for the afflictions of Joseph, the trials of God’s family—Selah. I could send you near an hundred more, let these stay your mind just now, these are ten Bible evidences. May you rest on Christ alone. I have sent you a precious little pocket piece, entitled, “Visits to and from Jesus,” written by our favorite, Dr. Hawker, read it through once a week for the present, ’tis a precious talent, and will get more talents. I have found it sweet. Grace be with you, _Ruhamah_. LETTER VI. _Valley of Achor_, _Sept._ 1, 1818. M. A. HILL. MY DEAR FRIEND, I have many friends of your name, and thousands know I have also many enemies of the same name, though they never saw me; there are little hills of Zion, loved of the Lord, and hilly difficulties to encounter. I am sure you will smile, when I observe I have often noticed, that if God raises me up a friend, the Devil often raises me up an enemy of the same name; but this is the experience I have long had, of _mercies_ and _miseries_, dark _nights_ and cheerful _days_, heavy _losses_ and great spiritual _gains_, sore _temptations_ and seasonable _helps_; _tears_ and _smiles_, castings _down_ and liftings _up_, fits of _despair_ and lively _hopes_, the powers of _unbelief_ and the triumphs of _faith_, the heart at times _fretting_ against the Lord, then all at once sweet _submission_ to his will; a glorious _time_ in the pulpit, and the very next _time_, shut up, barren and dead: a sweet testimony from some poor soul of the Lord’s giving efficacy to the word of his grace, by my message, _another_ comes in directly after, to tell me some _one_ has turned an enemy. _Hearing_ the Lord has blessed some of my poor writings, and _presently_ the Devil has sent the baser sort to blow their horns about the streets, proclaiming my supposed infamy. Perhaps a precious soul-animating _letter_ is sent me, and while reading it, the post-man brings another, filled with the most abominable obscenity, written, no doubt, by an hypocritical professor—one part of the day enjoying the very life and _power_ of religion, the other part _lean_, _barren_, and _trifling_. I could enlarge on this, and fill a volume, but I must inform you I am reading the Pilgrims Progress, and find it very blessed; it is a glass, wherein I see much of the face of my own experience; I intend in many future letters to my friends, to quote and explain a part of it, especially those parts which are the most intricate, and perhaps the least noticed. It is an invaluable book; others have attempted to write similar books, but they are all very inferior to the Tinker’s Master-piece of Piety and Genius. Here I see the chequered scene the Lord generally leads _his_ people through, from conversion to glorification. Here we see the christian _burdened_ and _delivered_,