“This day I have been admitted to the sacred Order of Priests. I have much, O Lord, to be grateful to Thee for! I was kept calm and collected during the examination; and, (glory be to Thy name!) I have been given to feel, in some measure, my insufficiency for these things. Make me, I beseech thee, more sensible of this, and grant that the solemn transactions of this day may never rise up in judgment against me! Let me be a light in the world, showing forth thy praise; and make me, both in life and doctrine, an example to Thy flock. Lord, excite in my heart strong desires after the welfare of immortal souls; and grant that those to whom, I trust, thou hast sent me, may be ‘turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.’ To thee I look: on thee I would depend. Blessed Jesus! be thou my righteousness and my strength. Fulfil all the good pleasure of thy will in me.” In answer to a letter received from Mr. Buckworth, who, the Easter previously, had been ordained to the curacy of Dewsbury, he writes, August 24th, 1804:-- “I rejoice to hear of the success of your ministerial efforts. O that the Lord would hasten the time when Satan’s kingdom shall be finally demolished, and the kingdom of the Messiah established on its ruins! You will now have another snare to contend with; the Lord having been pleased to own you for his servant, Satan will now seek to exalt you beyond measure. We tread in a narrow path: dangers stand thick around: a single false step may lead to consequences most ruinous. O what need of watchfulness! May the ‘Watchman of Israel’ guard you; then will you be secure indeed! For myself, I can but just discern the pulse of spiritual life to beat, and that chiefly by the struggle between sin and grace. Alas! I have no active exertions to reflect on. That I am not the willing captive of natural inclination is all that I can say. Since you were here, I have been obliged to apply for medical aid, and have found considerable relief (thanks be to the chief Physician!) so that I am now in usual health, except that I am oppressed with a languor which distresses me exceedingly, and leaves me only able to sigh and cry. How cheering the consideration that ‘our life is hid with Christ in God!’ There it is secure. How animating the thought that ‘when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory!’ O the wonders of redeeming love, that worms, rebellious worms, may not only hope, but confidently expect such transcendent blessedness! For Christ our Head having endured the cross, to deny Him the rewards of His sufferings would be an injustice incapable of entering the Eternal mind. What shall I render [to the Lord] that amidst all my deadness, this hope is not taken