been seasons of much spiritual enjoyment and edification. The letters which have been read to us, from such candidates for communion as have been disposed to write them, and the reports of the faith and experience of the various candidates, which have been related to us by the brethren who have visited them, have often filled our hearts with gladness and our eyes with tears, and have been, beyond all description, edifying and animating to our souls. Hundreds of those letters, still in the possession of the pastor, many of them from the hands of beloved young persons, and some of them written by hands which have long since “forgot their cunning,” are among the richest rewards of pastoral labour, and the strongest attestations to the power and excellency of the gospel of Christ. In connection with this abundant degree of peace and prosperity, our course has however been attended, externally at least, with difficulty and tribulation, and we have had to build the walls of our Zion in troublous times. It was no easy thing for a young and inexperienced minister to have the formation and guidance of an infant church committed to his care, and at the same time to have to give attention to reading; to have to prepare three, and afterwards four sermons every week; besides visiting the sick; attending a weekly prayer-meeting; conducting two separate Bible classes, which at one time he had in charge; preaching occasionally at Thorpe and at Trowse, two village stations in connection with the chapel; and attending the committees and public meetings of various religious institutions in the city and county. In the earlier periods of these labours, the debt which remained on the chapel began to press with most burdensome weight; and those who had advanced the largest sums of money, became more than wishful for repayment. Once, the income of the minister was taken for the payment of the interest; but it was immediately returned to him, doubled in amount, by an affectionate and sympathizing congregation. One difficulty became, however, the forerunner and progenitor of another, as is generally the case when a chapel is burdened with an oppressive debt; and at length the state of things became so harassing and intolerable, especially to the pastor’s mind, that after many struggles and much mental suffering, he wrote a letter resigning the pastoral office, and sent it to the church on February 4th, 1825. That letter, though sent, was never opened; for just as the church assembled, an arrangement was completed by which the burden of debt was diminished, and by which some persons, whose pecuniary claims had been urgently pressed, were satisfied. Thus our extremity became God’s opportunity; and the minister and the people, instead of being separated, became, through mutual suffering, still more closely and affectionately united.