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worse than a beggar at the foot of the hill. You have seen death come in like a ravenous wolf, and take my lambs one by one, and lay them in the dark grave. You have seen poverty come as an armed man, and rob me of all earthly possessions. Quickly following in his train, you have seen total blindness come and drop his sable curtain, shutting out forever the sun, moon, and stars, with all their radiant glory, earth with her green carpet, and, worse still, forbidding me ever again to look upon my dear wife and children. Thus you found me in 1841 on the hills of old Virginia, like an old horse that had become worn out and blind in the service of a hard and unmerciful master, turned adrift to graze a few days in the corners of the fences, to starve and die.

My dear reader, I do not ask you to pause here and drop a sympathizing tear; no, I ask you to rejoice with me. Do not call death, poverty, and blindness enemies, for I certainly number them among my dearest friends. They were not my Saviour, it is true; but they were sent by a kind Father to lead me to my Saviour, and to perpetual peace and joys immortal.

But, says the reader, how can these things be? I will tell you.

When death came and took our little idol Fanny, with scarcely a moment's warning, and left our hearts bleeding, I knew she had gone to heaven; and, like the men of Galilee, I began to turn my

eyes away from earth and gaze up into heaven. This was a great work, wrought to get a sinner to turn his eyes from earth and look upward; and God well knew that death was the only messenger that could accomplish this thing. O, how thankful should I be, that he selected one of the family that was fully prepared for glory, and gave the wicked father and mother space to repent and prepare to follow the dear child to the realms of bliss! O remember, reader, that he who lets such an affliction pass without profit, loses a greater blessing than earth can afford!

My second friend came in the form of another fell disaster, that, like one of Job's heralds, trod close upon the heels of the first. My earthly possessions took to themselves wings and flew away.

The men of this world are like the vine, which, having loosed its fastenings from the branches of the lofty oak, and fallen sprawling upon the earth, fastens its hundred tendrils around every filthy weed and briar with which it comes in contact. O, if I have tears to weep for one more than another, it is for the rich of this world, who have no Christ in their souls, and know not that they are poor and wretched, miserable, blind, and naked! How many times have I heard paupers, in the various county poor-houses, thank God for poverty, while my soul responded a hearty amen! For God hath said, he hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, to be heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that

love him.

Mark the last sentence. It is to the class of poor that love him. My third friend is blindness; and God knows, if I ever offered him one sacrifice of praise, honest and pure, deep and fervent, it is for this, which my friends all look upon as an affliction.

This certainly, to me, is one of the mysteries and wonders of redeeming grace that one of my stirring ambition should never have the least desire to see. And God knows my heart, that if sight was proffered to me this day, I should receive it with a trembling hand. I am perfectly satisfied to endure, as seeing Him who is invisible. I have said that I never desired to see there have been a few exceptions. When I have sat under a powerful sermon, where the veil of the future has been drawn and the awful destiny that awaits the incorrigible sinner and the infinite glory of the righteous portrayed, I have wished that I could have one beam of sunlight that would direct me to some trembling sinner, with the tear of repentance on his cheek. I would take him by the hand and lead him to Jesus, who would say to his troubled soul, as he did to the Sea of Tiberias, "Be still;" and in the channel of those penitent tears send forth the rivers of love and heavenly joy.

O, how often have I returned from an evening of social prayer, when I could wring from my pockethandkerchief tears, like phials of dew-drops fallen from the rose of Sharon! But they are all bottled

by Him who numbers the hairs of my head. Hallelujah to God and the Lamb forever! I do not wish to be understood, in what I have said, as undervaluing earthly blessings; but, to me, the loss of my property was like losing a sixpence and finding a guinea. The losing of my children resulted in the finding of Christ. The loss of my natural sight was like blowing out a candle and letting the sunlight of glory blaze perpetually in my soul. So much for my three friends.

CHAPTER XVII.

Dear reader, you have looked upon your author as the world generally does look upon the poor and the blind, and have said, perhaps, without looking into the future, it would be well for him if death would come and sign his release. But Christ saw in this shattered house of clay, with every windowlight broken in, an immortal gem, of more value than all earth's treasure; and he came to me in the voice of mercy, and told me, if I would take up my cross and follow him, I should be made a king and priest and reign with him forever. He told me that his house should be my home, his fulness my treasure; that I might make as free in all his storehouses of grace as in my own cupboard; and that his omnipresence should ever be my guide. O

aile

what an inducement is held out for a lost sinner to come to Christ!

But I am delaying too much, and must hasten on my journey. If you recollect, we have travelled over the ground this morning from our youth up to 1841, the time when Jesus Christ took me prisoner. O glorious captivity! There are five particular circumstances which occurred in the course of my ten years' travel that I wish to notice, and, like Jacob of old, raise up a stone and pour on the oil; for verily, they have been as the gates of heaven to my soul. The first was the death of my little Fanny. The second was my covenant with God, at the Virginia hotel, to seek his face or die. This was about six months after Fanny went to heaven. The third event took place about five months after, when Jesus drowned all my sins in the depths of his fathomless mercy. The fourth was a conviction of my need of holiness, about two years after my conversion. The fifth, which was about one year after, was a full and complete salvation from all sin. And now I entered into the land of Beulah, where the sun or the moon never go down upon the soul. So here we find ourselves happy in the Lord, a place of broad rivers and streams. It was on the 8th of September, 1845, that I obtained a clean heart and received the white stone with the new name, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it.

As the noble Hudson swallows up the Mohawk at its junction and bears it onward to the ocean,

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