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INSENSIBILITY TO DANGER.

hearted; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.'

Not many days ago, an unknown lady sent me a bundle of Catechisms to distribute; for which I thank her in the name of the poor, who have this afternoon received them.

April 19th.

THE occurrences and services of this holy Sabbath, from morning until evening, have been nearly the same with many which have preceded. From the thirteen past hours, take three for intermission, and the remaining ten have been employed by the writer in public worship. He ought to get good, and do good. May the Lord help him!

April 22d.

WHILE preceding one corpse to the grave this afternoon, I saw three coffins pass us in procession; and heard the noisy little boys who ran after us exclaim, Huzza, huzza, here are two burials met! One not accustomed to the repeated deaths of a metropolis, will very justly infer from this, that mortality makes very little impression on the living. Well I remember, that once I could not endure to see, much less to touch a corpse; but now, from familiarity with the grave, nothing deeply affects me but such considerations as relate to the soul, and its eternal happiness or misery. The immortal interests of man have not become of apparently less importance,

A DYING TIME.

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neither do I feel less than formerly upon this subjeet; but I could dissect a corpse without a tear; and, if necessary, without a trembling hand. Habit,' says an old proverb, conquers all things.'

་

Another illustration of this remark, we have in a son of one of the English prisoners from the Peacock. The child is about four years of age. During the action with the Hornet, this little boy was chasing a goat between deeks to ride it. Not at all terrified by destruction and death all around him, he persisted, till a cannon-ball came between him and the goat, which took off both her hind legs; when, seeing her disabled, he jumped astride her, crying, Now I've caught you!

Many, many, whose sins are more in number than the heirs of their head, are as thoughtless of death and its consequences as he was.

April 24th.

I VISITED the Hospital to-day, and prayed in three wards. It is a dying time there. Two persons have just departed; and I had to inform two more that their days are numbered. One of them is the largest and stoutest young man I ever saw. He has lost one eye, and with the other wept, while I conversed with him. Probably he did not live an hour after I left him. The other was spitting blood. He told me that he had horrors of conscience, and felt himself a sinner; but did not know any thing about the manner in which a sinner could be saved. Of course he had need of a teacher; and very humbly thanked me for preaching Jesus and the new life.

166

THE BLIND SAILOR.

April 25th.

IN half an hour after I left that young Sampson yesterday, he was taken with the black vomit, and died.

To-day I have preached four times; and in the whole to at least two thousand different hearers. One of the sermons was about forty minutes in length, one thirty, and the other two an hour each. I cannot complain of any inattention in my audience; and some of the lost females I saw weeping.

April 27th.

THE blind sailor in the Hospital gives most satis. factory evidence that he possesses a broken and contrite heart. He was never deeply impressed until about six weeks since, when it pleased God to send a message, by my preaching, to his heart.

J. D. D is about leaving the Hospital; and when I was quitting his room, followed me to thauk me privately, and express his respect for my ministrations.

After I had visited most of the rooms, I passed the door of the lost ones without entering, I was sent for, however, by one who formerly laughed at my instructions. Not long after she entered upon her vile course, her friends carried her home to a respectable father and kind mother. They attempted to detain her by force; but she made her escape, and returned to her old profession. One year ago she was well-favoured, smooth, fair, and of a full habit.

THE RESULT OF EXPERIENCE.

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Now she is so reduced, that the familiar eye can scarcely discern in her face, full of dishonourable scars, the same person: but she is humbled, and I almost forget what she was. For several weeks she has been attentive to my discourses, when her feeble frame could scarcely support her. To-day she asked after the way of life with tears. The result of my experience is such, in relation to this class of persons, that I deem this a correct motto: Indulge little hope of any of them, but despair of

none.

April 28th.

THIS evening I preached again in the Almshouse, in such an atmosphere as has made me almost sick.

April 30th.

My invaluable friend Dr. Romeyn, being in a poor state of health, I preached for him this evening.

May 2d.

THREE times to-day I have proclaimed a Saviour; and in addition have visited and prayed in two wards of the Almshouse.

May 3d.

THIS morning I visited three wards in the Hospital. In one I conversed with an afflicted woman,

168

A REST FROM LABOUR.

who was a short time since in affluence; and who is now learning the difficult lesson of being patient in adversity. In another I saw an afflicted young gentleman, Mr. C—, weep at his sins which are past; and heard him express his firm resolution of devoting his spared life to the service of his God.

In the third room I prayed with the young woman whom I saw on the 27th of the last month. She was perfectly sensible, but was in the agonies of death.

The writer feels exhausted with labour, and will here leave the sick for a few weeks to others, that he may, once in two years, revisit the place of his nativity, and the parents who gave him birth.

May 22d.

YESTERDAY the writer returned to the city, and to-day visited the Almshouse and Hospital. While he prayed in one room, two prostitutes, whom he never saw before, burst into tears; and one of them said, she knew that she was a sinner, but knew nothing of the way of salvation. One at the Hospital said, 'Sir, we have had a fast since you have been gone.' They seem to be in high spirits at his return. It is a little remarkable, that not an individual died at the Hospital, during his absence from the city. The superintendant does not remember that so long a time ever elapsed there before without a death. To-day, however, he saw a corpse carried out, which warned him to return to his labour.