CHAPTER V. THE MINISTER'S CHIEF JOY-INSTANTANEOUS CON A NEW YEAR-RE VERSION RATIONAL AND SCRIPTURAL-MR. BLACK'S ALLINE-INTERESTING LETTER FROM MR. WESLEY-ANOTHER-DISPLAYS OF THE POWER AND GOODNESS OF GOD VISIT TO P. E. ISLAND MR. BLACK'S MARRIAGE-MRS. BLACK'S ESTIMABLE CHARACTER. THERE are few pleasures that solace the mind, or remunerate the toils of a devoted minister of the Lord Jesus, comparable to the pure and celestial exhilaration he experiences when his efforts to win souls are crowned with conspicuous success. His joy is then the joy of angels.-Those benignant spirits bend from their elevated seats to mark the first movements of the repentant sinner towards God; and acquire, we are told by the Saviour, an accession of felicity from the interesting spectacle. With what rapture then must the immediate instrument of such blessed transformations survey them! They are divine seals affixed to his of fice-the travail of his Redeemer's soul-trophies of victorious grace; and his bosom glows with transport while he anticipates the day when the dignity will be conferred upon him of presenting them stainless before the throne of God and the Lamb. An eminent degree of that dignity awaits the messenger of the churches whose course we are endeavouring to trace. The details exhibited in the preceding pages afford luminous proof that he did not run in vain, neither labour in vain; and the materials of an ampler attestation of this delightful fact are yet in reserve. One observable feature of the conversions that took place under Mr. Black's ministry cannot have escaped the reader—I refer to their suddenness. The inadequate and erroneous conceptions that prevail on this subject among certain classes of professing Christians, render it expedient to endeavour the removal of their prejudices. It may be spontaneously admitted that time and place are merely circumstances of conversion; and that though a reference to them can hardly fail to be both animating and salutary to the real believer's mind-a distinct recollection of them is not essential in order to evince the genuineness of a work of divine grace. Certain it is, however, that there must be a special time when conversion takes place. And from the magnitude of the change, involving as it does our most solemn relations to the Deity, and the infusion of the elements of a new and divine nature into the soul, one would be very naturally led to conceive, anterior to the examination of any direct evidence upon the subject, that no one could receive a blessing so heart-stirring without having a vivid perception of it. An event so momentous can hardly be thought to take place unconsciously.-It is worthy of remark, that the numerous cases of conversion record ed in the New Testament, were almost without excep tion, sudden. It therefore behoves those who deny that the Holy Spirit operates in the same manner now, to establish their negation by unexceptionable evidence. The appeal must be made to well attested facts. Now it is matter of notoriety that the pages of religious biography supply innumerable instances in which the evidence was coeval with the act of justification. Whoever in the face of such an accumulation of facts is capable of denying the doctrine of instantaneous conversion, has only to follow out his own principle to be landed in universal scepticism, as well in philosophy as in religion. With far different views and emotions, the humble believer-who remembers, and never can forget, the rock whence he was hewn, and the pit out of which he was taken, will-accompany us in our narrative. Entering upon a new year, Mr. Black mourns over the little progress he apprehended himself to have made in the divine life, during the preceding twelve months. The language of self-crimination is no certain indication of a low state of spiritual attainment; and even when it correctly displays the interior of the heart it affords a pleasing presage of future amelioration. Earth is ungenial to the celestial plant of grace. Constant effort is required to keep the heart right with God -effort that can be sustained only by the invigorating influences of the Holy Spirit. This consideration does not indeed extenuate the moral delinquency of backsliding in heart; but it diminishes our surprise at such an occurrence, however lamentable. And with what animated gratitude should we remember, that though we may be painfully conscious of unfaithfulness to the grace of God, the merciful provisions of his covenant MEMOIRS OF THE forbid us to despond; the blood of sprinkling still pleads for us; the aspects of the throne of propitiation brighten with encouragement; we may approach boldly, obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Attracted by these views of the pitifulness of the divine mercy, Mr. Black, while, on comparing his present experience with what it was a year from this time, he writes bitter things against himself; complaining that neither was his faith so strong, nor his zeal so great, nor his love so glowing, nor his enjoyment of the divine presence so sensible as it had been in the commencement of the previous year, he earnestly renews his application to the fountain of salvation, and groans for redemption from inbred sin. A token for good could not fail to follow such profound self-abasement and its constant accompaniment-fervent prayer. Tuesday, 8th of January, 1783, he writes ;-"I felt more of the Redeemer's love this morning, than I have for some time past; and it continued most of the day, The opening Heavens around me shine, With beams of sacred bliss, If Jesus shows his mercy mine, I also experienced much comfort to-day in conversing with John Johnson. I believe he is truly alive to God; an Israelite indeed. My mind is much exercised respecting the spread of false doctrines. O that I had the power of convincing speech! Lord, many who have received them are thy people. O that I might lead them into the paths from which they have strayed. O give me acceptable words, that I may not shock their prejudices, but inform their judgments. Thou art my shepherd! lead them and me into green pastures." The opponents of true godliness are not all as heroic as they seem. To acquire the reputation of fearful consistency, or the praise of facetiousness, they not unfrequently array themselves as decidedly against their own convictions, as they do against the cause of righteousness; and eagerly avail themselves of the lowest gibe, or the merest artifice of simulation, The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, Happy is it for them, when these struggles gain the ascendancy, when conscience, assuming the majesty of her delegated powers, arrests and arraigns the impious culprit, and compels him to answer to her appalling indictment. But happier still, if pleading guilty to the charge and "shut up unto the faith," they fall prostrate before the throne of the heavenly grace, and bend the pride of reason to the humiliating terms of acceptance before God. We have recorded on a preceding page the contumelious treatment Mr. Black received from a certain gentleman, named D-r, for no other reason but because he admonished him, with affectionate fidelity, in a company which he was emulous to amuse with his impious levity. But we have now the pleasure to present him to the reader, sitting at the feet of Jesus, and clothed in his right mind. "Wednesday 29th.—I returned from Tantramar in company with three individuals, one of whom was F. D. The word of the Lord smote his heart on Monday, and he is now in great anguish of mind. When at Mr. Fawkinder's, I saw him walking about the barn, and went to him. He entreated me to pardon the insults he had offered to me at Mr. Morse's, upwards of two years previous, and begged that I would K |