NOTES OF CONVERSATIONS.

REV. SIR,--In my visits among the poor of an extensive parish in which a near relation labours, I have for some time made a practice of taking notes of any conversation or incident which seemed to me to be worthy of attention. I enclose a few extracts from those notes, for insertion in your pages, if approved.

J. W.

Remarkable answer to prayer." I was called to visit the cottage of a poor woman whose son, a lad about six years of age, was dangerously ill of a fever. The child was too weak to pay much attention to me, but I took the opportunity of addressing the mother on the concerns of her soul, and among other things urged on her the duty and the privilege of prayer. She seemed distressed, and on my inquiring the cause, she told me her heart smote her bitterly, for she had once on a remarkable occasion been signally taught this lesson, and yet had so soon forgotten it. It was a Saturday evening. This very child then only two years old, was lying very ill and unable to eat the coarse food which was all she had in the house. She knew that without proper nourishment he must die; and yet, where was she to get it? Her husband had flung himself out of the cottage, as usual, intoxicated; his weekly earnings had been squandered at the ale-house, his credit in the neighbourhood was gone, and the few friends she once had, had turned their backs on her on account of her imprudence. The child screamed bitterly. She laid it on the bed, drew the curtains round it, and in the agony of her soul bolted the door, threw herself on a chair in the farthest corner of the miserable apartment, and covering her face with her hands, tried, for the first time almost in her life, to pray. "Let me not see the death of my son." And he who sent his angel to Hagar in the desert, provided a friend for this friendless outcast. While she lay there almost stupified with sorrow, and supplicating his pity in broken and almost hopeless ejaculations, she heard a rap at the door; and starting up, fearful lest any one had overheard her, she opened it, and a distant relation who had never noticed her before, entered with a basket, and told her that hearing that her son was ill, she had brought her a couple of ducks ready dressed and some other nice provisions, as she feared she might

be in want. These served her little boy till he recovered; and she, struck with the remarkable occurrence, for a time was constant in prayer and the study of her long-neglected Bible, where the words "while they are yet speaking, I will hear," met her eye. Now she found the mystery unravelled. By degrees however the impression faded away, and her husband's opposition at length overcame her good resolutions; she has now however somewhat awoke to a sense of her guilt in thus forsaking the Lord; private and family prayer are again renewed, her husband is somewhat improved, and I trust that if in dependence on the grace of God she "follow on," she will in due time be led to "know the Lord."

"Oh that feel!" said an aged Christian, in her rough but expressive language," when one can just throw oneself on Christ, and feel him to be all in all; it sheds such a light, like, round one's soul: and then when one reads one's Bible to one's sen', and thinks on it, and prays over it, there comes such sweet commentations !"

A poor old woman who carns a scanty pittance by spinning, yet contrives to bring her monthly two-pence for the Church Missionary Society. I asked her how she was able to save it out of so small an allowance?"Oh!" she said, "my wicked heart often thinks, here's Monday a'coming, what can I do? how can I save two-pence; I'm sure I can't: but then again I think, nay, nay, its God's work and so we mus'nt have any 'cans,' and so I find some way or other to deny myself."

In one of the most ill-built, filthy hovels I ever saw, lives an old lame widow. You enter a low, tottering door, and see in a dirty, fireless, comfortless room, an old haggard looking woman, sitting on a crazy ragged bedstead, her iron spectacles turned up on her cap, her dark eyes beaming with delight and her Bible open on her lap. She hardly notices you as you enter, or if she greet you with any expression, it is by lifting up her hand and uttering faintly, "glory, glory!" Such is widow S. A relation of

her's who is in better circumstances once came to see her; and coming from a distance, the old woman determined to sleep herself in a lumber closet, and leave the better apartment for the accommodation of her visitor. This person was just going to rest when she was roused by a voice proceeding from the closet, and listening, she overheard the old widow engaged in fervent devotion, and among other things thanking the Lord for the undeserved comforts with which she was surrounded. It went to her heart. "It struck me," said she, "how she could bless Ged for her miserable hut, while I never once remembered having thanked him for the many comforts I enjoy."

This old woman once lived in a lonely hut not far from the sea; and when she was first under deep convictions, she would remain whole nights in fervent prayer. A party of fishermen as they returned from their boats at four in the morning, used to pass by her door; and overhearing a voice would sometimes stop a few minutes to listen. It was at this poor widow's door that the truth reached the heart of one of those fishermen, and he lives to this day a consistent disciple of Jesus.

Truly "God hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things that are mighty, and base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence."

I asked a boy in my class where God is: "in heaven, and all over." Is there any place where he is not? "Yes, our hearts, when we forget him." How do you know God is not there? "Because Satan is there then." God is not in all his thoughts.

PRAYER ANSWERED ON A DEATH-BED.

About two years before the death of our dear and much. valued friend, the Lord saw fit to visit her with a fever, when she was very ill; and though her mind was generally kept in peace, yet at times when she thought death might be at the JUNE, G 3

door, she felt, as she had all her life-time, a great dread of it and resolved to pray daily to have the sting of death taken away from her, and that when she came really to exchange time for eternity, she might find death swallowed up in everlasting victory. To assist her, she took a verse from the Bible to plead with the Lord; but whether it was, "thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ," or some other, I am not certain: she, however persevered in prayer notwithstanding many hindrances and discouragements. She continued to cry unto the Lord, and to beseech her dear Saviour, who had swallowed up death in victory, to give her the victory over it; and not to leave nor forsake her in her last dying hour; but to put his everlasting arms underneath her, that she might feel herself safe in them, whatever dark and distressing conflicts she might be called to pass through, before he would be pleased to lift up the light of his countenance upon her, as she passed through the valley of the shadow of death. She was often much discouraged in these seasons of prayer, as it appeared to her as if she could not get access at a throne of grace; and it was many times suggested to her, that she might almost as well give it up, as no answer of acceptance seemed to come; but a something within (no doubt the Eternal Spirit) disposed and constrained her, as the evening came, to walk up and down the room praying in the same strain. Death at length drew near; and the dear saint, who, as I before observed, through fear of her last enemy, was subject to bondage all her life-time, now found that she had to do with a faithful God, who said not in vain, "ask, and ye shall have;" and again, "if ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will give it you." His ear had been open to hear her prayer, though at the time it appeared as if no answer came; yet her prayer, which she was taught by the Spirit to offer up, was heard; and washed in the precious blood of Jesus, it was presented faultless before the Father: and now she found, by blessed experience, that to die was endless gain; death appeared to her like a kind friend, sent by Jesus to deliver her from the bondage of corruption, from the burden of the flesh, to take her home to glory. All fear was indeed removed; her sins, which she felt were many, were washed away in the precious blood of Jesus, who was gone to prepare a place for her, where the wicked would cease from troubling, and

where the weary would for ever rest. She had passed through many trials, but none were so great as her inward conflicts with sin and Satan; but though weak in herself, and all but overwhelmed, she was in the Lord made more than conqueror over every enemy, and now she exclaimed on her dying bed, "I am quite happy; I am quite comfortable, I feel that Jesus is with me; I am going to heaven;" and thus, surrounded by her beloved family, she sweetly fell asleep in Jesus.

May the above be the means of stirring up and encouraging many of the readers of the Friendly Visitor, always to pray, and not to faint. Remember, the saints of God have a great High-Priest, touched with a feeling of all their infirmities, making continual intercession for them, taking their cold, dead, imperfect prayers, washing them in his precious blood, and presenting them faultless before the Father. Our dear, departed friend, was a constant reader of the F. V. and derived some comfort in the perusal of a paper in it, entitled, "consolations against the fear of death;" page 97, of the volume for 1830.

A FEW OF THE BELIEVER'S PRIVILEGES:

FROM EPHESIANS I.

Grace, and peace. They are blest with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. They are chosen in him before the foundation of the world. They are holy, and without blame before him in love. Adopted children. Accepted in him the Beloved. They have redemption through his blood, and the forgiveness of sins. The mystery of his will is made known to them. They are made one in Christ. They have an inheritance. They are predestinated according to his purpose. Sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. A purchased possession, of which they have an earnest. They have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of their understanding are enlightened. They know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of his power to those who believe according to the working of his mighty power. They are the body of Christ, who is their head.

L. R. C.