A SON FROM THE LORD. 283 "I walked down to Mrs. M's, in order to But time forestalls my inquire after Anne.. wishes, dear Isabella. Twelve has struck, and the sweetest, holiest scene of the day remains untold. I prayed for a son, and the Lord this night hath brought me my son, Henry S, a youth who called on me before my northern visit, and then showed tokens of grace which I had not time to consider; but this night, though but an apprentice, he hath, being the last of my visitants, showed such wonderful seriousness of · mind, soberness of reason, purity of life, and richness of character, as far outpasses in promise any youth that I have been the means of bringing unto Christ. And when at nine we assembled to prayer, and Hall showed his pale, emaciated face, and head but sprouting again from the shaver's razor, along with the rest of my household, and I gave him my easy-chair in consideration of his weakness - Oh, Isabella, I felt like a priest and a patriarch! and the Lord enabled us to have one of the sweetest occasions of praising Him and serving Him which for a long time I have enjoyed; so that we parted bedewed with tears, from our prayers, in which we never forget you and our separated family. After which, while I partook of my usual repast, I glanced at that very remarkable article 'Milton,' in the Edinburgh Review,' which came in from the library. I take it to be young Macaulay's. It is clever - oh, it is full of genius!--but little grace. Theology of this day-politics of this day- neither sound. Oh, envious Time, why dunnest thou me? Oh, envious Sleep, why callest thou me? I write to my wife, to comfort and edify her, and bless her, and my babe, and my servant, and all my kindred of her father's honourable and pious house. Well, I come. Farewell, my dear wife. "November 1st, Tuesday. The command of King George could not have made me take a pen in my hand this night, dearest Isabella; and now that I have taken it in hand, I exceedingly question whether this weary head will drive it over another line. But, dear, your thanks with me! I have had such a harvest of six precious souls, whose spiritual communications have carried me almost beyond my power of enduring delight. The Lord doth indeed honour me. But, ah! * this will not do; I must leave off. To-morrow, the Lord sparing me, I will set forth the particulars to my Isabella, whom, with my dear daughter, may the Lord this night preserve. "2nd, Wednesday.-It was well-nigh nine o'clock before I was recruited this morning with strength enough to go forth to my labours; for these mental and spiritual labours, being in excess, do as truly require an extra quantity of rest as do bodily and social labours. But I have risen, thank God, well recruited, and have proceeded thus far on the day (five o'clock) very prosperously. The first of my communicants yesterday was a Mary B--, from Hatton Garden, a young woman of a sweet and gracious appearance and discourse, who, with her mother and a numerous family, were early cast upon God's care, who hath cared for them according to His promise. I was much pleased with the simplicity and sincerity of her heart, and the affectionate way in which she spoke of her Lord; so that she left no doubt on my mind of her being, to the extent of her knowledge and talents, a A SPIRIT FULL OF INSPIRATIONS. 285 faithful and true disciple. I shall seek another interview with her; for I do not feel that I have got acquainted with her spirit, or else it is of so simple and catholic a form, as to have no character to distinguish it. The next was my old acquaintance, Sarah Evans, the wild girl, who was somewhat carried in her mind, if you remember, in the beginning of a sermon, and whom I visited at Dr., in Bloomsbury. I little expected to see her so soon, and so completely restored; although she still gives one the idea of one on whom our friend Greaves would work wonders by animal magnetism. I have a moral certainty that this is her temperament, and that her temporary instability was rather a somnambulism of the spirit than any insanity or derangement of mind. Since her seventeenth year she has been a denizen of this great hive of men, friendless and without kindred, and has partook the watchful care of the Great Shepherd. She is a spirit full of inspirations. Her very words are remarkable, and there is a strange abundance and fertility in her sayings which astonishes me. She has already had much influence on her fellow-servants, who have banished cards and idle, worldly books. Poor Sarah ! (and yet thou art not poor) I feel a strange feeling towards thee, as if thou wert not wholly dwelling upon the earth, nor wholly present when I converse with thee. And sure it is, dear Isabella, she has always to recall herself, as from a distance, before she answers your inquiries; and even the word is but like an echo. Of her spirituality I have no doubt, though still she seems to me like a stranger. Her master at present is Dr. H, one of my brother's medical teachers here, 286 RETURNS TO THE CONVOCATION BOOK. who inquires at her occasionally about my brother, and about the Caledonian church; from which I presume that every one recognises in her the same unlikeness to another, and to her station. "These occupied me till eleven o'clock, after which I went forth to breathe the air into the garden, in expectation of another visitor; and, as usual, for his memory hangs on every twig, the little darling whom I used to fondle and instruct came to my remembrance, and bowed me down with a momentary sorrow, which passed, full of sweetness, into what train of thought I have now forgotten. I occupied myself with my Convocation-book, which is to me what a politician and Christian of the year 1600 would be, if I could have him to converse with me and deliver his opinions. It embodies the ideas of the English Church, in full convocation, upon all points connected with the government of the Church and of the world; and hath done more than any other thing to scatter the rear of radicalism from my mind, and to give me insight into the true principles of obedience to government. There are, my dear, certain great feelings or laws of the soul, under which it grows into full stature; of which obedience to government is one, communion with the Church is another, trust in the providence of God another, and so forth; which form the original demand in the soul, both for religion, and law, and family, and to answer which these were appointed of God, and are preserved by His authority. My notion is, that the ten commandments contain the ten principal of these mother-elements of a thriving soul— these laws of laws, and generating principles of all institutions. These also, I think, ought to be made the basis of every system of moral and political philosophy. But all this is but looming upon my eye, and durst not be spoken in Scotland, under the penalty of high treason against their laws of logic, and their enslaved spirit of discourse. By-the-by, when I speak of Scotland, it was about this time of day when I received a letter from Dr. Gordon, asking me to preach a sermon in some chapel which Dr. Waugh has procured for the Scots Missionary Society, and bring the claims of that Society before the great people of London. I mean to answer it by referring them to my Orations on the Missionary Doctrine, as being my contribution to the Society. . . . But I must go to the church to preach from John xiv. 27. The Lord strengthen me. "And now, having enjoyed no small portion of His presence for one so unworthy, I return to my sweet occupation of making my dear Isabella the sharer and partner of my very soul. From the garden, where I communed with the canons of the convocation, and with my own meditations on these elemental principles of wisdom, I returned, and upon looking over my paper, I found I had no more visitors till five o'clock; so I addressed myself to my discourse, which I purposed from Gal. ii. 20, in continuation and enlargement of that from Phil. i. 21; but going into the context, I was drawn away to write concerning the church in Antioch, which occasioned the dispute between Paul and Peter, until I found it was too late to return; so that my discourse has changed its shape into a lecture, and where it will end you shall know on Sabbath, if the Lord spare me. At five came a young man, by name Peter Samuel, of a boyish appearance, very modest and |