How often has that room resounded with the cries of penitent sinners and the songs of rejoicing believers? [Sidenote: VISITS HIS MOTHER.] Soon after our friend had united himself with the people of God he paid a visit to his mother, who was in a dying state. It was on a beautiful Sabbath morning, in the month of June, and while walking along the road, between Hull and Hessle, and reflecting on the change he had experienced, he was filled 'unutterably full of glory and of God.' That morning, with its glorious visitation of grace, he never forgot. His soul had new feelings; his heart throbbed with a new, a strange, a divine joy. Peace reigned within and all around was lovely. The sun seemed to shine more brightly, and the birds sang a sweeter song. The flowers wore a more beautiful aspect, and the very grass seemed clothed in a more vivid green. It was like a little heaven below. 'As I walked along,' he says, 'I shouted, glory, glory, glory, and I am sure if a number of sinners had heard me they would have thought me mad.' But was he mad? Did not the pentecostal converts 'eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God?' Did not the converts in Samaria 'make great joy in the city?' Did not the Ethiopian Eunuch, having obtained salvation, '_go on his way rejoicing_?' And Charles Wesley, four days after his conversion, thus expressed the joy he felt-- I rode on the sky so happy was I, Nor envied Elijah his seat; My soul mounted higher in a chariot of fire As the moon was under my feet. And surely God's people have as much right to give utterance to their joy as the dupes of the devil have to give expression to theirs; and though the religion of the Saviour requires us to surrender many pleasures and endure peculiar sorrows, yet it is, supremely, the religion of peace, joy, and overflowing gladness. Mr. Ellerthorpe was never guilty of proclaiming with the trumpet tongue of a Pharisee, either what he felt or did, and though he kept a carefully written diary, extending over several volumes, and the reading of which has been a great spiritual treat to the writer of this book,--revealing, as it does, the secret of that intense earnestness, unbending integrity, active benevolence, and readiness for every good word and work by which our friend's religious career was distinguished,--yet of that diary our space will permit us to make but the briefest use. Take the following extracts:-- 'January 1, 1852.--I, John Ellerthorpe, here in the presence of my God, before whom I bow, covenant to live nearer to Him than I have done in the year that has rolled into eternity.' [Sidenote: HIS PIOUS RESOLUTIONS.] Resolutions. '1st. I will bow three times a day in secret. 2nd. I will attend all the means of grace I can. 3rd. I will visit what sick I can. 4th. I will speak ill of no man. 5th. I will hear nothing against any man, especially those who belong to the same society.