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Stockbridge, where the Indians live, and there I lodged on a little straw. I was greatly exercised with inward distresses all day; in the evening my heart sunk, and I seemed to have no God to go to. O that God would help me! The place, as to its situation, is sufficiently lonesome and unpleasant, being encompassed with mountains and woods, twenty miles distant from any English inhabitants, six or seven from any Dutch, and more than two from a family that came some time since from the highlands of Scotland, and have now lived about two years in this wilderness."

"April 10.-I preached to the Indians both forenoon and afternoon. They behaved soberly in general; two or three appeared under some religious concern, and one told me that her heart had cried ever since she heard me preach first."

In a letter to his brother, written the last day of April, he says, "I live in a most lonely, melancholy desert, about eighteen miles from Albany. I board with a poor Scotchman; his wife can scarcely talk any English. My

lodging is a little heap of straw laid upou some boards, a little way from the ground; for it is a log room, without any floor, that I lodge in. My diet consists chiefly of hastypudding, boiled corn, and bread baked in the ashes. I have not seen an English person this month. These, and many other circumstances as uncomfortable, attend me, yet I hardly think of them, as they are so far exceeded by my spiritual distresses and conflicts. The Lord grant that I may be enabled to endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ! As to my success here, I cannot say much; the Indians seem generally well disposed towards me, and mostly very attentive to my. instructions. Two or three are under some convictions; but there seems to be little of the special workings of the Divine Spirit among them yet, which gives me many a sinking hour. But let us always remember, that we must, through much tribulation, enter into God's eternal kingdom. The righteous are scarcely saved; it is an infinite wonder that we have hopes of being saved at all." spiritual distresses and conflicts of which he

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speaks in this extract were very severe, and drew from him many sighs and tears.

After living with the Scotchman several weeks, finding his lodging so far from the Judians to be a great disadvantage to his work among them, as he could not be with them in the morning and evening, which were usually the best hours to find them at home, and when they could best attend on his instructions, he determined to live with, or near the Indians, that he might watch all opportunities when they were at home, and take advantage of such seasons for their instruction. Accordingly, he removed, and for a time lived with them in one of their wigwams; but soon after he built a small house, and lived the remainder of the year entirely alone, as his interpreter, who was an Indian, chose to live in a wigwam with his countrymen. Of this solitary situation he thus wrote:-"I live in the most lonesome wilderness, and have but one single person to converse with who can speak English. I have no fellow-christian to whom I can unbosom myself, and lay open my spiritual sorrows, and with whom I might take

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sweet council in conversation about heavenly things, and join in prayer. The Indians' affairs are very difficult, they having no land to live upon but what the Dutch threaten to drive them from; they have no regard to the souls of the poor Indians, and they hate me because I came to preach to them.'

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Wishing to get the young Indian his interpreter appointed a schoolmaster, he set out, May 30, on a journey to New-Jersey, to see the commissioners of the missionary society. He accomplished his object, spent a week in visiting his friends, and returned again to his Indians.

Being in a weak state of body, he suffered much for want of suitable food. He was forced to go or send fifteen miles for all the bread he eat; sometimes he had none for some days, for want of an opportunity to send for it; and, if he got any quantity, it would be often mouldy or sour before he eat it. "But," he says, "through divine goodness, I had some Indian meal, of which I made little cakes, and fried them, and I felt contented with my circumstances, and sweetly resigned

to God. In prayer I enjoyed great freedom, and blessed God for my present circumstances, as if I had been a king; and I never feel comfortably but when I feel my soul' going forth after God; if I cannot be holy, I must be miserable for ever. 99

In August, he writes in his diary as follows: 22. I had intense and passionate breathings after holiness, and very clear manifestations of my utter inability to procure or work it in myself; it is wholly owing to the power of God. Oh, with what tenderness the love and desire of holiness fill the soul!-23. I poured out my soul for all the world, friends and enemies. My soul was concerned for Christ's kingdom, that it might appear in the whole earth.-25. I find it impossible to enjoy peace and tranquillity of mind without a careful improvement of time. This is really an invitation of God and Christ Jesus. If we would be like God, we must see that we fill up our time for him.-28. I was this day much perplexed with some Dutchmen; all their discourse turned upon the things of this world. Oh, what a hell it would be to spend an eter

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