when the boat leaves us at the bar. Dear Henry, that the Lord may ever keep you by his grace from all sin and temptation, and guide you by heavenly wisdom in all your ways, and make you faithful to him, and all things to work for your best good, is the earnest, constant prayer of your most tenderly affectionate brother. Tuesday, A.M.-When I had finished writing yesterday, P. M., all the drear feelings of home-sickness, or rather of sickness to see you, came over me, and it was with great difficulty I restrained them; but I "turned to," and added up our accounts. Remember all I have said to you about everything, and be very careful of your health. Oh! my dear brother, you seem dearer to me than ever; but we must love no earthly object too strongly. Let us nail our affections to the cross of Christ, whose love is stronger than death, and from whom, if we are united to him by true faith, we can never, never be separated, not even by the roar and din of a dissolving world. Oh, let us commune much with Jesus, our blessed Saviour, make him our friend, and then shall we have one indeed that will never fail us. Let us both strive to be fitted for that blessed world where the parting word shall be unknown, and sin and sorrow never enter. Do not be too anxious, but commit me calmly to God, who has taken care of me thus far. We resume here the Private Journal, which, from the time of his arrival at New Orleans, and renewed experience of suffering with his malady, is more than ordinarily pervaded with tenderness and resignation to the Divine will. Passing over the entries made in Louisiana, and at the period when providential circumstances, and a wise regard to the future, made it suitable that the brothers should separate, wẹ open it again at sea. At sea, May 15th, 1836.—I have had a slight attack of asthma this last week, but am to-day better, and have enjoyed a comfortable Sabbath. Thanks be to God, in the absence of all my earthly friends, I can hold communion with him, and enjoy the sweet, unspeakable privilege of prayer. And, oh, what a glorious privilege it is! What a blessed means of grace! Though in the midst of profane and wicked men, if the Christian humbly and earnestly improve this heavenly privilege, he may pass unscathed in the midst of their depravity, walking by faith and having his life hid with Christ in God. Oh Lord, grant me more zeal and earnestness to improve this blessed gift, and to be more watchful and holy in all my life. "O for a closer walk with God." In two Sabbaths from this, I may possibly, by the blessing of God, be with my beloved relatives. I do not return with all that improvement in my health which was hoped for from the measures that have been adopted. No; though somewhat better, and for as much as I am I would be sincerely thankful, I am still, at intervals, a sufferer, and sometimes a severe one, from the attacks of my indomitable disorder, which tenaciously clings to me like the wild beast to its prey. Oh, heavenly Father, who layest upon me this affliction, grant unto me meekness and resignation to bear, and grace to improve it to thy glory and my best good.. Boston, May 29th, Sabbath evening." Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thine help I'm come; and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home." Well may this be exceeding goodness the language of my heart, in view of the of God in preserving me safe from all the perils of the sea, and permitting me again to set foot upon the solid land. We arrived in the harbor of Boston last Sunday noon. I came on shore at half past four in the afternoon. This last week I have had "a feast of fat things" in the religious anniversaries of this city, which I seemed providentially to have arrived in season to attend. To-day I have had the rich, spiritual treat, of hearing two most excellent discourses from Rev. Dr. Tucker, of Troy, in the A. M. from the text, Col. i. 27, "Which is Christ in you the hope of glory," in the P. M from the 51st Psalm, "Restore unto me the joys of thy salvation"—both pregnant with sound experimental truth, which it was a spiritual feast for me to hear. I have had a most happy Sabbath-I think the most so of any in my life, except those that immediately followed my spiritual birth. Indeed, the whole week, take it all together, has been one of the happiest I ever spent. I have felt all day to sing the praises of God for his abounding goodness to me; and have had sweet communion with Christ my blessed Saviour, to whom I have this afternoon renewedly consecrated all that I am, and all that I have, to be forever and entirely his; and, I think, never did I do it with more entire sincerity, greater delight and spiritual enjoyment. Oh, what a blessed privilege it is to surrender to God's disposal all that we have and are! Jesus, my God, to thee I consecrate my heart, my life, my soul, my being thine ne'er to part. : "The Lord has breathed upon a worm, And sent me, from above, Wings such as clothe an angel's form, With these to Pisgah's top I fly, And there delighted stand, The Lord of all the vast domain The length and breadth of all the plain, Though much exalted in the Lord, My strength is not my own; CHAPTER VII. FORMATION OF CHARACTER THROUGH SUFFERING AT HOME AND ABROAD. O suffering, how much to thee I owe, The lessons it imports me most to know, A sacred seminary thou hast been, I trust, to train me to a happier scene. In time of illness, suffering and alone, My friends withdrawn, The blessed beams of heavenly truth have shone On me, forlorn! With such a hallowed vividness and power As ne'er were granted to a brighter hour. ANON. How closely the experience recorded in this biography corresponds with that traced in these lines, has been already seen, and it will be yet more apparent in the present chapter. Affliction always has more to do in the formation of character and habits, than we are aware of. Cecil says, "Never was there a man of deep piety who has not been brought into extremities—who has not been put into the fire-who has not been taught to say, 'Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him."" The general experience of God's people endorses this: it is in the furnace that their gold is tried, separated, and refined. It is in affliction that we learn God's statutes; there it is that they are indelibly written, as with the point of a diamond, on the tablet of our hearts. The beloved subject of these memorials might have written what he often felt : O sacred suffering! In that bright abode If through the merits of my Saviour-God A seat I gain, This theme shall tune my golden harp's soft lays, It was undoubtedly by suffering in his early days, and by suffering protracted into manhood, that he was sanctified. He used often to say with Jeremiah, though never complaining, "I am the man that hath seen affliction. Correct me, but not with anger, lest thou bring me to nothing." It was his constant prayer that his affliction might not be lost, and the sentiments, if not the language of a Scripture sonnet, were often on his lips: We need not ask for suffering; when its test Comes, we may prove too faithless to endure. We need not ask for suffering; it were best |