me there no more: "Who is able to stand before envy?" Upon these conditions the good man promised either to go or to send; but at the same time observed, that the travelling expences must be borne; which was making a sure bargain, and in which the vicar displayed more wisdom than I did; and this they agreed to also, knowing, as every man must, that the labourer is worthy of his hire. The time came round for another anniversary, and the curate went and preached, and enforced the collection; and when the preacher's entertainment, travelling expences, &c. were defrayed, there remained two pence towards the debt of the chapel. Neither their promise nor their conscience would ever suffer them again to invite me; and, as for the curate, they found him, in money matters, to be an unprofitable servant, and therefore they took counsel, and laid the anniversary aside from that day forward; which was a better work in the sight of God than that of bringing it into use.

I was formerly often invited to preach at a meeting in Little St. Helens, where I preached at seven o'clock on a Lord's day morning. That lecture had been long established for the benefit of servants, who, by reason of their domestic employ, could not attend on the service of God at the usual times of public worship. The persons. who invited me informed me that most of the supporters of that lecture were dead, and that whenever they had a collection sermon for it they seldom got more than twenty or thirty shillings.

Hearing these things, I therefore promised to go, and was well attended. Not long after I was invited again, and the place was so crowded that great numbers could not get in; and, as I was informed, I collected ten pounds. I inquired at last, as they came frequently to ask me to preach, who the ministers were that preached the lectures, and they told me their names, but I knew none of them; and further, that they had a guinea a time for preaching, and that they were board-ministers, or ministers belonging to the board. But I was not a board-minister, therefore the lecture had my labour gratis: my office was to preach the guineas together, while that of the board-ministers was to preach them away. I thought of a story that I once heard, namely, of a man putting potatos into the fire to roast, while a monkey sitting before it observed him the monkey wanted the potato, but, fearing to burn his own paw, took the forefoot of the cat to rake it out of the fire, whilst he ate it himself. Whoever was the monkey, I was the cat. At length I got sick of this; nevertheless they came again, and entreated me to come and give them another sermon. I replied, There is to be a collection, I suppose.' They answered, 'O yes, sir.' I replied, I have no doubt of it, but depend upon it I will be your cat's paw no longer;' and I saw them no more. But soon after I heard the lecture was dropped, though I think it might have been kept up to this day, if the boardmen had laboured on as reasonable terms as I did.

Some years I toiled up and down this way, preaching collections for one minister or other. " Every where, and in all things, I am instructed," says Paul; and so am I: for the vicar's bargain for his curate, and the board-men leaving off when money failed, brought me to a determination not to labour for nothing; especially, having been informed that some called ministers have been sitting at home while I have been preaching for them, who have ridiculed me after I had begged money; and well they might, for who but a fool, when God has used a shepherd to collect a flock together, would lead that flock from post to pillar, on purpose to shear them, and give the wool to men whom I know not whence they be? Bless my God, these board-men have taught me better things; I keep my flock at home, and shear them for my own profit; and sure none can have so much right to the wool as those who labour day and night to feed the sheep; and I have vanity enough to think that they had rather the profits of the fleece fell to my share than to any other. Many journies of one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred miles, which have cost ten, twenty, or thirty pounds a journey, have I travelled, and at the same time paid one pound five shillings per week for a supply at home in my absence; but I confine my labours now, not to every place where I am invited, but where I am well known, and where there are poor hungry souls to feed: to these my mouth is open, and to me their heart is. God has not sons of peace in every house. But I must

now return from this digression, seeing it is high time that some other burden be laid upon my shoulders, which soon came to pass; but more of this at some future opportunity. Excuse the length of the epistle; the largeness of its bulk was occasioned by the opportunity I had of conveying it, for two shillings worth of postage could not have produced half this quantity of tidings. I had now and then a pleasing fit of laughter while writing it, and thou wilt feel something besides a spring of tears in reading it; so I conclude, and so you will confess.

Beloved, adieu.

LETTER V.

W. H. S.S.

TO THE SPARROW ALONE.

Dear Friend,

AT the conclusion of my last I intimated that another load was much wanting; and now a council was held, to consult about laying a few more sacks upon the mill: this second addition, or second edition of burdens with additions, is what I am going next to relate; the reading of which will make you feel for me, as the weight of it made me feel for myself.

The congregation began greatly to increase, and the heat of the place in times of service began to be almost unbearable; it was of course thought necessary to enlarge the chapel. Now there was a spare bit of ground, which lay about the middle of the chapel against the east wall, the dimensions of which were thirty feet by twenty-five, and this spare morsel of ground had nothing upon it but a shed: this ground we endeavoured to get, and intended to break through on that side the chapel, and so to throw the chapel into a triangular form, and to move the pulpit to the center of the gallery on the west side, that so it might face the newintended erection. The gentleman who held this ground by lease was applied to; and he, in company with a builder, met with me and a few friends of mine, and intimated that he was willing to accommodate us; of course we wished to know his terms, or what he expected for ground-rent, and he told us his price was one hundred guineas per annum: "The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's; but the earth hath he given to the children of men," Psalm cxv. 16. And so I found it, and they are determined to make the most of it. I have been informed, but I cannot avouch it, that all the ground on which that oblong pile of buildings stands within the compass of the four streets, of which my chapel is a part, pays no more to his Grace the Duke of Portland than fourteen pounds a year; but, if it was all to be let in the same proportion as was demanded of me, it could not, I