what one could wish them to be. My qualifications for a Christian labourer are very slim, & my devotedness to the Lord very meager. With such truths as God has revealed to our souls; with such a God always present with such as honour Him; with the Lord at hand; with His poor Church wandering in the wilderness & trampled under the foot of men; with a world of sinners rushing down to hell — what motives to diligence move us! Yes, it shames me to think how that word “labor” far exceeds anything of my doing worthy the name. The world looking on would call any of our toils as very puerile & now more than ever since some of us are not as conspicuously before it as formerly; the circle of our hopes is so much contracted & our manner of service for Christ so changed. Then how gracious it is of God to call such service “labour,” to denominate us as “labourers,” to reward such mean efforts as ours, & to express His pleasure & to express His pleasure of the most trifling deeds of ours! When one year ago I discovered for how many years I had lived in comparative ignorance of God’s mind, it appeared to me I should never again be so bold as to call myself “a preacher.” And in the popular sense of the term I am not one. It is more in harmony with my feelings & views of my calling to seek the ears & hearts of the people at present by visiting them at their houses & places of business with such words as God may give me at the time, & with the good reading, which I ever take with me. In this way God has in His mercy much blest me. On the Lord’s Day & at other times, when I get among a body