be had: but very seidom are we favoured with it. Our din ner in the Spring and Summer is chiefly on creffes, falt, and bread; cabbage and falt, and a little butter, when it can be had; yet a dinner of herbs where the love of God is, is better than a stalled ox with hatred and ftrife therewith. But my friend, the Pafchal Lamb, though eaten with bitter herbs, fweetens every thing we enjoy, bleffed be my God! Sometimes in the Summer we have garden beans and falt, carrots and falt, but little meat; for I think I can fafely fay, we have not had four joints of meat in our house these ten months; for, my friend, where muft it come from? My firing flands me in almost four pounds per annum, and my houfe and garden two pounds per annum; coals and every thing is fo very dear in this poor bare county. In the Winter, our dinner is potatoes and falt; on that I have dined this day with my family. This is our yearly living, and bleffed be God for this! O, my friend, although I am often straitened for bread on earth, I hope, through grace, I fhall never want water in hell; O, the happy thought!-As to my affairs they are too bad to fpeak of, but I cannot help it, and what I am going to speak is true. I am behind hand in the world almoft eighteen pounds, and moft of it for bread, fome of it for other things; but the farmer that serves me, fees when I receive two or three guineas I take it him, and fo he bears with me. This is the Lord's doing, O! may it be ever marvellous in my eyes!-I am almoft ferenty-four years old, in health pretty well, but exceedingly weak; my wife is fifty-eight years; but fhe, poor thing! enjoys but a very poor ftate of health. The Lord prepare us both for a happy end! Amen. Sir, I muft now tell you the price of provifions in our county, and then you will not be furprized at my debt. Wheat before harveft was 17. 7s. and 17. 8s. per bufhel. Barley 15s. and 16s. per bufhel: and now. wheat is at 17. 3s. and 17. 4s. per bufhel; barley at 14s. and 15s. per bufhel; butter in the market, 19d. and 20d. per pound; falt butter in the shops at 14d. and 15d. per pound; cheefe in the market at 8d. and 9d. per pound, and in the fhops at 11d. and 12d. per pound; potatoes 7s. and 8s. per bufhel.-The Lord have mercy on the poor, and take away all our fins, which are the caufe of all our forrows!-Dear friend, the poor are famithing to death! and now its no wonder I am fo much behind hand in the world; "but I hope the Lord will deliver me." Pfalm xxxiv. and xxxvii. ver. 3. and two laft, with many more. of the Lord's bank-notes, he will furely accomplish. Now, my dear friend, I have given you a true ftate of all my affairs, and the Lord knows it is true. My wife and children join in love and thanks to you and all our dear friends in the Lord, praying God to bless you in all things and reward you. Such is the earnest prayer of your's, dear Sir, in the bonds of eternal grace. Signed C. and A. action cas To the Editor of the Evangelical Magazine. REV. SIB, With fincere pleasure I fend you another Letter from the Rev. C. B. whofe affecting circumftances are defcribed in the last number of your Magazine, page 52. He is one of the feals of the late Rev. G. Whitfield's miniftry, and an Evangelical Minister of unblemished character. Tho' 74 years of age, he walked laft year fixty miles from his poor habitation (according to his annual custom) preaching as he went, in the most obfcure parts of the country. Surely fuch a labourer in the Lord's vineyard fhall never be forfaken by Him. I am, Sir your's, PHILEMON. Feb. 5, 1801. To Mr. G. L-T-H-, Jan. 27, 1801. "I called upon the Lord and he heard me, yea he took me out of many waters, many sorrows have encompassed me about, but the Lord hath delivered me out of them all." My very dear and invaluable Friend in the Lord, EING fo amazed at the Lord's providence, and your goodness, with all your helpers, that I am at a lofs to form my poor mite of love; may the Spirit of love and truth guide my heart and pen! My dear fir, having with tears offered my poor mite of gratitude to my dear and heavenly Father, I now offer my thanks to you and all my other friends under God, for thefe your unexpected favours. This is the Lord's doing; O may it ever be marvellous in my eyes! God give me a thankful heart! Of the box of rich bleffings we received, I have given Mifs W. an account. Many and rich they are, and have fupplied food for our bellies, and clothing for our backs and beds; the Lord reward both you and your helpers! Dear Sir, I received your kind letter, dated Jan. 9, 1800, but it came not to hand till the 23d, with a demand on my worthy friend, Mr. H. for 217. which we have received. But whence is this to me, that my God and his church fhould thus look upon me, while many of our poor fellowcreatures are ftarving for want, and I and my family might justly have been in the unhappy number. O Lord, why me, why me! My dear friend, I have been under thefe waters for fome years, and to all outward appearance could never have been released, my place being fo poor that the people can fcarce make provifion for the Lord's table, fo I can expect but little from them; and provisions so exceffive dear for thefe five years, that fearing the Lord's name should be flurred I have laboured in my bed with conflicts, till my shirt has been wet on my back; nay, so have I fought with the Devil and unbelief, that I have walked the floor in the night, crying, "O Lord, I befeech thee deliver my foul." Thefe two texts often followed me, Pfalm xxxvii. 3. and Pfalm 1. 15. with many more; but the Lord hath raised you up for my deliverance. Indeed, fir, I fcored up my dear Lord a great debt, but I little thought that he had given orders to you, and my dear friends (unknown to me) to remit it; but he knew both you and me, and my wants, and now you under him, as the executors of his goodness, have remitted it with honour. Bleffed be his dear name, and thanks to you; the Lord reward you all, amen! And now, my dear friend, I will just give you a little fketch of what, under God, you and your helpers have done ; you have been the means of ftopping the mouth of an accufing Devil, dafhing unbelief out of countenance, treading carnal reafon under foot, fupplying the needs of the hungry, clothing the backs and beds of the naked, croffing the books of creditors, ftopping the mouths of enemies, and made me a wonder to all the country. You have fet a pearl into all your crowns, delivered me and my poor family as out of a whale's belly, and once more fet our feet upon dry ground. Bleffed be our God, and thanks to you, for once more my feet fland upon even ground. I can fcarce write for weeping. Your favour juft cleared me from the world-we paid fifteen pounds for bread, and the reft for other things. Men's hoes are ten fhillings a pair; wheat is 14. 4s. and 17. 5s. per E bufhel; and we cannot have two pounds of bread for a fhilling, O! for faith to trust the promise of my God! I hope he will yet deliver me. I have one favour to beg, not to nourish my pride, nor to please a vain fancy-no; God forbid! It is for the glory of God, to fend me a letter with all your names that have helped me, to rear up a monument in the history of my life, of God's goodness by your means, to infcribe them as in a plate, for my dear children to view when I am dead and gone; how a covenant-keeping God did deliver their poor father, and supported them according to Pfalm xlviii. 14. "That they may tell it to them that come after." O my dear friends, let me beg a fhare in all your prayers for us; and now, my dear friend, fuffer me and my poor family as on our knees with tears in our eyes, to blefs God for you, and that he may crown you all with every bleffing. And now with tears farewell! the Lord bless you all. Amen! To another benefactor, on the fame occafion, Mr. B. writes, "When the box of bleffings came, I was fo overwhelmed with joy, that, as our people emptied it, I could only ftand and weep and praife the Lord," To the Editor of the Evangelical Magazine. DEAR SIR, The enclosed letters were written to a member of the church, which I have the happiness to serve. It having pleafed the Lord to make them ufeful to his foul, he has deliberately renounced the erroneous fentiments which he had imbibed, and folemnly declared his belief of the truth herein pleaded for. If you judge them calculated to promote the glory of Chrift, and the good of his people, and are willing to publish them in your Magazine, they are at your fervice. I fincerely pray that the Lord may crown your labours with his bleffing, and remain your's affectionately, JAMES UPTON. Dec. 29, 1800, No. 3, Brunswick-street. LETTER I, ON THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, MY DEAR FRIEND, I yan, and prayed earnestly in fecret, that the Lord would enable me to write in reply, what is agreeable to his facred word, and what may, through a divine bleffing, be for the prefent, and everlafting good of your foul, I defire to address you in a spirit of love, and with meeknefs, if God peradventure, will give you repentance, to "the acknowledging of the truth."a The fubject appears to me to be of the moft interefting nature; it relates to the object of our worship, the foundation of our hope, and the source of all our happiness. I would juft premife, that I firmly believe there is but "one only living and true God; for though I believe, "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, "the Word, and the Holy Ghoft," yet "these three are And you and I were baptised " in the name" not one." |