from it, the greater is his hazard of fatal selfdeception, or of an equally fatal relinquishment of the interests of his soul.

But the dangers to which the inquirer is exposed are often commensurate with his difficulties. Among these, not the least may be found in the well meant, but injudicious, advice of pious friends. A work, then, which will furnish scriptural directions, suited to different states of mind, consequent on the natural disposition, or the temporal circumstances of the awakened sinner, cannot but be desirable.

Or, if there be no hazard of a fictitious peace from any of those sources, it may be the lot of the inquirer to be out of the reach of competent persons to whom he might impart his anxieties, and from whose experimental knowledge he might obtain instruction, caution, or encouragement. In such circumstances it is but too probable that all solicitude for immortal interests may be abandoned in hopelessness; or recourse may be had to soul-ruining error; or a not less delusive postponement to an imagined more favourable season, may ensue.

In the private musings, too, of one in such a state, there may be imminent danger: not only from his false expectations, but from the sophistry of his heart, and the excuses which he secretly gives to his conscience. Present disappointment induces him to look somewhere else for relief: and thousands, in a land of gospel-light, have given up all effort, under secret pleas as dishonourable to God as they are destructive to themselves. To enumerate these pleas and to exhibit their criminality, might be an important engagement for one who acts as counsellor: but it belongs to a field by far too large to be occupied in every instance of application for advice; while the secret path of deception in which the inquirer is wandering, may be far away from suspicion. A volume, then, which would answer this end might assist the adviser, while it rendered the folly and inconsistency of the awakened sinner distinctly visible to his own sight.

If it be asked, whether I give the following pages to the public, with a full confidence in their adaptation to remove all these difficulties and to obviate all these dangers, I answer, No.

Well informed readers, and perhaps some who are not so, will observe defects which have not escaped my own eye; and possibly many which have not occurred to me in a hasty review. But although my expectations of complete success in this effort are not sanguine, they are sufficient to warrant the trust that it has not entirely failed.

I am persuaded that there are few inquirers who will not find something to meet at least part of their difficulties; and they will be the last to complain, if the details which are given should be considered by others as too numerous and too particular. And if the nature of this work require occasional repetition, it will be a small objection to one whose mind is eagerly intent on learning all that relates to his spiritual condition ; and who must see that the same perplexity, anxiety, or fear, often arises from very different

causes.

It will not be supposed that the subjects discussed in this volume are treated to exhaustion. Nor is it necessary that they should be. Designed as the work is for a certain class only, it can hardly be expected that all in which the

Christian is interested should be examined.

Yet

I would humbly hope, that even the more matured child of God will find in these pages something of interest to his own soul.

Many, alas! there are, who once belonged to the former of these classes, but are now numbered with neither; for they have returned to mingle with the careless world, after hours of anxiety for their salvation. To such, the feelings of former days recalled, and the excuses of a melancholy apostasy reviewed, may not be without some practical benefit.

Perhaps the examples given will be considered too numerous. But I have thought that they might be an advantageous medium, through which some ideas would more distinctly appear. Not one of them is fictitious; and, excepting where the contrary is expressly mentioned, they have fallen under my personal observation. It is of small importance that the language put into the mouths of those examples, is not exactly their But a This could not be recollected.

own.

faithful adherence to the substance and spirit of what they uttered, has been inviolably preserved.

I have availed myself of any advantage which I could obtain from the works of other authors: and where it has appeared necessary to do so, or where the quotations have been literal, I have named them. But they have been few. I have attempted to draw for materials rather on the word of God, and on life as I have seen it, than on the writings of others.

The

One more remark may appear necessary. following letters are exactly what they purport to be; written to a friend, with a design to assist him in his inquiries for salvation. If it be thought that they may be of service to other persons under similar circumstances, I shall be gratified in the concurrence of that hope with my own. If not, there is some consolation, under the failure, in the thought that they have been written with a sincere desire to aid the cause of religion. They are sent into the world with few pretensions; but accompanied, as they were in the act of writing them, with prayer in their behalf, to the Great Head of the church.

THE AUTHOR.