nor answer given, and these things working against our desires, expectation seems to flag, whilst what we hope for is deferred, and thus makes the heart faint. Here it pleased the Lord to keep me waiting till, at last, I was obliged, if I may so speak, to cast myself unreservedly upon Him, to do with me as seemed good. This giving up all to Him seems the last thing; but when all strength is gone, and none shut up or left, it often appears to be the Lord's time. A very little while before I was to get ready to go to chapel (and very cold it was) these words came with sweet relief: "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, I will help thee, saith the Lord." (Isa. xli. 14.) I was a worm indeed. And this was as sweet, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." (Isa. xli. 10.) This was help right early, though I had thought, at times, it would never come: surely this was help in time of need. Oh, how it broke my poor, tried heart! no thanks were sufficient to extol His holy name. It brought also to my remembrance a former help I had received in desperate circumstances, to human view; which help could not be traced to any but Himself, and which tended to increase my faith in this. And all that I had begged for, as to help in dispensing His word on that day, He fulfilled. I was carried through with sufficient strength for my work, and felt much of my subject; it was from 1 John iii. 1-3: this came to me about Thursday; but, though in some measure good to me, it did not then relieve my fears, as to the Sunday. Your affectionate father, ISAAC BEEMAN. DEAR ISAAC, TO THE SAME. Cranbrook, December 15, 1834. Poor Master B was buried last week, and yesterday I spoke from Isaiah lvii. 1, 2. I first endeavoured to shew how a sinner was made righteous; and I did so by the two first verses of the fifty-first chapter of the same prophet. When first convinced which way we follow after righteousness, namely, by trying to do better, which is all wrong,—when wrong, when convinced of this, he says, "Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness," you that hunger and thirst after righteousness, and cannot get it: "look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged." The call of Abraham is thus set before us, and that call hews us from the quarry of fallen nature, where all lay, the pit we all fell into: "For if one be fallen into a pit on the Sabbath-day, ye will draw him out." Spiritual death is this pit; but when God calls, the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, as Paul, and shall also live: out from the world, and worldly men, such must come : "Come out from among them, and be ye separate. This call makes him, in his mind, seek after the Lord's mercy, which he does by supplicating for the same; and, in due time, as in Abraham's case, Christ is discovered to him, as that seed in whom all nations should be blessed; after whom desires go out, and faith is given, and his benefits apprehended the righteousness of Christ is reckoned to the sinner's account; which is known by slavish fears being removed, and hope being : founded on Christ alone, and the promise to such being believed, that they shall never be confounded, as they once dreaded would be their case. God made Abraham righteous in this way, and so he does all that really feel their need of righteousness and seek it with all their heart. Abraham, after this, was called his friend; and into friendship with him are all brought that find reconciliation take place in their hearts in God's way of salvation by Christ alone; this is shewn by their mind, by their speech, by the way they take in his worship, and by their love to his own truth. When any of these die, the world regards it not; or when these merciful men who have received mercy, as all righteous men do, for by mercy are we saved, and mercy received makes a man merciful, in the best sense, and nothing else will ;-when these are taken away, the worldly men do not consider nor trouble themselves about it: but the living soul will lay it to heart; he (and no others can) ponders over their state; he knows whence they came, to what they were called, what they found, and what they expect; and they follow him into his possessions in the presence of his Saviour, where he is entered into the full enjoyment of that peace he felt something of in this world his body rests in the grave till the day of redemption from it comes, and his soul in the bosom of Eternal Love; and, when his body is raised, and body and soul are re-united, then, as a justified person, clothed with that garment that has neither spot nor wrinkle, and the love of God perfected in them, so shall they, in his uprightness, walk with him in white for ever and ever. Your affectionate Father, ISAAC BEEMAN. DEAR ISAAC, TO THE SAME. Cranbrook, October 18, 1836. I received your afflicting letter of the loss of your dear Rhoda; you are fond of your children, as I always was of mine when they were young; and we never wish to lose one, if it please God to spare them to live: it is true, I never lost one when young; and you have lost seven! When I lost mine of riper years, I remember this came to my mind at the time, "Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, who hath taught him?" and have found, whilst I was suffering the privation, my heart would, with great force at times, cry for submission under the strongest feelings of nature, that rebellion might not rise against his sovereign disposal. Your privations in the loss of your children are great; but, oh! having some knowledge of God and of future things, under all these present privations of your children, what an infinite consolation it is (to such an one that knows God and his word) to believe, and to be sure, that God has so favoured so many of your offspring as to bring them into the kingdom of God, in which they are happy beyond all human conception. The insensible and ignorant of the world have no such enjoyment. These considerations in faith bring relief, where human nature can do nothing. It seems that the Lord, by these days of adversity, will call your thoughts to himself; and, though grievous are these trials to the flesh, yet we must conclude, from scripture, that to the godly they are profitable to the spirit, and are sanctified for the good of them that fear God. Let him that walketh in darkness and hath no light, -not that he hath no light of knowledge or light of life, but that hath no light upon the present path into which he is brought, nor can at present see the end of the Lord therein;-let him still trust in the name of the Lord as gracious, and stay-rest his whole soul on his God. Jacob, for his Joseph, was brought to this; Job, also, in his long affliction, had no where else to go, but to trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. David, in his trials, of which he had many, grace led him to take the same way. The widow, gathering two sticks, to eat and die, had not much light upon her path, till the Lord sent it by Elijah nor the woman with her pot of oil. "Pour out your heart before him, ye people; God is a refuge for us." Where God has given grace, that grace he will try, as may be seen in Abraham, in Jacob, in David, and in many others that are mentioned in scripture. "Bastards may escape the rod, Sunk in earthly vain delight: But the true-born child of God Must not, would not if he might." God will have all his children fear him, believe in him, hope in him, love him above all; and, to exercise patience and submission in trouble, and to encourage such, he hath promised that his grace shall be sufficient, and as their day their strength shall be: but we must acknowledge, as to this, our faith is often weak; but the throne of grace is ordained for us to obtain mercy, and grace to help in time of need. Wonderful have been your trials in a few years, and wonderful has been your strength communicated; and I cannot believe that God will ever leave you or forsake you; but it appears to keep his grace alive in your heart, and for this to be exercised on him, as |