enjoy- 

 ments. I am happy now, and I hope that you are too ; but 

 then will be fulness of joy and the pleasures of love for ever- 

 more." 



In his next letter, he described one of the cases that had 

 interested him. After conducting both services at Bury, he 

 lectured in the school-room, when he " had the great delight of 

 giving the pledge to a father, three sons, and two daughters : 

 the father and one son had been great drunkards. They are 

 High Church and Tories." The son had signed before, and 

 had relapsed, and kept out of Philip's way; " however, at last 

 I caught him, and have been at work at him ever since. . . . 

 For weeks together I could hardly drive him out of my 

 thoughts." What he had said to the youth " kept haunting him " 

 in his evil courses ; at length he yielded to Philip's impor- 

 tunity. " His look of affection when we meet is very en- 

 couraging to me." 



