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LETTER TO YOUNG ROWLAND AT ETON.

them to himself in faithfulness, that they might never perish, and none might pluck them out of his hands. Consider, my dear brother, how that when you, as a poor helpless sheep, were gone astray, this dear shepherd sought you and brought you back. Remember how, when wandering further and further from his fold, he made you hear his voice and follow him, carrying you as a lamb in his bosom, and gently leading you whilst you were with young. O, think of this love, which passeth knowledge, and may it fill your heart with praise, and your tongue with thanksgiving. Let it constrain you to live to him who died for you, and to grow daily more and more in conformity to his blessed image, that so you may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things, and by well doing put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, who would falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. But remember that it is not sufficient that you set yourself against outward sins; you must be watchful against heart sins, those sins that are most woven in you by nature and constitution; therefore try and examine yourself what manner of spirit you are of. Take the Psalmist's advice; commune with your own heart and in your chamber, and be still; fear not to know the worst of your case at all times, since this is the only way to mend it, whilst self-ignorance and self-conceit have shipwrecked their thousands. Let pride, peevishness, and self-will be brought forth, lamented, mortified; and, instead of these, seek to put on all the tempers and dispositions of the meek and lowly Jesus, with all the several lovely graces of his spirit. Bear patiently with the perverseness and oddities of those who are under the dominion of fallen nature, and therefore objects of pity, not of revenge; condescend to the lowest offices for the lowest people, when you can thereby render the

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least service either to their souls or bodies; become all things to all men, so far as you can consistently with your holy profession, yet take care that you abuse not your liberty for a cloak to sin, for sin in the least degree allowed or consented to, will damp the comforts, deaden the graces, and hinder your progress in the divine life. See, then, that you be watchful against the first risings of sin. Dally not with so dangerous an enemy, and, though it will plead hard to be spared, give it no quarter, but clothe yourself with the whole armour of God, and fight like a true Christian soldier in the strength and under the banner of the great Captain of your salvation, till Satan be bruised under your feet, and death be swallowed up in victory. I shall add one word more, and I have done. Be diligent in your studies. However human learning may prove a snare to such as are vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds, yet in a gracious heart it is very desirable; and if it is your prayer and endeavour that whatsoever attainments you make in profane literature may be subservient to the nobler end of rendering you instrumental to the good of souls, and useful to the church of Christ, there is no fear of your being hurt by those detestable maxims and principles with which the most admired classical authors abound; but rather will they be the means of discovering to you the blindness and depravity of human nature, and the necessity of seeking that only true wisdom that cometh from above, and without which all other wisdom will prove in the end to be only refined folly.

And now, with my sincere prayers that if it be the will

of God ever to call you to the work of the ministry, you may be fitted and prepared by his grace and Holy Spirit for that most important office, and by your steady attachment to our most excellent church, in a season wherein

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LETTER TO BOTH HIS BROTHERS.

there is so dreadful a departure from the doctrines of her homilies, articles, and common prayer, may prove yourself a faithful labourer in the vineyard of our blessed Lord, I conclude myself, your most affectionate brother,

Both by grace and nature,

RICHARD HILL.

P.S. Pray remember me in love to our dear brother, to whom you may either read or shew this letter, which I desire you will keep, as I hope it may hereafter, as well as at present, be of some use to you.

The next letter is addressed both to Mr. Rowland and Mr. Robert Hill.

MY DEAR BROTHERS,

Vine-street, March 4th, 1762.

I was in hopes of seeing you again before I went into Shropshire, but, as I have deferred my journey as long as possible, that Andrew (who, by the goodness of God, is got perfectly well through the smallpox) might be able to go with me, I am therefore obliged to take the nearest way, and cannot possibly call either at Eton or at Mr. Berkley's. However, I know I need not assure you that it is not through want of inclination, that I am not to converse with you any more upon the one thing needful before we meet at Hawkstone in the summer. [But] I trust the grace of God will keep you amidst all temptations by which you are beset, and that you will be diligent in the use of those means which he has appointed for the seeking and granting fresh supplies of that grace. Whatever you read, bring it home in self-application to your own hearts, and ask yourselves [each of you] this question" Have I had any experience of these truths in my own soul." For it is not barely reading so many

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43

religious books, nor being able to discourse on religious subjects, that constitutes the real Christian, but a deep sense of our own sinfulness by nature and practice, and of our great need of a Redeemer, with a true spiritual hunger and thirst after righteousness, and an earnest desire to be daily more and more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Whatever falls short of this, deserves not the name of religion; and so far from standing us in any stead, will only tend to deceive us with delusive and presumptuous hopes that have no foundation in the infallible word of God. I have sent you back that excellent little treatise, entitled " Heavenly Paths," having got some more of them since I saw you.

With my sincere wishes that you may be blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ, and experience an abundant share of those solid joys and comforts which the vain and transitory pleasures of this world are unable to give, I subscribe myself, my very dear brothers,

Yours most affectionately,

RICHARD HILL.

A more striking instance of affectionate fraternal advice than that which is contained in this letter, has seldom met the public eye. At a time when most young men possessing Mr. Hill's qualifications for society, and in the anticipation of equal prospects, would have been fascinated by the world, he was bent on promoting the cause of his Redeemer, and yet by no means neglected the callings, or fell below the propriety of his station in life. The next specimen of his correspondence with his brothers at Eton is addressed to Mr. Robert Hill. A more touching appeal to a youth amidst the dangers of a great public school cannot well be conceived, and it may yet have uses for which Providence has caused it to be preserved.

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LETTER TO HIS BROTHER ROBERT.

To Mr. Robert Hill.

Sept. 29th, 1763.

I should act very unworthy the relation I stand in to my dear brother Robert, was I not to use every method in my power for promoting his present and eternal happiness, which are so inseparably connected, that it is the highest infatuation to fancy we can enjoy the one whilst we are without the well-grounded hope of the other; for, alas! what good can this world, with all its pleasures and gratifications, do any man whilst his sins. are unpardoned, and the wrath of God abideth on him. He may, indeed, by a studied forgetfulness of eternity, and a round of vain amusements, put the concerns of his soul far out of his mind; but still the hour of death approaches, and he must soon, very soon, be called to the bar of judgment whether he will or not. All his endeavours not to think of it cannot remove it one single moment further from him, but will only make it ten thousand times more dreadful when it does come. That this important hour may not come upon you, my dear brother, unawares, is the reason of my writing this to you, to call upon you by the great love I bear you, and, what is of infinitely greater consideration, by the love you bear your own precious soul, not to trifle with your day of grace, not to resist the calls of that good Spirit, who, I am sure, has been frequently striving with you, lest you provoke him to withdraw from you, and to swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his rest.

It may, perhaps, sound strange if I tell you that it was indeed a great consolation to me, to hear you confess so ingenuously at Wolverhampton, that you thought you could not be saved if you were to die in the state you now are in. But the reason why this confession gave me