he shews himself to be Lord of it, by sustaining there the creatures that come to dwell in it: and in the wilderness, the bittern and the stork, the dragon and the satyr, the unicorn and the elk, live upon his provisions, and revere his power, and feel the force of his Almightiness."

"God is especially present in the hearts of his people by his Holy Spirit; and indeed the hearts of holy men are temples in the truth of things, and in type and shadow they are heaven itself. For God reigns in the hearts of his servants; there is his kingdom. The power of grace hath subdued all his enemies; there is his power. They serve him night and day, and give him thanks and praise; that is his glory. This is the religion and worship of God in the temple. The temple itself is the heart of man; Christ is the High-Priest, who from thence sends up the incense of prayer, and joins them to his own intercessions, and presents all together to his Father and the Holy Ghost, by his dwelling there, hath also consecrated it into a temple: and God dwells in our hearts by faith, and Christ by his Spirit, and the Spirit by his purities, so that we are also cabinets of the mysterious Trinity; and what is this short of heaven itself, but as infancy is short of manhood, and letters of words? The same state of life it is, but not the same age. It is heaven in a looking-glass (dark, but yet true), representing the beauties of the soul, and the graces of God, and the images of his eternal glory, by the reality of a special presence. They are such which

;

God hath blessed with his presence, hallowed by his touch, and separated from unholy use, by making them to belong to his dwelling."

"He walks as in the presence of God, that converses with him in frequent prayer, and frequent communions, that runs to him in all necessities, that asks counsel of him in all his doubtings, that opens all his wants to him and weeps before him for his sins, that asks remedy and support for his weakness, and fears him as a Judge, reverences him as a Lord, obeys him as a Father, and loves him as a Patron."

"God is the master of the scenes, we must not choose which part we shall act; it concerns us only to be careful that we do it well, always saying, 'If this please God, let it be as it is:' and we who pray that God's will may be done in earth as it is in heaven, must remember that the angels do whatsoever is commanded them, and go wheresoever they are sent, and refuse no circumstances; and if their employment be crossed by a higher decree, they sit down in peace, and rejoice in the event and when the angel of Judea could not prevail in behalf of the people committed to his charge, because the angel of Persia opposed it, he only told the story at the command of God, and was as content, and worshipped with as great an ecstasy in his proportion, as the prevailing spirit. Do thou so likewise."

I shall merely refer to another of his favourite passages, Sect. 3, of the Holy Dying:-" But as when the sun approaches towards the gates of the

morning, he first opens the little eye of heaven and sends away the spirits of darkness, and gives light to a cock, and calls up the lark to matins, and by and by gilds the fringes of a cloud and peeps over the eastern hills, thrusting out his golden horns, like those which decked the brows of Moses when he was forced to wear a veil because himself had seen the face of God; and still while a man tells the story, the sun gets up higher, till he shows a fair face and a full light, and then he shines one whole day, under a cloud often, and sometimes weeping great and little showers, and sets quickly and so is a man's reason and life."

He also lent to me the original edition of Baxter's Saint's Rest, with Howe's Blessedness of the Righteous, and urgently recommended Dr. Doddridge's Sermon to Young People, "Christ formed in the soul as the only and eternal hope of glory." Indeed, so high was his opinion of this discourse, that he once actually delivered it publicly from memory on a Sabbath afternoon.

Mr. Hall considered that Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations was founded on sure principles, which every man of business ought to study. He used to say, "Task yourself to fifty pages a day, Sir, and secure the interstices of your time, and you will be astonished how much reading you will get through in a year." Another maxim which Mr. Hall frequently urged, was—“ Do a thing well, whatever it may be, and then learn to do it in the least possible time. A second, "Whatever bad habit you have acquired, practise the opposite,

and you will soon find the good principle increase from the exercise."

Another work which he recommended was Doddridge's Evidences of Christianity; this he considered a better book, in some respects, than Paley's; particularly for young persons who had some religious knowledge. He would not allow of indiscriminate reading on the Sabbath, but prescribed, in addition to the Bible, what may be called Sunday books, such as were either devotional, or had an aspect and bearing upon religion; Barrow's Sermons, Saurin's, &c.; the Evidences of Christianity, Church History, and Religious Biography.

Mr. Hall's plan of reading was different from that of Dr. Johnson and some other great men. He generally read regularly through a book, but with great rapidity. Speaking to him one day on the comparative merits of the Rambler and the Spectator, I expressed my preference for the Rambler. "Yes, sir, so do most young persons; but when you arrive at my age you will prefer the Spectator; there is a pomp and swell in the rounded periods of Johnson, but a beauty, simplicity, and true taste in Addison."

About this time I studied Gurney's System of Short Hand, which enabled me to furnish Mr. Hall with an account of any minister who supplied the pulpit during his absence. On his return, he usually inquired what had been the text,-in what manner it had been divided, &c. &c.; and then added a few remarks, either in commendation or

otherwise, frequently suggesting improvements, and stating the manner in which he would have treated the subject, &c. Mr. Hall was a very candid hearer, being always more inclined to approve than to censure. He considered that the late Rev. T. Toller and the Rev. A. Fuller, of Kettering, were the two best preachers of the age.

I shall never forget the enthusiasm with which he spoke of a sermon preached at Bedford by Mr. Toller, from 2 Pet. i. 12—15. "Sir," said he, "if the Angel Gabriel had come down from heaven on purpose, he could not have preached a more solemn and impressive discourse; it was like a dying minister preaching his last sermon;-it quite overcame me-there was scarcely a dry eye to be seen in the place."

In a memoir of Mr. Toller, written some years after, he thus refers to this service; "The aspect of the preacher, pale, emaciated, standing apparently on the verge of eternity; the simplicity and majesty of his sentiments; the sepulchral solemnity of a voice which seemed to issue from the shades, combined with the intrinsic dignity of the subject, perfectly quelled the audience with tenderness and terror, and produced such a scene of audible weeping as was perhaps never surpassed. All other emotions were absorbed in devotional feeling it seemed to us as though we were permitted for a short space to look into eternity, and every sublunary object vanished before the powers of the world to come," &c. &c. Mr. Hall was