particulars might be selected as topics on which to enlarge. But it is not needful, and I have neither time nor room. The Lord has indeed dealt most wonderfully with you; and I trust your future life will show that the grace bestowed on you has not been in vain; but that he intended to make you not only blessed, but a blessing.-I see no reason to doubt the reality of your humiliation. If you thought it deep enough, I should doubt. But you seem rather to confound humiliation with terror and distress: the former is essential to repentance, the latter merely circumstances: repentance may be without them, and they without repentance. . ... "Believe me, in great haste, "Your affectionate and faithful "THOS. SCOTT." "DEAR SIR, "Chapel Street, May 26, 1798. "I THANK you for your kind inquiries “I about my health, it is no worse than usual; for I never had strong health: and for nearly twenty years have been very much subject to asthma and bilious complaint, which require me to use such means as often keep me languid. But on the whole I am better in some respects than I was some years since; though I do not seem capable of quite so much work. During the twelve years and a half that I have been in London, I have never once been laid by on the Lord's day; though I have often been apparently unfit for my work: but the Lord has helped me through; and I am best when employed.... 66 "__ the bookseller has bought the whole stock in hand of the Bible, and at most we shall not divide two shillings and sixpence in the pound on the original publisher's debts, which to me were 8421. If I could have raised the money, I should have purchased the residue of the work: but perhaps, indeed certainly, it was best I should not.1 "I shall be glad to hear from you more at length; and, as my engagements will permit, shall be happy to give my sentiments on any subject you desire, and to make any communications in my power. I trust the Lord is your guide and teacher: he hath done great things for you, as an earnest of greater; and I hope it will be found that he means you to be an instrument of good to many others also. "I OUGHT to have answered your last sooner: but at this season of the year I am seldom capable of so much application as at other times, and am therefore very ready to shift off any thing that can be postponed. I "As I have not heard any more from you, hope the Lord has so ordered matters that it will See Life, p. 274 and 285. (281 and 292.) not be necessary for you to go abroad, which in your present circumstances seems undesirable: yet we are very incompetent judges in such matters. Who could previously have thought that St. Paul's tedious imprisonment would have been for the furtherance of the gospel? Should you, therefore, after all your reluctance, be unable to decline the service with propriety, I trust it will be overruled for the glory of God, and for your own good, and future usefulness; and what is our cross does not often prove our snare. The acquisition of the French language may be a very important advantage, in a variety of circumstances. I have an idea that it is not at all improbable, that France itself may, within a course of years, be one of the best fields for missionaries. But I will not enlarge at present on that. "Your account of the manner in which the Lord has hitherto led you is highly satisfactory: and also your views of the importance of retirement, and of much personal secret religion; to which an over-eagerness in studying even religious books, an indulged delight in pious company and converse, and a disproportionate frequency in attending on public or social worship, may often prove great hindrances. When the mind is upon the whole properly disposed, we are seldom hindered in the first instance by gross evils, at which we revolt: but various things, not evil in themselves, nay, perhaps good in their place, become the little foxes that spoil the vines, and prevent fruitfulness, as well as make way for the enemy to sug 1 'Sol. Song ii. 15. gest further temptations. We are naturally most indisposed to what is most spiritual: secret communion with God is of all duties most spiritual we therefore find it peculiarly difficult to keep our hearts thoroughly close to it; and the enemy will use every method of rendering us formal and remiss in it. But you are forewarned, and I trust will be fore-armed. Depend upon it, every thing will prosper in the event in a very near proportion to our earnestness and perseverance in prayer: but negligence here will be followed by a declension, perhaps almost unperceived, in all other respects; and will make way for temptations, falls, corrections, darkness, and inward distresses. If, like Jacob, we wrestle with God and prevail, we shall eventually prevail in all our other conflicts. "I do not in the least wonder at what you mention concerning your desire for the ministry; and I think it very probable, that the Lord intends in due time thus to employ you. It appears, however, to me, that you should endeavour rather to repress and moderate the desire, than to indulge it at present; at least to aim and pray for a willingness to wait the Lord's time, and to submit to his will as to the event. I should not consider it as any deduction from the prospect of future usefulness, should you meet with various disappointments and delays, and repeatedly seem to have the door shut against you; so as to induce you to leave it calmly in the Lord's hands to determine whether he sees good to employ you or not. I lay a great stress on the apostle's rule, Not a novice, or new convert; and deem some time spent in gaining self-acquaintance, know ledge of the human heart, and experience both of what is within and what is around us, with other qualifications and endowments for so arduous and important a work, much better than a premature entrance upon it: and, if the Lord have work for us to do, we shall certainly be preserved to do it. I think, however, that it is very right to have an eye to the service continually, and to be aiming to acquire that kind of knowledge which may be peculiarly suited to the character of a minister, as well as that which is profitable to a Christian. And here I should advise you to recede, though with caution, from your strict rule of reading nothing but on religious subjects. I did this for a considerable time: but I think I should have been qualified for various services, for which I am now incompetent, had I set apart a portion of my time, not too large, for acquiring general knowledge. It appears to me that theology is best learned from the scriptures and a few select books; that one often reads very pious works without much enlarging one's fund of knowledge, though they produce a good effect on the heart; that a minister should be continually, if possible, increasing his knowledge, while he watches carefully his heart; and that any sensible book, if read so as to be continually compared with the scriptures, will increase useful knowledge,— namely, that of human nature, of the state of the world, the delusions which prevail, the most plausible objections to our doctrines, the weak side of our way of stating them, and a thousand other things which a well-informed scribe in the law of God knows how to make good use of. I call this |