His manner with children was decided, but kind : u Much patience and forbearance,” says he, u are necessary, lest we prune our younjr nursery trees too closely, which would only injure them.” In writ- ing to Ernest, he says, 66 Pray diligently : give to no one just cause to oppose you : learn to yield obligingly to others, but not so as to be a partaker of other men’s sins. Never utter anything which might not be safely repeated after you.” To his daughter on a sick-bed, he writes, u We belong to God, and His Son Jesus Christ. Had we the power to choose concerning things future in this world, we ought to be willing to give it back into His hands : for even with our eyes shut, we may safely trust Him, that He will do all things well. It is good to be thoroughly convinced what a poor scheme of happiness it must be at the best, which we are eager enough to form, in a variety of ways, out of our earthly allotments.” His remarks of a personal kind are characteristic : “ If my usual style has any peculiarity, it is that of omitting all needless words and things. Here I have somewhat imitated the ancients. Con- stant reading of the classics has given me quite a liking of their simplicity.” u Retirement secures me from too much of this world’s din. Thus I get leisure for building myself up in a recollected con- sciousness of God ; without which we are liable to pass away our term of life we know not how.” u All I am and have, both in principle and practice, is to be summed up in this one expression — the Lords 'property? u If it be said to me, ‘ Surely you too, as one of God’s children, must have had your share of trial,’ I reply, My chief suffering was of a spiritual and secret kind. It came on slowly, and continued long. An unaccountable pang would sur- prise me at the thought of an approaching eternity : not that I had any perplexing dread of misery, though I was not able cheerfully to look forward to the happiness of a future state. God’s great de- sign is at present not to delight us with pleasant experiences, but to exercise us as His faithful people. Let me, therefore, trust God for the pleasant things as realities laid up in reversion : for I know they will come in all their fulness by and by, with eternity. As little children give their sweetmeats tc their parents to keep for them, so my pleasant things are safer in God’s keeping than in that of my own treacherous heart. Forgetting the past, and not taking thought for the morrow, I stand before God to-day as His daily pensioner.” 1 Kings xviii. 15. u Busy memory often gives me disquietude. If I have uttered an unbefitting word, or taken an unadvised step, though many years ago, the thing recurs to me, and by little and little gains within a troublesome ascendancy. But this makes me better acquainted with myself, and humbles me often into such sub- mission to God, as to be willing that my most secret faults should be published by Him in the presence of all His creatures.”
lie said, “ That if he desired the most perfect intimacy with real Christians on one account rather than another, it was for the sake