length of time, impose upon others; his views of his state and of his services, and his abhorrence of sin, authorize the belief that there was no deception practised upon himself. It was not a state of mere improved feeling, not the whitewash of pharisaism; the change entered the grain of the man-turning him inside out to others, to whom any thing in the shape of guile was invisible-and outside in upon himself, while he declared, from the internal and external evidence which a depraved nature, and a previously sinful life had furnished, that he had been "as big a heathen as any of the natives of Ceylon," having" had gods many, and lords many;' but that "the Lord, when he awakened" his soul, enabled" him "to cut them off at a stroke." He reasoned not with flesh and blood; he spared no Agag-he reserved no sin.

CHAPTER III.

He seeks church fellowship—advises with a pious clergyman, with whom he meets in band-unites himself, on the clergyman's leaving the neighbourhood, to the Wesleyan Methodists—the kind of preaching under which he profited-Society at Sturton Grange-a revival of religion-two colliers rendered extensively useful-a solitary barn the resort of the devout—Samuel's distress on account of indwelling sin, and his deliverance from it-singular occurrence-deep distress compatible with a state of justification.

Man, who was originally formed for society, and furnished with its felicities in paradise, carries with him into every climate, and into all circumstances, those elements, which when properly improved and directed, not only fit him for social life, but render him restless without it, as well as inspire him with a solicitude for its blessings. A few solitary hermitical and misanthropic exceptions, or an occasional wish for

66

wings like adove," to "fly away" from its bustle, in order to "be at rest," are not to be adduced as arguments against the general principle; for even among those who are most partial to retirement, who are least in love with the world. of beings around them, and who in opposition to the designs of God in helping man by man, convert themselves into misers' treasuree-a kind of moral and intellectual cash, hoarded up in the safe of a monastery or a nunnery, useless to such as are most in need of their aid, and whose wants might be essentially relieved by an expenditure of

their time and of their talents-even among these the love of society is inherent, and is manifested by their institutions, where groups are permitted to dwell and mingle with each other, if not as the coin itself, as the misers of Christianity. This love of society is not destroyed but regulated and strengthened by religion; and by no one is it more needed, or more ardently desired than by a person newly "found in" Christ. The notion of "going to heaven alone," of preserving our religion a "secret"-which, by the way, belongs only to those who have no religion to exhibit— is instantly annihilated on the reception of pardon. The charm of secrecy is broken-and why? There is now "something to say"-subject matter for conversation. "A new song" is put into the "mouth," and it must be sung; a morsel" has been received, and it cannot be eaten "alone." Nor is the wish to communicate confined barely to a person's entrance on the divine life; "it grows with his growth." "They that feared the Lord spake often one to another."

66

Samuel, who was in danger of casting his "pearls before swine," and who had confounded attempts at usefulness, with "the communion of saints," was instinctively led to seek the latter from the nature of his own wants. "I was at a sad loss," says he, "for church fellowship, there being no society near." This "loss" could not allude to any privation of privilege, with the enjoyment of which he had been previously favoured; for no such enjoyment had been known. The want was created with the character which he now sustained. It was the want of a child-himself being only a babe in Christ -looking for some one to guide and support his

steps; the want of another regimen,than that to which he had been accustomed-of other food, for the support of a new life. His connexion with the Methodists, as a hearer, whether occasional or constant, seems to have been broken off with his servitude at Healaugh; and no persons of that persuasion being near, a closer connexion could not be immediately and conveniently renewed. Having been accustomed to attend the service of the Established Church, after his residence at Micklefield, he naturally looked to its members for communion. The light however, which he had received, was sufficiently discriminative in its character, to guide him to the right spot. Instead of "wending his way" to Aberford, where he had distinguished himself as a chorister, he proceeded with the infallibility of instinct to Ledsham, and with great simplicity solicited an interview with the resident clergyman. "I asked him," he remarks, "what I should do; and he told me to call on him the next Lord's day morning, when he would advise with me." He accordingly repaired to the house at the time appointed, and was cordially received, as well as religiously instructed. Samuel's testimony of him-because the testimony of experience is of more value, in an evangelical point of view, than the highest panegyric from the pen of a literary nominal professor of Christianity. It is the lisping of childhood, as yet unaccustomed to artifice. "He was a very good man, and preached the gospel. I went to Ledsham some time; but he was at length obliged to leave, for his salary would not keep him. Then I was at a loss for my band-mate." The last expression, the full import of which can only be known and felt by

persons enjoying the sweets of Christian fellowship, shews the tenderness, the condescension, the solicitude, the sympathies of this ecclesiastic -the VILLAGE PATRIARCH stooping from his dignity, and taking, as a band-mate, "sweet counsel" with the VILLAGE BLACKSMITH ! *

This was a gracious providence to Samuel, through which he was enabled, in the childhood

* Ledsham is the village (in which stands the church) in which the late Rev. Walter Sellon, who was vicar of the parish, lived and died; and Ledstone Hall, at no great distance from it, is the place where the renowned Lady Betty Hastings also resided, and finally resigned her soul into the hands of her God. The clergyman of whom Samuel speaks, is supposed to have been Mr. Wightman, who was curate to Mr. Sellon; the former a Calvinist, and the latter an Arminian in creed; and though salary might have its share of influence in the question of removal, it is strongly suspected that doctrinal sentiments aided in turning the scale. Mr. Sellon was a sturdy supporter of the doctrine of General Redemption, and fought some hard battles in early life against the Calvinistic view of the subject, under the auspice of Mr. Wesley; but towards the close of Mr. Wesley's pilgrimage, Mr. Sellon manifested a degree of coldness towards his old friend. In a manuscript correspondence of Mr. Wesley with Mr. Sellon, in the possession of the writer, it appears that the warmth of friendship began to subside, when Mr. Sellon resided at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. From 1772 to 1784,there is a chasm in the correspondence. Up to the former period, Mr. Wesley's address was "Dear Walter," with all the familiarity of close friendship: but on Mr. Sellon's residence at Ledsham, at which place he lived during the latter period, the address was altered to "Dear Sir," one of the letters concluding with, "You used to meet me, when I came near you; but you seem of late years to have forgotten your old friend and brother, John Wesley." Among the manuscript letters referred to, are some curious epistolary specimens written by Mr. Charles Wesley to Mr. Sellon; also some rare ones addressed to the same person, from the Rev. Messrs. J. Fletcher, Vin. Perronet, E. Perronet, Sir Richard Hill, and the Countess of Huntingdon-all tending to throw light on the controversies and passing events of the times-which another occasion may render it proper to present to the public. How long Mr. Sellon remained at Ledsham, the writer is unable at present to ascertain; but it is probable, from the Wesleyan Meth. Mag. for 1818, p. 53, that he was either in the village or its immediate vicinity, in a state of great affliction, in 1790, and 1791.

E