Provost absolutely required it. Conscience told me, that Satan was as fit to go there, as I; and that if I MUST go, I MUST repent, and turn to God, unless I chose to eat and drink my own damnation. From that day I never ceased to mourn and pray, till I obtained progressive manifestations of God's mercy in Christ in the Easter Week, and perfect peace on Easter Day, April 4th.

"Thus you see, that under God I owe all to Dr. Cooke. Howbeit he meant not so, neither did his heart think so. But to specify the day that I was renatus, is beyond my power. You have the season. In my own mind I should judge, that deep penitence, with but a glimpse of the brasen serpent, would not be despised by our God and Father; and that He may put away our sins, before He shews us that He has done so. If you ask me what is my posture now? I must answer, that it is, and ever has been, nearly the same that it was then. I love to sow in tears, and I am content to reap my harvest in heaven; not but that I have the grapes of Eshcol here, and in far greater quantities than I am in any point of view entitled to expect: but I love the valley of humiliation. I there feel that I am in my proper place. There you also, my dear brother, delight to walk: and our meeting on the heavenly hills will, I trust, be most blessed to us both.

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'Believe me, my ever dear Friend, most affectionately yours, "C. SIMEON."

CHAPTER XXXI.

LETTERS TO REV. J. VENN ON PRESENTING HIM TO A LIVING-TO THE SAME ON THE PROPER DISCHARGE OF THE MINISTRY-TO LADY OLIVIA B. SPARROW ON RECOVERY FROM ILLNESSMEMORANDUM ON THE COMPLETION OF HIS WORKS-STATEMENT OF HIS VIEWS ABOUT THEM TO THE BISHOP OF CALCUTTA ON PRESENTING THEM TO THE KING REV. W. MARSH'S REMARKS ON THE OCCASION TO REV. E. B. ELLIOTT ON THE LOSS OF HIS WIFE TO A CLERGYMAN RESPECTING HIS PREACHING AND CONDUCT-EXTRACTS FROM HIS DIARY ENUMERATING HIS MERCIES

TO THE BISHOP OF CALCUTTA-HIS THOUGHTS ON THE PROSPECT OF DEATH-TO A FRIEND UNDER DEPRESSION-TO MISS MARY ELLIOTT ON HIS SECRET EXPERIENCE-TO THE SAME ON THE RIGHT STANDARD OF CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE TO REV. J. B. CARTWRIGRT ON THE EFFECTS OF RELIGION IN ITS RISE AND PROGRESS.

1833-1834.

CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.

To the Rev. J. VENN, on presenting him to a Living. 'My dear Friend,

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"April 15, 1833.

"I wrote you yesterday. My soul is filled with deep concern. I long that with the wisdom of your honoured father you should combine the zeal and love of your grandfather. He knew at Corinth nothing but Christ and Him crucified. And what is there else for you to know at Hereford? Speak all that the Scripture speaks, and as the Scripture speaks it and leave all nice distinctions alone. You are a physician going to thousands dying of the cholera, and have a sovereign remedy for

them. Think of nothing else but the remedy. Get into the spirit of the Apostle Paul. Think what he would say and do in your circumstances. Souls are perishing for lack of knowledge. I wish you had known your honoured grandfather. The only end for which he lived was to make all men see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

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My dear Friend, let that be your one labour with all, and every day and every hour. I shall die a happier man, if I see you rising superior to all minor points, and wholly engrossed with this.

"With earnest prayer to God for you, I remain, my dear friend, your most anxious and affectionate Brother, "C. SIMEON."

To the Same, on the proper discharge of the Ministry.

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My dear Brother,

"K. C., April 25, 1833.

You say, 'If it were new ground, you would feel no doubt about occupying it; but, &c. &c.'

"Whence do these &c.'s spring? I know full well to what our deceitful hearts would ascribe them; but carry them to God, and see whether He will approve them?

say?

"What would love to God's Church and people

"What should we ourselves say, if we could forget self? Is it when we are strong in our own conceit, that we are really strong? Get comprehensive views and an abiding sense of the height, and depth, and length, and breadth, of the love of Christ, and what will your &c.'s come to?

"You are an Ambassador of the Most High God, sent to intreat sinners, with floods of tears, to be reconciled to Him. Think of this, and say, what your &c.'s come to? Ask yourself what would be the views and feelings of the Apostle Paul, or of his son Timothy, in your circumstances, or what the feelings of your most honoured, most loved, most revered grandfather? and blush at all that has arisen in your mind to discourage your acceptance of the post.

"Let me not grieve you by this fidelity. I have made myself responsible to Almighty God for 4000 souls; and I long that the love of Christ should 'constrain you,' (carry you away as a mighty torrent,) to make known to them the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, in all its unsearchable riches, and excellency, and glory. Away with every minor consideration, and with every (falsely supposed) humble thought. Be a voice crying in the wilderness: be a child: be a fool, in your own estimation at least, and then you will be content to be esteemed so by others. Discard utterly from your mind all wherein they may differ from you. There is the whole field of the Gospel before you: be to them the Angel spoken of Rev. xiv. 6, 7: and teach them all to commence the song which they are singing, Rev. v. 6, 10: and then I shall hope one day to join with you in singing it, accompanied with a goodly number from Hereford.

"Tell me that I have not grieved you, or at least that you forgive me; and believe me your most truly affectionate friend and Brother,

"C. SIMEON."

To Lady OLIVIA B. SPARROW, on his recovery from illness.

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My dear Lady Olivia,

my

"K. C. April 13, 1833. "For fifteen months I went on with Work, with all the energy and activity of youth, revising and correcting one of my ponderous Volumes every three weeks. But I had no sooner completed the twentieth Volume, than the gout came, and threw me down, and compelled me to transfer my editorial work to others. But in fact, all that I was in the least anxious about was completed. I am carried up and down stairs on men's shoulders, and put into and taken out of my carriage like a log of wood. But I can now walk two or three yards alone; and hope, if it be possible, to be helped up to my pulpit to-morrow. I do indeed doubt whether it be possible: of that I shall judge better when I get to church. But my judgment scarcely approves of the dictates of my heart.

"This will be but too just an apology for my declining your kind invitation for the present. I doubt much the possibility of my going up to Town a fortnight hence to the Jews' Meeting: (the other Meetings it will be quite impossible for me to attend); but what my friend Mr. Way so nobly upheld, and what I know from Scripture to be so near to the heart of my Lord and Saviour, (Jer. xxxii. 41), I must strain every nerve to support.

"It would greatly rejoice me to see Lady Gosford: but, except at Cambridge, I cannot hope for that pleasure at present. I am but just out of my physician's hands; and though convalescent, must have some time to recover the energies either of my mind or body.