where and how I pleased on the Lord's day; he even told me, I need not repeat the church catechism with the other boys, unless I pleased. Agreeably to his permission, I attended constantly with my parents on divine worship, at the meeting where my soul was led to think of another world. Light gradually broke in on my understanding, by which I was taught the way of God more perfectly. My will, under the influence of the Spirit of God, chose Christ, and him alone; and my affections, though, alas! in a feeble manner, were brought to love him. Very often I found it hard to withstand the reproaches of those who, in temporal things, were my friends; but God was my helper. I saw that the solid pleasure and comfort I found in the ways of God, were infinitely superior to the enjoyments of the world; and this consideration assisted me to bear up under the trial. At that boarding school I continued two years and a half, and, by the grace of God, made some progress both in religion and learning."

While in this seminary, Mr. Gough, the editor of "Camden's Britannia," who appears to have been very favourably impressed with his capacity for acquiring information, employed him to transcribe more than five hundred pages in Latin, for which the juvenile amanuensis received eight guineas. Such an amount must have appeared to him, at that early age, no inconsiderable sum.

December the 21st, 1786, he left boarding-school;

the means of his parents being inadequate to the expense of his continuance; and, though his years did not yet number fourteen, it became, both to them and to himself, a subject of serious and immediate inquiry to what his attention should now be directed, that he might be so employed as to secure the prospect of an honourable subsistence in future life. He was, even at this time, no stranger to the efficacy of prayer, and devoutly availed himself of this privileged medium to seek the guidance and obtain the blessing of Heaven. Among others, who were consulted at this critical period, application was made to Mr. Whitefoot, the minister to whom reference has already been made, and through whose influence an arrangement appears to have commenced for placing him with Mr. Spragg, a haberdasher, residing in Shoreditch; but that mysterious Providence which so often frustrates human purposes for the accomplishment of its own counsels, interposed in this instance, and prevented the completion of the contract; for which, afterwards, the deep feeling of his gratitude evidently exceeded the utmost power of his expression to delineate. The subject of these pages was destined, and had now for some time been secretly training, to occupy a station far more congenial with his most cherished desires, and of unspeakably greater importance than the most successful prosecution of any mere commercial pursuit.

The eminently distinguished, though eccentric,

Rev. John Collet Ryland, A.M., having spent many years of his valuable life at Northampton, became, at Midsummer, 1786, proprietor of a highly respectable seminary at Enfield, and it was considered desirable to solicit his advice and assistance on the occasion in question. The steps taken, and their result, are thus recorded by him who was most deeply interested in the event :—“At the request of my honoured mother, the late Rev. Mr. Whitefoot, minister of Lady Huntingdon's chapel, applied to Mr. Ryland to interest himself for me in some way. One Wednesday evening, after the lecture, he sent for me into the vestry, and gave me a terrible alarm, by a variety of questions, in the presence of several friends. I trembled; but he kindly invited me to his house, where, the next day, I underwent another examination in matters of religion and learning. I read a little in the Greek Testament, and he put into my hands old William Robertson's 'Outer Gate and Inner Door of the Holy Tongue.' On Lord'sdays and holidays I went constantly to see him, and he gave me several things to transcribe. During the Christmas holidays I worked very hard at the first of Genesis and third of Lamentations, as I found them in Robertson, waiting impatiently for Mr. Ryland's return from London. At length, to my unspeakable delight, he came back, and, Feb. 1, 1787, my dear mother committed me to his care and direction."

As one partially famished, when suddenly intro

duced to a richly furnished table, is in imminent peril by incautiously indulging the cravings of an inordinate appetite, so the vehement desire of our young friend to avail himself of his new and enlarged advantages for literary improvement, and to qualify himself more thoroughly to discharge the interesting duties of an instructor of others, with which he was now charged, nearly cost him his life." Before," says he, "I had been three months with Mr. Ryland, I was compelled to return to my father's house, in a fever, brought on by excessive application in the hours that should have been devoted to relaxation. Mrs. Ryland sometimes, in pleasantry, threatened to turn me out of the house, and send me into the fields. In the spring of this year I saw the gates of death the fever reduced me to the very brink of the grave. Happily, when I recovered, the midsummer vacation was approaching, after which I returned to my labours, as a junior assistant-teacher in the school, with a little more care than I had before taken of myself. My bodily weakness, however, was such, for a considerable time, that I did not dare to attempt much beyond the routine of school business."

:

This affliction, however near, was not unto death, but for the glory of God. He was chastened, that he might not be condemned with the world. It appears to have been rendered happily instrumental in increasing his watchfulness and devotion, and to excite in him a greater abhorrence of sin, and a more

ardent attachment to evangelical purity, as may be very satisfactorily inferred from one of his early devotional papers, entitled, "A Devotional Exercise to Christ, for my birth day, May 10, 1788."

"O thou inexhaustible Fountain of all goodness, thou first cause of all worlds and last end of all creation, thou who art the Creator of the world and the preserver of the same, thou mighty God and eternal Jehovah, Christ Jesus, enable me to devote my spared life to thy service. Hast thou preserved my life for these fifteen years past, and shall I still be ungrateful? Shall I still be unconcerned whether thou, O Jesus, hast redeemed my soul from the punishment and love of sin by thy blood? Shall I still mind earthly things? Gracious God forbid that this should be the case any longer! Help me from this day forward to the end of my life to be in good earnest about the eternal welfare of my soul! Assist me, by thy Holy Spirit, to set my affections on things above, and enable me to exercise a holy emulation toward all the glorious examples of early piety in the Bible without envy. Lord Jesus, it was thou that preservedest me when I hung on my mother's breast; thou didst keep me from ten thousand dangers in my childhood, of which I am ignorant. Thou knowest I have had several dreadful sicknesses, out of which thou hast graciously delivered me. I bless thee from the bottom of my soul for the comforts of thy presence which I then enjoyed. I adore thee that thou didst