and I trust I can say I felt much comfort in reading it, but I am such a poor leaky vessel, and so soon lose it again. I should have written to you before, but I have been in such a dark state, and so shut up in my mind, and often afraid I am shut out, for I have felt the attack of the enemy the last few weeks sharper I think than ever I did. Ab, dear Sir, mine has truly been a dark path, and I may say for above fifty-one years a very rugged one; yet I trust ofttimes it is a right one, although subjected to many fears; and how often does "old unbelief" make my little faith to tremble; yes, indeed, but still with one of old 1 cry, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." Of this I am certain," Faith is the gift of God;" yes, and so is the real desire after it, for it can only be planted in the soul by the hand of God, yet often do I fear I have no faith, still after awhile hope lifts up its feeble head. And well is it for me the Lord does not despise the day of small things, and, by his help, neither will I, for, bless his dear name, I trust I do still, amidst it all, feel a little longing after him, a sighing for Jesus, with a gleam of hope in Him, though it be too apparent that it is hoping against hope; yet there is a something which just keeps my sinking head above water, when I look back upon the last fifty-one years of my awful life-for before then I know I was dead in trespasses and sin-but when I look and see what temptations and trials, both inward and outward, have awaited me, sure I'am none but the arm of the Lord could have ever brought me through them; no, no. He that has delivered will yet deliver; and who can tell but the poor worm, however feeble, who now writes, shall stand every storm, and live at last? I have nowhere else to go but to Jesus, and if I should at last perish, it shall be hanging on Him; yes, that blessed Him, whom to know is life eternal. Ah, I can say, in the language of the late dear John Bailey, in one of his hymns, "By night I sometimes wonder, and wonder oft by day, I wonder now, and wonder shall while in this world I stay, While without spot or blemish amongst the hosts on high." Rest indeed it will be. Oh may the Lord be pleased to indulge me with that favour, by the teaching of his blessed Spirit, once more to call Him mine. This is what the Lord hath indulged me with in days that are gone by, if my wicked heart does not deceive me, yet at times when the Lord seems quite to hide his face from me, and I am left to feel so much of the deceitfulness of my own wicked heart, I am constrained to cry out, with one of old, "Can ever God dwell here ?" Still here I do think I can see some of the prints of the footsteps of the flock who are gone before, for in our greatest trials and temptations, and under the hidings of his countenance, has not even the dear Lord Jesus left the mark of his own feet behind Him? Yes, bless his dear aame, He has, for my "O how bitter that cup no heart can conceive, Shame on me. That He drank quite up, that sinners might live; May the dear Lord enable me to bear up under all trials by the way, even when "neither sun nor stars appear." Oh, may poor little faith be enabled to cast anchor in the sea of grace, which is a sea indeed, whose fulness cannot be exhausted. Well, the Lord knows I am a poor dry and barren soul that can neither move or stir without Him. What a mercy to have such an High Priest as Jesus! which even gives such as mne to say with Paul, "Thanks be unto God for bis unspeakable gift." I fear I shall tire you, but hope you will bear with me, for I do feel glad to have a friend to write or speak unto in my forlorn state, for I have not been able to get out of doors for the last year and nine months. My poor old pastor is dead-the church is scattered-not more than three of the old members left in it besides myself. Those that have the chapel now I may say I know nothing about; none of the members come to see me; so that with poor David, "I am left as a sparrow alone upon the housetop." How glad should I be to hear only one more faithful sermon, for I can say my poor soul does long to be fed with, if it be but a crumb, of that bread which was once broken upon Calvary's tree "Was broken indeed, On purpose to feed Poor destitute wretches like me." Paper forbids my saying more. May the Lord bless you as a church and people, with much nearness to Him, sweet fellowship and communion with Him, and may He pour out his Spirit from on high upon you all. My daughter unites in love to dear Mrs. F. and all hers, with Mr. and Mrs. M.; and may the Lord enable you to carry "low sails" as a church, and to walk humbly with thy God, as becoines free-grace debtors. So prays the poor worm, 5, Seymour Place. LOUISA WINTER. P.S. I am this month 77 years old. Full and evil have been the days of my pilgrimage. "THAT THY TRUST MAY BE IN THE LORD, I HAVE MADE KNOWN TO THEE THIS DAY, EVEN TO THEE." PROV. XXII. 19. WHEN we were boys, how we rejoiced to hear that the ice would bear, and with what light-hearted confidence did we trust ourselves on the frozen river or inundated meadows. It was made known to us that we might trust the glassy surface, and believing the report, we ventured without misgiving or fear. It is even thus with us in riper years, when the sacred word "trust in the Lord" is brought home to our hearts with divine unction and authority. We venture forth upon the trackless expanse of His providence, not knowing what a day may bring forth, yet fearing no evil, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Though perhaps when the position is new and very trying, our faith will falter and our courage sigh, till He who leads his people in the wilderness makes his strength perfect in our weakness. To stand alone in the world, to have all the ties of carnal relationship severed, to have the barrel of meal nearly empty, and to be unacquainted with the chosen people our contemporaries, appears a position far from enviable. It is not indeed so severe as Paul's day and a night in the deep, but it may be compared to Jacob's condition when pillowed on stones, or that of Abraham when he "went out, not knowing whither he went." And yet it is in these and similar circumstances of trial that the elect are made to "cease from man," and brought to repose upon the promises of the everlasting covenant. It is in the depths of solitude, desertion, and bereavement, that the soul born from above grows familiar with its parentage, and realizes a cousciousness of its divine origin. Overwhelmed and melted into silent awe and adoration, it discovers more clearly that it has fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ; prostrates itself with filial reverence before the first person of the blessed Trinity; clings with fond confidence to the bosom of the Almighty Son; and feels with holy rapture the indwelling presence of the Eternal Spirit. If to the conspiracy of trying circumstances already mentioned there be superadded concurrent temptations of Satan and upboilings of the filthy abyss of sin, coupled with the memory of falls and broken bones, the heaven-born inhabitant of the earthly tabernacle, goaded by cogent necessity, wrestles in prayer for succour and deliverance, and made strong out of weakness, soars with holy boldness, into the very presence of Him who sitteth visibly on the throne of grace. The Beloved Priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec (Heb. vi. 20) graciously reveals this hallowed person to the eye of faith, and His Holy Spirit whispers with persusive energy, "I have made known to thee, even to thee, this day, that thou mayest trust with child-like love and filial confidence in the Lord." Yea! hallowed Rabboni, if it be thy will that my soul enter in at the north gate, it will endear thee more to me in time, and make me rich in materials for chiming thy loud praises among the brethren. This poor man shall cry again and again if it be thy will, and thou alone shalt hear and save him out of all his troubles, for thou art the Angel that ever tarrieth nigh to deliver them that fear thee. None of them that trust in thee shall be desolate, nor shall they cease to taste and see that the Lord is good, and affirm with hearty thanksgiving, blessed indeed is the man that trusteth in Him. Answers to Enquiries. "Anna," Beckenham, inquires, "When the full assurance of faith has been bestowed on any individual, can the happy recipient ever lose that assurance, so as again to be the subject of doubt?" We answer, immense importance attaches itself to that little word full. If the believer has been brought into a full assurance of his standing in Christ into the "wealthy place" of full gospel liberty, his subsequent fits of unbelief, may be said to be more like flashes of doubt, than that continuous exercise of dread, misgiving, and gloomy apprehension, of which thousands and tens of thousands are the subjects, who had never been indulged with but the occasional (through for the time the equally precious and endearing) assurance of Jehovah's favour. Let the Lord but withdraw his hand, and the soul of the most established believer would in point of feeling certainly sink into the lowest depths of darkness and despondency; still, in a more general sense, the doubts and the fears of those who have had the full assurance of faith, are more in reference to the dispensations through which they pass-the road to the kingdom, rather thau about the right and title to the kingdom itself. Now observe the distinction: the child in gospel liberty and the child in legal bondage (both children, remember) may labour under darkness, and perhaps from the same common cause, the workings of a vile, deceitful, devilish heart; yet, whilst the one will stand parleying with unbelief and Satan, the other (encouraged by the remembrance of what the Lord hath done in seasons that are past) says, with the prodigal," I will arise and go to MY FATHER; and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called THY SON." The relationship is here such a striking feature. Mark the repetition of the claim !-The sin seen on the one hand, yet the kindred-tie pleaded on the other! The sin acknowledged, but with it the cry, "Art thou not my Father?” Beloved, this is a secret of our most holy faith, and one especially connected with gospel liberty; and (though childship does not regulate assurance, nor assurance childship) yet when once fully realized, the intervals of doubting that childship are, in a general sense, but very short in their duration. -ED. The Protestant Beacon. "From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome, and all his detestable enormities, good Lord, deliver us.”—Old Prayer-book Version. ROMISH SUPERSTITIONS-LIMBO-BAPTISM. LIMBO is the place or state, in which were the souls of the saints agreeably to the doctrine of the church of Rome, previously to the resurrection of Christ, on which occasion all who had died in faith left limbo, and ascended into heaven with their great Head. On referring to the Douay Testament, Luke xxiv. 43, the note thereon states that Christ was pleased, by a special privilege, to reward the faith and confession of the penitent thief with a full discharge of all his sins, both as to the guilt and punishment, and to introduce him immediately after death into the happy society of the saints, whose limbo-that is, the place of their confinement, was now made a Paradise by our Lord's going thither. "Butler's Catechism," which is the Romish school book, and is, or is expected to be, in every Papist's house in Ireland, is more explicit on this place or state. It teaches, lesson viii. Query.-Did Christ's soul descend to the hell of the damned? Answer.-No; but to a place of rest, called limbo. Q.Who were in limbo? A.-The souls of the saints who died before Christ. Q. Why did not the souls of the saints who died before Christ go to heaven immediately after their death? 4.-No one could go to heaven before Christ died. Q.-Where was Christ's body when his soul went to limbo? A.-In the grave. Although limbo was vacated at the time of the resurrection, yet it is not without being inhabited, it being now appropriated by the Church of Rome to all children who die unbaptized, and is believed by all true members of that church to be a place of darkness, where the poor little unbaptized souls neither enjoy pleasure, nor suffer pain, and where they will remain till the day of judgment. Hence the great anxiety of all Romanists to have their children baptized immediately after birth; and it is not at all uncommon for that ceremony to be performed previously to the birth, should there be any apprehension of the child being still-born. An instance of this occurred at the K, in the county of Waterford, a few weeks since. The wife of one of the persons engaged in a large establishment, having difficult labour, and the midwife fearing that the child might not be born alive, procured a basin of water, and a prayer book, baptized the unborn babe, making the sign of the cross upon the mother. The child, as anticipated, was not born alive; and, on its being communicated to the parent, she exclaimed, clasping her hands, "Glory be to God, the dear child's sowl is safe." The ceremony of baptism is as effectual, in the Church of Rome, if performed by a half-drunken midwife as by a successor of St. Peter. "Butler's Catechism" again, lesson xxx.- -Query.- Who are appointed by Christ to our baptism? Answer.-The priests of His church; but, in case of necessity, any one can give it. That the people believe limbo to be a state or a place of darkness, cannot, perhaps, be better illustrated, than by relating the following anecdote, told at the wake of a child belonging to a Papist labourer in the above-named establishment, and which, as a mark of respect, several Cornish miners attended. "I untherstand,” said one of the company, "that ye Protestants are not so partic'lar about baptism as we ?" "No," said one of them, "not exactly." "More's the pity," said Pat. "Whist there, boys, what are ye all keeping that noise about; sure I can't hear mysel speak, and I wanting to tell these Protestants here -God save them-a story that came unther my own partic'lar notice, about the necessity of the children being baptized afore they die. Well, boys, as I was going to say, in county Wicklow I knew a priest who was going home late one night from attending a sick call, when what should he see on the road afore him but 'lasheers' (a great number) of the spirits of little childars, carrying lamps in their hands, and shining like so many little stars, lighting him on his way home, and jumping and skipping, and frisking about for the bare life of them. At first his rivirence was grately astonished at the sight, and his holy mind filled with wonderment at what could be the maneing of it. At last, having recovered himself a bit. Ah! then,' says he to himself, 'sure enough, well did I know that these are all the little spirits of the |