many strange changes of mind since I last saw you, but I was never more sensible of the carrying on, and increase of the work of God in my soul, than I am now. In my very best state, I can never rise above this motto. _Full of the deepest need_. And this line following, expresses the warmest desires of my heart. Thou, oh Christ, art all I want. I am learning, daily, to know _his_ value. I feel my need of _him_ increases, and strange to tell, the lower I sink in this frame, the higher I rise in confidence—in a confidence that I never did so fully attain before; for if I had a little of it in times past, company, visiting, the neglect of prayer, and carelessness of manners, lamed me in both feet. But I find it most blessed to be kept near the Saviour. I have had some blessed views of _him_, and I am covetous for more. I want to enjoy _his_ love, and to walk in _him_—to be adorned with _his_ light—to be crowned with _his_ loving kindness—to rise superior to the world—to fight the good fight, and so to lay hold on eternal life—to apprehend, embrace, and enjoy the everlasting favours of God. I hope my good friend, Mr. R. is well in health and spirits, as trying times, and body of sin and death will permit. I hope he is growing in knowledge. This will increase faith, and beget a blessed confidence, that maketh not ashamed. The main point with us, is, to beg the Lord, the holy Spirit, to create a supernatural faculty in our minds, to take in subjects, truly supernatural, that our affections may be supernatural also; and where this is the privilege, the mercy and the honor, it is a most divine evidence, that our persons are in Christ. The most blessed subject we can ever apprehend, is the love of God. O to be led with some power to this, so as to conceive of it, as set upon us. What a favour! We often judge of it by its effects upon us, and by reflecting on what the holy Spirit has wrought in us. This is a good plan sometimes; but are there not periods in your experience, when you doubt of the reality of the Spirit’s work on your own heart? I find it the most blessed method in my very worst, and in my very best frame, to fall low at the feet of Jesus, and to study the love of God, to guilty man, with the joint operation of each adorable person in the trinity, on the heart. The Father convinces, chastens, and teaches us, out of _his_ law, and testifies of _his_ dear son to us. _He_ then brings us to Christ; the son accepts us, pardons, justifies, receives, and owns us as _his_ own, while the Holy Spirit, acts as a divine comforter, sealer, and witness. And when this is experienced, we have the witness of the water, the blood, and the spirit; and these three agree in one, to witness our adoption, and the love of God to us, in Christ Jesus. This, and this only, reconciles the mind to bear the cross, daily, whether it be reproach or bondage, whether it be weakness of body, or trying circumstances, or even if they all come together.