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MINISTRY AT STAND. [Chap. III. 



intend me to be directly instrumental in saving souls, because 

 I am not holy enough for this most honourable work ; and that 

 my province is a more general one, to help on and encourage 

 others, and gradually enlighten the mind. I don't at all 

 despond, however, or allow distrustful thoughts to stay with 

 me. I have had plenty (not too much) of discipline since 

 I came here to teach me to labour in faith ; only I sometimes 

 fear as I enter into the cloud. . . . But hope on, hope ever. 

 I live more in hope than I used, and feel more the blessedness 

 of the hope of heaven. Baxter has done me great good. If we 

 meet there, we shall have plenty of time to talk over everything, 

 and to do everything, and ( languor will no more oppress.' " 



A feeling that he did too little for the spiritual welfare 

 of the congregation led him, at the close of the year, to 

 write a " Letter to the young men of the Stand Congrega- 

 tion and Sunday School," which he printed for distribution 

 among them. He desires that each should anxiously inquire, 

 "What must I do to be saved?" and reminds them that 

 " every day we are either preparing for heaven, or wandering 

 further from it. He gives them some very faithful warnings 

 against besetting sins, especially unchastity ; and quotes what his 

 father says (in his " Practical Remarks " to young men), that " in 

 thousands of cases the first step to ruin has been the indulging 

 in impure conversation." He then dwells on the helps towards 

 living a Christian life. " Do you think," he asks me, " that it 

 savours of domestic interference, Puseyism, and priestcraft? 



says it does. He wrote me a letter about it, kindly 



worded ; and I am glad he told me : it was straightforward. 

 F. H. has asked for a hundred to distribute among his people, 

 so he does not think so." In many cases he had reason to 

 believe that his earnest appeals did good, though sometimes 

 they stimulated opposition ; and he had the grief of finding 

 that the stress he had laid on abstinence from the fermented 

 wine at the Lord's Supper led others to insist on its use. After 

 the annual meeting I find the entry, " Used the fermented wine 

 again : I did not partake, but handed it round without saying 

 anything." 



