for my Lord, I challenge thee for a child of God by faith. The Lord hath need of thee. Thou who feelest thou art just fit for hell, art just fit to advance his glory, the glory of his free grace, justifying the ungodly and him that worketh not. O come quickly! Believe in the Lord Jesus: and thou, even thou, art reconciled to God." And again," Thou ungodly one, who hearest or readest these words, thou vile, helpless miserable sinner, I charge thee before God, the Judge of all, go strait unto Him, with all thy ungodliness! Take heed thou destroy not thine own soul by pleading thy righteousness more or less. Go as altogether ungodly, guilty, lost, destroyed, deserving, and dropping into hell; and thou shalt then find favour in His sight, and know that He justifieth the ungodly. As such thou shalt be brought unto the blood of sprinkling, as an undone, helpless, damned sinner. Thus look unto Jesus! There is the Lamb of God, who taketh away thy sins! Plead thou no works, no righteousness of thine own! No humility, no contrition, sincerity! In no wise! That were in very deed, to deny the Lord that bought thee. No. Plead thou singly, the blood of the covenant, the ransom paid for thy proud, stubborn, sinful soul."

This was the emphatic manner in which Wesley used to address his hearers, knowing as he did, that there would always be some among them to whom it would be precisely adapted. By such an address the course of John Nelson's after life was determined; the string vibrated now which White

field had failed to touch; and when the sermon was ended, he said within himself, "This man can tell the secrets of my heart. He hath not left me there, for he hath shewed the remedy, even the blood of Jesus." He did not, however, at once make his case known to the preacher, and solicit his particular attention: during all his inward conflicts, there was in his outward actions a coolness and steadiness of conduct, which is the proper virtue of an Englishman. His acquaintances, however, were apprehensive that he was going too far in religion, and would thus bring poverty and distress upon his family by becoming unfit for business, and they wished he had never heard Mr. Wesley, for they were afraid it would be his ruin. His reply was not likely to remove these apprehensions. "I told them," says he, "I had reason to bless God that ever he was born, for by hearing him I was made sensible that my business in this world is to get well out of it; and as for my trade, health, wisdom, and all things in this world, they are no blessings to me any farther than as so many instruments to help me by the grace of God, to work out my salvation." Upon this, his friends, with a feeling of indignation arising from the warmth of their good will, replied," they were very sorry for him, and should be glad to knock Mr. Wesley's brains out, for he would be the ruin of many families, if he were allowed to live and go on as he did." Poor Nelson at this time narrowly escaped being turned out of doors by the persons with whom he lodged, lest some mischief, they said,

should come upon them with so much praying and fuss as he made about religion. But they were good simple people; and a doubt came upon them, that if John should be right and they wrong, it would be a sad thing to turn him out; and John had soon the satisfaction of taking them to hear Mr. Wesley. He risked his employment too by refusing to work at the Exchequer on a Sunday when his master's foreman told him that the King's business required haste, and that it was common to work on the Sunday for His Majesty when any thing was upon the finish. But John stoutly averred, "that he would not work upon the Sabbath for any man in England, except it were to quench fire, or something that required the same immediate help.”—“ Religion,” said the foreman, “has made you a rebel against the King." — " No, Sir," he replied, "it has made me a better subject than ever I was. The greatest enemies the King has, are the Sabbath-breakers, swearers, drunkards and whoremongers, for these pull down God's judgements both upon King and country." He was told that he should lose his employment if he would not obey his orders; his answer was, "he would rather want bread than wilfully offend God." The foreman swore that he would be as mad as Whitefield if he went on. "What hast thou done,” said he, “that thou needest make so much ado about salvation? I always took thee to be as honest a man as any I have in the work, and could have trusted thee with five hundred pounds.”—“ So you might," answered Nelson, "and not have lost

one penny by me."-" I have a worse opinion of thee now," said the foreman. Master," he re

plied, "I have the odds of you; for I have a much worse opinion of myself than you can have." But the end was that the work was not pursued on the Sunday, and that John Nelson rose in the good opinion of his employer for having shown a sense of his duty as a Christian.

He now fasted the whole of every Friday, giving away to the poor the food which he would otherwise have eaten. He spent his leisure hours in prayer, and in reading the Bible; and his desire for the salvation of souls was such, that he actually hired one of his fellow-workmen to go and hear Mr. Wesley preach. The experiment answered, for the workman afterwards told him it was the best thing both for him and his wife that ever man had done for them. When he dreamed of the devil now, it was no longer a dream of horrors; he was a match for him, and seeing him let loose among the people in the shape of a red bull, he took him by the horns and twisted him on his back, and set his right foot upon his neck. A letter came from his wife in the country, with tidings of the death of one darling child, and the desperate illness of another; he received it with a composure which made the by-standers accuse him of hardness of heart; but he was in a high state of exaltation: "his soul," he says, "seemed to breathe its life in God, as naturally as his body breathed life in the common air." This was at the time when the Methodists separated from the Mo

ravians first, and immediately afterwards from the Calvinists. Both Moravians and Calvinists fell upon John Nelson. The former assured him that Mr. Wesley, poor dear man, was wandering in the dark, a blind leader of the blind; that indeed he was only a John the Baptist, to go before and prepare the way for the brethren; the brethren in Fetter-lane were the men who were to lead people into true stillness; most of his followers had forsaken him, and were become happy sinners, and he must do the same, otherwise Mr. Wesley would still keep him under the law, and bring him into bondage. On the other hand, the Calvinists affirmed that Mr. Wesley denied the faith of the Gospel, which was predestination and election. He happened to reprove one of these comfortable believers for swearing, and the man replied that he was predestinated to it, and did not trouble himself about it at all, for if he were one of the elect he should be saved, but if he were not, all he could do would not alter God's decree. Nelson blessed God that he had not heard such things in the time of his distress, for he thought they would in that case have been the destruction of his body and soul. He was now able to make his part good against such reasoners; and when they told him that their eyes were opened, that they saw now into the electing love of God, and that, do what they would, they could not finally fall, he said to them: "You have gone out of the highway of holiness, and have got into the devil's pinfold. You are not seeking to perfect holiness in the fear of God, but are resting in