The Book Fund Diary for 1880

Efore the proof-sheets of the Report for 1879 are finally corrected and sent to press, I commence the record of the Lord’s mercy in the New Year, 1880, and tune my lips to praise Him for “all the grace I have not tasted yet.” May He help me to make this a faithful memorial of His goodness and guidance during the year, — if He spare me so long, — teaching me to reflect His love as the dewdrop does the sunshine, or as the mote which turns to diamond dust in the glory of a sunbeam.

The retrospect of His lovingkindness which engaged my thoughts as the old year died, filled my heart with admiring love and gratitude, and the consideration of the future is assuredly not less calculated to draw forth the tenderest feelings of confidence and loving trust. The God who has dealt so graciously with me in the past will not fail me in the time to come.

M Man’s plea to man is, that he never more
WiU beg, and that he never begged before;

Man’s plea to God is, that he did obtain
A former suit, and therefore sues again.

How good a God we serve, that, when we sue,

Makes His old gifts the examples of His new 1”

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Digitized’ by vooole

January 5. — It is to be hoped that for many the New Year will open with pleasant prospects of increased prosperity and comfort; but, alas! to some of my poor Pastors no bow of promise is visible; for dark clouds of distressful providences shut out any hopeful vision of a brighter horizon. I had a letter to-day from a country Pastor which greatly engaged my sympathy, and would have saddened my heart, only that the Lord enabled me to lighten his burden. Needing a certain book to complete a set, he says: 44 1 would not ask you, only that I am utterly unable to purchase, — the prevailing agricultural distress makes itself felt in the minister’s house. At midsummer I had to receive jQ 5 less than last year, in the autumn the same thing was repeated, and £10 makes a big hole in the salary of a village pastor; the Christmas quarter I have not yet received, and I fear it is so little that the deacon does not like to give it to me; just add to this that another little mouth has been sent for us to feed, so that we have now live children, and you will see that we have plenty of room for faith and patience, but little to spare for books.”

I do not find that, as a rule, these poor churches lack spiritual blessing. Where real poverty exists among the members, and the utmost they can give is yet insufficient for their Pastor’s proper maintenance, there the Lord often makes the riches of His spiritual kingdom to abound and increase, and only to those who “withhold that which is meet” does He send the soul-famine which saps the life of many a seemingly prosperous 41 Zion.” The Pastor, whose letter I have just quoted, adds to his sad story of need these significant words, “The word is blessed of the Lord to the saving of sinners, and the comforting of His saints.” Only just lately I heard of a church, where the services are well attended, the work of conversion is going on, and everything is prospering spiritually, where yet the cause is brought to so low an ebb from the universal financial distress, that they have to dismiss their minister from sheer inability to provide him with the bare necessities of life 1 Oh! for a 44 Sustentation Fund,” like that so splendidly worked by the Free Church of Scotland! Would to God that my poor little Pastors’ Aid Society mignt one day grow to be such a “goodly cedar,” and send forth equally. glorious branches of comfort and protection for our ministers.

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January 12. — Last year I wrote rather doubtfully about the monthly distribution of The Sword and the Trowel magazine to poor Pastors. I felt disinclined to give much attention to this branch of the work, lest the more important part of book-giving should suffer, and I think I was also physically unable to undertake even the smallest additional enterprise. At the close of the year, however, the letters of acknowledgment bore such abundant testimony to the value set upon the gift, and the blessing it brought to the homes thus visited, that I am encouraged to persevere in the work, and, beginning the year with thirty-seven names, I hope soon to raise the number to fifty. Should it please the Lord to grant me the blessing of improved health, I may see possibilities of service for Him, which till now have been hidden from my eyes by the thick mists of pain and suffering. It makes all the difference to the charm and distinctness of a prospect, whether you look at it through a window-pane blurred with rain-drops, or see it by the cloudless sunshine of a summer’s day!

In giving a few extracts from the letters of recipients of this monthly gift, I hope especially to interest those kind friends who first proposed the scheme, and have constantly enabled me to carry it out. A Baptist brother writes from the “Black Country”: —

It has pleased God to give me many a blessing during the past year, but Amongst those I have been able to turn to the largest account are the twelve magazines you have so kindly placed in my hands. Many of the articles have been read at our Monday-evening prayer-meetings, and rafter having been well perused at home, they are circulated among the 4i Black Country” men, and have done much good.

And another poor pastor thus expresses himself: —

I write to thank you for sending me The Sword and the Trowel during the past two years, and to ask you to continue to do so; for only those who, like myself, are in isolated spheres of labour, and receiving .Small stipends, can fully understand what a boon it is to have such an excellent magazine supplied gratuitously, especially when one’s stock of

hooks is small, and there are no means of adding to it. I assure you I look forward with the greatest delight to the first of the month, and if the magazine has not arrived, there is an extra prayer sent up for you* lest the delay has been occasioned by your more serious illness.

I have quite a nice bundle of these thanksgiving letters this time, the two I have chosen being fair specimens of the rest. All the dear brethren say the same thing, only in different words; the “melody” of true gratitude runs through all the “variations” of sincere acknowledgment. One says the contents of the magazine have been a “source of comfort” to him, another gladly confesses that he has been much “encouraged, cheered, and helped” by its perusal, a third has found it very “refreshing” to his soul, while a fourth “cannot tell me fully what joy and gladness” it has brought to his heart This ought surely to be sufficient to rekindle our interest in the work, and I shall take these many letters as a sign from the Lord that I am to “go forward” in this special department of His service.

When I provide standard works of Divinity for the Pastors’ shelves, I feel I introduce to him life-long friends who will never leave him, friends to whom he can turn for counsel, comfort, and encouragement at all times, and whose sweet companionship will only cease at heaven’s gate; but a magazine is a “wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night,” a very pleasant and acceptable visitor, bringing with him the healthful breezes of fresh religious information,, giving impulse and quickening to the spiritual life of his entertainers, and leaving an unmistakable blessing behind him in return for the welcome so warmly accorded.

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January 15. — With a delicacy and tender grace which have deeply touched my heart, some of my dear friends have to-day sent “birthday gifts” for my Book Fund. Nothing could have pleased me half so well; each token of loving remembrance is more precious to me than rubies, and skilful fingers have struck so loud a note of grateful praise in my soul, that for many months to come the pleasant melody will ring joyfully through my daily life. Many beautiful birthday cards have come bearing good and kind wishes; but the loveliest of them all was a Bank of England note so

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cunningly enclosed in the most transparent of tissues that the charming device of a large £$ in the accustomed corner was made the veiled emblem of the donor’s loving congratulations to me, and his deep interest in my beloved work! To all those dear friends whose sympathy and help have been so tenderly blended to-day, I give the warmest thanks of my heart, and I know they wifi like to remember that their sweet gifts, after having so richly blessed my own soul, shall continue to spread gladness and joy in homes and hearts less favoured and less abundantly filled than mine.

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February i. — Very grateful acknowledgments have been received from the Pastors in Jamaica, to many of whom I sent books last year. They call them “precious treasures,” i( priceless boons,” and then delightedly assure me that the Lord’s blessing has accompanied them, and will make them fruitful to His glory.

Taking up The Baptist Magazine to-day, I came quite unexpectedly upon a letter written by one of our missionaries, to whom, when a pastor in England, I had more than once sent a gift of books. It was like meeting and saluting an old friend, and, reading on with much interest his account of the joy and delight with which books, illustrated papers, magazines, etc., are received by the churches and schools over which he presides, I was greatly affected to find myself referred to as the donor of some volumes to native converts in the Bahamas! I had forgotten the circumstance; but this good missionary says — “A book sent from England is of the very highest service to me in my work here, more particularly if it has the name of the donor in it It is a sight to see, and a joy to hear one of the brethren say, ‘ De lady ob de great Massa $purgem gib me dis book trd de Siety / 9” Poor fellows! How glad I am to have rejoiced their hearts, and how much I wish I had sent them more! For one can never tell how great a blessing may be enfolded in a sheet or two of printed paper, or what possibilities of spiritual conviction or comfort may lie in the pages of a single tract. I feel both humbled and encouraged by this “finding after many days” of the bread which I had long

ago cast upon the waters, — humbled, because if all the opportunities of service which have presented themselves had been seized and used, the reward would have been infinitely greater, — but encouraged, by God’s tender mercy in accepting and blessing the very little effort which yet was made in His name, and for His sake!

Oh that this year the Lord would “enlarge my coasts,” not only in extending my work, and strengthening me for its labour, but by expanding my sympathies and teaching me the heavenly art of tender and successful ministry, so that the gifts of the Book Fund, scattered far and wide, may be “swift messengers, hastened by the King’s commandment, to carry light and gladness, and joy and thanksgiving” into the hearts and homes of His anxious, weary servants.

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February 4. — Without unduly lifting the veil of kindly privacy which usually overhangs the loving gifts of the Pastors’ Aid Fund, I shall now and then give my readers a glimpse into the inner sanctuary of a poor pastor’s home, and let them ponder over some scenes which can scarcely fail to move their hearts to pity, and their hands to help. This morning a letter came to hand which tells its story of thankfulness very simply and sweetly, and so much has it refreshed and cheered my spirit, that I put it on record for future incentive and encouragement Money, books, and clothing were sent to the good brother, for all these were most urgently needed, and I had received due acknowledgment of the gift when, to my surprise, this second letter came, and I take it as evidently the irrepressible overflow of a heart full of abundant satisfaction and joy. He says: —

A sense of gratitude compels me to send you these few more lines, to tell you not only of the good I have myself derived, but of the marked beneficial effect your great kindness has had upon my wife. The books you sent me have already greatly blessed me, and I assure you I have worked hard at them, and feel all the stronger for the work. Your dear husband’s sermons, and the works of Hodge and De Pressens, are gifts which, by God’s blessing, cannot fail to benefit both myself and my people. But I wish more particularly to tell you how your kindness has affected my wife. Feeling a little anxious about the xo$

expected addition to our family, she is at times inclined to be sad; but ever since your loving gifts came she has brightened up, and we have enjoyed the happiest, sunniest hours that we have known for a long time. Her feelings of delight on opening the parcel, and seeing the books and the garments, I will not venture to describe; but when we found all this kindness crowned by the contents of the envelope, we could only ask the Lord to bless you very richly* After my day’s work I feel constrained to tell you again of our joy, and you will please re* gard this note as an effort at expression by a heart overwhelmed with gratitude.

Dear souls! I know they feel far more than they can put into words, and that sometimes the very depth of their thankfulness restrains the overflow of speech. I bless God that there is an unwritten language of bowed knees, and happy tears, and glad sighs of relief from a burdened heart, which He well understands, and loves to listen to! How often have I found it far easier to thank Him, the Great Giver, than the dear human friends who are the dispensers of His gifts! one has to search out “goodly words” for their ears, and mould and modulate the sentences which convey our acknowledgments to them; but an upward glancing of the eye, or a tightening of the clasped hands, tells the whole tale to our tender Lord as fitly and as truly as though we poured forth torrents of eloquent thanksgivings.

February 27. — Most of my readers and friends know that the first volume of “Lectures to my Students” was the seed-germ from which the Book Fund sprang into existence. I well remember with what entranced delight I read it, and entered more fully than ever, through its perusal, into all the joys and sorrows, the trials and triumphs, the inward sighings and the outward rejoicings, of a ministers life. I thought every man must be a better man, and ever preacher a better preacher, if he read it, and that thought grew till it developed into a scheme for supplying all the poor ministers in the land with books. Now, I wish to record the fact, that though the Book Fund has grandly outgrown its first proportions, and blessedly outstripped even my sanguine expectations in its extended prosperity, it still retains its

loving allegiance to the little book which fostered it, and gives it always a deservedly prominent place in all its distributions.

Some thousands of “Lectures to my Students,” both first and second series, have been scattered over the land; but there seems to be an ever fresh demand for them, and they never leave me without a prayer that God’s blessing may rest upon them. Nor is this prayer presented in vain. “The reading of these books,” says a young curate, “has been a profitable pleasure. I have been made aware of the rocks which lie in the course of successful preaching, some of which I can see I have sailed very near to, but which in the future I shall try to steer clear away from!” The benefit which young clergymen of the Church of England must derive from the perusal of such addresses is incalculable, and I never lose an opportunity of introducing the “Lectures M to their notice and favour. On every hand, and by all sects, the wise advice and sterling counsels they contain are appreciated, and the wholesome denunciation of errors and evils of every sort is not only endured but applauded. “How Mr. Spurgeon does show up our bad habits!” wrote a newly-ordained curate the other day, “he makes them seem so ludicrous, that I, for one, mean to try and abandon them.” Nor less does the sweet persuasive earnestness of the writer fail to draw men’s hearts to a solemn consideration of the sacred duties and responsibilities of the ministry. “I have just read Lecture No. 3, on the ‘ Preacher’s Private Prayer,’” says a Wesleyan minister, “with much interest, and, I trust, with profit to my soul; indeed, I have been so rebuked yet refreshed, that I anticipate lasting benefit as the result of perusing the two volumes so kindly sent.”

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March 8. — These last few days my sympathies have been vigorously stirred by the discovery of some very distressing cases of privation and poverty among our Baptist village Pastors. I select three of these to lay before my readers, &nd while I put the pitiful facts in due order, I would ask them to note the ascending degrees in the measure of misery.

No. I. is a hard-working, painstaking pastor, preaching five times a week, holding large Bible-classes, visiting, itinerating, and in every way doing his best for the people of his charge; he is married, has three children, and accepts and manages to exist upon a meagre pittance of ^65 per annum, supplemented by a New Year’s gift, which usually comes to about ;£io or ^12. He writes quite jubilantly, because this year this said gift reached the magnificent sum of ^14! while he knows all too well, poor fellow! that insurance dues and doctors’ bills will much more than consume this little offering. How is this good brother to obey the divine injunction, “Owe no man anything”? “He has no right to get into debt” No, certainly not; but should we be able to steer clear of such an evil, if £79 had to pay for everything we needed for ourselves and families for the next twelve months?

No. II. is in still sadder plight For twenty years his salary as a village pastor has never exceeded j£ 6 o per annum, and, to use his own words,” it has often been ten and sometimes fifteen pounds below that sum;” this, with a wife afflicted for thirty years with complicated internal maladies, seeking aid from many physicians, and being “nothing bettered, but rather the worse,” added to other domestic trials, and many deaths in the family, is enough, one would think, to crush all the preaching out of a man! “Few,” he says, “save our heavenly Father, know the privations and struggles which we have endured these twenty years!” ’To a man so burdened with crosses and cares, the assistance of books seems indispensable; yet, till the Fund supplied his necessities, such precious helps were as far out of his reach as are the stars, and though they would have brought him light in darkness, food in famine, and almost life in death, he had to long and languish for them in vain. How could books be purchased when daily breads though “sure,” had to be sorely striven for?

No. III. stands apart upon a pinnacle of special and exceptional sadness. It is a climax of distressing circumstances, and, I hope, a unique instance of unusual need, combined with most painful indigence, among those whose names are enrolled as Baptist Pastors in our land. From a

Ten YeanofmyLtfe

letter written at my request by the wife of the poor brother referred to, I glean the following particulars. The husband is weak and ill from the lingering effects of a bronchial attack which prostrated him two years since, a young child is in a delicate and critical condition, the wife, though in fast-failing health, has just become the mother of their twelfth child, all living save one, and the last five are under five years of age l Their income, from all sources — salary, small business, and gifts from friends included, never exceeds — will my friends believe it when I write it? — the pitiful, paltry sum of Fifty-five pounds a year! Can respectable poverty know a deeper depth than this? When I persuaded the poor patient wife to unburden her sorrows to me, she concluded her account with these words, “My poor heart is surcharged with grief; while I write these lines I can scarcely see for tears, yet the Lord knows what is best for us, and will lead us in the right way.”

I confess I should have been ashamed to record this case, ashamed of my own comfortable and delightful surroundings, if I had not dried those tears, and lifted, at least, some part of the heavy burden which crushed this poor weary woman’s heart! Blessed be the Lord, who so graciously entrusts me with means to this end, and constantly replenishes the treasury from whence I draw help and succour for His needy ones.

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March 14. — He gives this replenishing sometimes in a very remarkable and marvellous manner, and sets our souls a-wondering at the condescension which leads Him to such distinct detail of fatherly love and care. A notable instance has just occurred, and I ask my friends to listen to this sweet story of a “new” mercy, fresh from His tender hand. One of “our own” men, who has long been ailing, has at last been obliged to resign his charge, not alone on account of feeble health, but also because his people are utterly unable to keep their pastor in the common necessaries of life. “You must go to Australia,” said one doctor after another;” it is your only chance for life! 99 But what was to be done with the dear but very sickly wife and the three mites of children?

Long they pondered ways and means, and the conclusion they arrived at was a hard one for loving human hearts, and cost them many a struggle — the poor wife consented to remain in England, working at her needle for a subsistence for herself and babes, while her husband sought in a far-off land the strength to labour for means which should reunite them.

At this juncture she wrote to me, acquainting me with the above arrangements, and there were certain facts in her * communication which led me to desire intensely to overturn these present plans of theirs, and secure the emigration of the entire family. But how was this to be accomplished? The expense is great to convey so many to the Utopia of feeble folk, and the funds of the “Pastors* Aid” could not be made available for such heavy and unusual charges. I wrote again, suggesting and enquiring, and, meanwhile, the Lord sent me quite unexpectedly a sum of money which I could do no less than consecrate to Him for this matter. With even this, however, there was still a deficit of some sixteen pounds in the amount needed, and now it was that the wonderfully tender dealing of our God became so manifest. The very morning on which I received a rapturous agreement to my proposal that the whole family should go out, and the good news that the passage could be effected under exceptionally cheap rates, my dear husband came joyfully into my room, exclaiming, a Here’s the rest of the money to take your prot6g£s to Australia!” and to my amazed delight he explained that, on opening his morning’s letters he found £ 1 $ as a personal gift to himself from an unknown correspondent, and forthwith felt that it was sent from the Lord for this very purpose about which our minds had been so exercised and anxious. Those notes seemed to come straight from heaven’s mint into our uplifted hands, and the morning’s hours were hallowed by a sweet sense of the nearness of an invisible and watchful love

Nor did the Lord’s thought for these poor exiles exhaust itself in this sole benefit; for I afterwards received a parcel of new clothing from a gentleman, a stranger, containing the very articles which were needed to complete the outfit of the husband, and I was enabled to obtain all that was requisite

for the comfort of mother and children. What joy to see the hand of the Lord sustaining, directing, and providing in so blessed and unmistakable a manner! Can eyes which have seen so clearly the goodness and lovingkindness of our God ever be obscured by the wicked mists of distrust and doubt?

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March 26. — This sweet Easter season has brought fresh blessings to my beloved work. Funds have flowed in freely to the Lord’s treasury, and a spring-tide of gladness has filled my heart; for loving gifts and welcome offerings, like the buds and flowers, are appearing on every side. My Scotch friend has again sent the soft woollen shawls which are so prized as winter comforts; and a large quantity of very good, scarcely worn, garments have been forwarded from donors who, I presume, wish to be unknown, seeing that they entrust me only with the knowledge that their welcome present comes from “Meg and Singapore.” But the “Easter gift,” par excellence, must be more minutely described, though, even then, I shall fail to do justice to the pleasant fact. A generous friend, who has lovingly helped the Book Fund since its commencement, wrote thus the other day: — “I intend to send you an Easter offering in kind % of paper and envelopes for your work; for well I know the blessed use to which it will be applied.” And to-day I have received the splendid and appropriate present, which almost overwhelms me by its magnitude. Six reams of pretty note paper, two sizes, with their proper complement of envelopes to match, and all charmingly stamped with initials and address! Is not this a gift to be pleased with and thankful for? There was no little excitement in my small sanctum when this grand present was unpacked. It was so magnificent in its proportions that, when released from its packing-case, it covered table, chairs, and sofa in the tiny room, and the question, u Where shall I put it all?” became a serious consideration to the happy possessor. Loving hands were busily engaged in opening the precious parcels, and delighted eyes were admiring the dainty quires as they lay so cosily in their boxes, when the sweetest voice in all the world — to me — said tenderly, “May you live to use it all, dear wife!” The owner of said voice has been as diligent and interested as the other folks in the room, inspecting, commending, and arranging; and very heartily did he join us all in praising the generous donor’s thoughtfulness and liberality. I wish my kind friend could have been present to see the joy he had given, and the great delight his gift had conferred; but the Lord will find for him a better reward than that, and will return to him blessing for blessing, a hundredfold harvest of recompense for his many kindnesses to needy Pastors, and the consecration of his substance to many a sacred service.

April 6. — A letter from Canada recently received must find permanent record here, as a sweet and touching expression of the love which the “old students’* bear to their dear President, a love which, in the majority of cases, is “faithful unto death.” This brother has been for many years a pastor in Canada, and in acknowledging a gift from the Book Fund, he thus declares the attachment which time and distance have not lessened: —

My dear Mrs. Spurgeon, — Brother A — arrived in due time, but not for some weeks did I receive the parcel of books you sent by him.... But now that they are here, and revelled in — put into their place in the bookcase, only to be taken down and admired afresh, and put back again — what can I say to you? If I did not feel and appreciate your generosity as I do, I could spin out words to any length by way of formal thanks; but as it stands I cannot. Down deep in one of the warmest comers of my heart, I have enshrined you, and in that sanctuary you will ever remain. May the love which prompted the gift, and took such pains in forwarding it, be rewarded by Him whose richest benediction I entreat for you. I need not say how the volumes will be prized and valued for their intrinsic merit, the inspiration they will supply, the food they will give to mind and heart, and also for the sake of die author, whose dear and beloved form I see outlined before my mind’s eye every day, and whose ringing voice I fancy I can hear across the three thousand miles of ocean! God grant that I may be able to catch more and more of that high-souled, consecrated enthusiasm which breathes through his writings like the fresh breeze of morning! You will pardon the pride I feel in showing my friends the row of works by my dear President which I now possess; for with “The Treasury of David,” “The Lectures to Students,” and an almost complete set of “Sermons,” I have an exhibition sufficient to make an old student clap no

his hands with delight. The single Sermons have been put into wrappers, and are now being circulated through the town. May they bear fruit abundantly! Please catch the ear of your beloved husband, my President, just for a moment, to whisper into it the unabated, the increasing love of one who can never repay him for his kindness. And now may the good Lord sustain and comfort you in your affliction and retirement, and in your chamber of pain, in the “dark and cloudy day,” may “one like unto the Son of man” ever be near you. So prays your deeply grateful

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April 24. — Yesterday saw the close of the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Pastors’ College, and the verdict of all who have taken part in its services is unanimous that it has exceeded in glory and blessing all former occasions of happy congress. Every day brought fresh token of heavenly favour, and “power from on high” rested on all the holy engagements and deliberations; but at the farewell communion the zenith of joy was attained, and one then present told me it was as if “Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said, Peace be unto you.” Rapture unspeakable filled all hearts, while they “held him by the feet and worshipped Him.”

My hand cannot record the sacred solemnities of this blessed season, for only in spirit could I join their assembly, or unite my heart and voice with theirs; yet many crumbs of the holy banquet have been brought to my table, and the echoes of their triumphant songs have reached my listening ears. Nay, more than this has been granted to me; for after watching all the week long for stray flowers or fruits from their abundance, I feasted last evening to the full on some of the same heavenly food, and even gathered up the fragments that remained in a basket of my very own. And thus it happened. At the conclusion of yesterday’s services, some fifteen or sixteen of the brethren came to our dear home to spend the evening with us, and I felt as though I were entertaining the “wedding guests” who had been to the “supper of the great King.” A gracious anointing still rested on them, the Lord had been u the light of their countenance” whilst they waited on Him, and the “afterglow” from the “Sun of Righteousness” still shone on every hi

feature. Passing in review the sayings and doings of the last five eventful days, they magnified the name of the Lord for His goodness, and then they sang such heavenly music that I almost thought the angels would care to listen. Our souls were carried to the very gates of heaven, on the wings of these celestial songs, and a foretaste of the joy therein awaiting us was vouchsafed as we joined in the glorious chorus of praise to our dear Lord and Saviour. How precious these “drinks of the brook by the way” are to me no tongue can tell; but the Lord’s tender love in providing such spiritual refreshment must not pass without grateful acknowledgment and blessing.

The Book Fund’s memorial present this year to the assembled Pastors is a little volume entitled “The Glories of Christ,” rich in suggestion, and teeming with hints, “which,” says the reviewer in The Sword and the Trowel, will many of them be of great value to preachers who need to be started on a train of thought.” May God bless the little gift, and make it all the help I mean it to be to the dear brethren who will use it; and when it sheds a new light on some difficult passage of Scripture, or brings out some long-forgotten accord and harmony of texts, then may it also sweetly bring to remembrance the holy and happy days of the Conference of 1880.

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April 26, — I find that many poor ministers have long hesitated to apply to me for a grant of books, presuming that the gifts must certainly be limited to brethren of the Baptist denomination, and almost refusing to believe the good news that all needy Pastors of churches — in actual charge — are welcome to the proffered help and comfort. None are excluded who preach the gospel of Christ in truth and sincerity. This unsectarkn character of my work affords me constant satisfaction and pleasure, and the delight I feel while furnishing the bare bookshelves in a poor Baptist pastor’s little room is increased rather than lessened when I am permitted to place “The Treasury of David” or some volumes of “Sermons” on the study table of an ill-paid curate of the Church of England.

A day or two since, the good Earl of Shaftesbury paid us a visit, and on leaving he said to me, “Well, how does the Baptist book-giving prosper?” “Thank you, my lord,” I replied, “the Book Fund prospers grandly, all the more that it is not a Baptist book-giving, but is free to all the Lord’s ministering servants.” If the venerable Earl could have seen my “day-book” he would have found full confirmation of this assertion, for, glancing down the long columns of recipients* names, one cannot but be struck with the constant repetition of the distinguishing titles of “Church,” “Congregational,” “Presbyterian,” “Methodist,” etc., and the comparatively infrequent recurrence of the word “Baptist” in the list. Thus, in these first four months of the year, I have already on my books the names of nearly four hundred ministers, who during that period have received grants from my Fund, and of this number just one-fourth are “mine own people.” I am delighted to see that the longer record bears the names of fifty Church of England clergymen, and I believe I am justified in anticipating glorious results from the distribution among them of sound and scriptural doctrine. And if in some cases appreciation should lead to appropriation, and from many a stately pulpit in the land the gospel should sound forth full and free through the sermons first delivered in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, shall aught but joy and thankfulness fill our hearts? “I confess,” wrote a vicar to me, “that though I do not preach your husband’s sermons * bodily / I yet so assimilate them into my own discourses that they are of the utmost value and blessing to me.”

A growing desire is manifested by ministers of all sections of the church of Christ to acquaint themselves with the utterances of one whose words have been so greatly blessed to the conversion of sinners and the comforting of saints; and I have constantly found that a gift of one volume of “Sermons” has created such a relish for the “savoury meat,” that in a short time I have been solicited to help in procuring more, even though the slenderly filled purse could ill afford any outlay. In such instances the Book Fund glories in its blessed service, and triumphantly spreading the rich feast before the longing soul, is inexpressibly thankful

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to be thus used of God in accomplishing His loving purpose of “filling the hungry with good things.”

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May 3. — A legacy of ^200 left to the Book Fund by an old and much-loved friend becomes null and void in consequence of legal inaccuracies in the will; and thus, though the dear deceased’s tender remembrance of me is inalienable, I lose the splendid help to my beloved work which she intended should partly alleviate my grief at her departure, and in some measure compensate for the cessation of her constant loving aid.

I try to bear my disappointment bravely, and sink my own sorrow in sympathy with the President in the far heavier loss sustained in like manner by the Pastors’ College; and though I felt at first to some extent “bowed down” by the unexpected failure of my promised good fortune, I am since upholden and comforted exceedingly; for I know that “the Lord is able to give me much more than this,” and this puts all thought of murmuring from me, and enables me to look up again from human help to that infinitely more certain portion with which the Lord supplies all my need as it arises. Perhaps I needed such a lesson, and shall do well to learn it off “by heart.” It is quite possible that I felt too elated on hearing of the generous bequest, and counted up my riches with somewhat of carnal pride mingling with the gratification which was allowable; certain it is that I once reckoned upon a grand total at the end of the year quite eclipsing all former amounts, and it may be that the Lord saw this was not good for me, and that the reception of too much “treasure laid up on earth” would have disturbed and imperilled that lowly posture of constant dependence on my God which He has taught me to delight in, and has so graciously honoured and rewarded. I think, also, I may learn from this untoward event to bless and praise Him more humbly and heartily for His grand and immutable “Will”! and that “His ways are not our ways”!

Such a painful experience of the instability of earth’s fairest promises intensifies our joy and confidence in that covenant which is “ordered in all things and sure.” No 1 14

flaw, no legal error, no misplaced or missing word shall invalidate that glorious testament by which we are made “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.” Never can our interest in that solemn “Will” be debated or denied — our legacy of pardon and peace here, our estate of perfect and eternal blessedness hereafter, being as assured and unalterable as the throne of God Himself.

* * * *

May 6. — There are in this pleasant world of ours many kind and tender-hearted people who, after perusing the Report of my Book Fund, straightway rush off to their bookcases, and in an enthusiasm of good-will pull down a pile of old books, and pack them off to me for my poor Pastors, in the full belief that they have thus rendered the best possible service to the Fund, and the Fund’s Manager, and the Fund’s Manager’s needy folk. I should be very sorry to damp any kindly ardour, or seem ungrateful for proofs of willing sympathy; but I feel constrained to point out as tenderly as possible to my well-meaning but mistaken friends, that such presents are worse than useless to me. I am often puzzled how to get rid of the encumbrances which were meant to be blessings! Usually, when good people thus disturb the dusty solitudes of their bookshelves, the result is as follows: — A large number of volumes of The Evangelical Magazine and The Baptist Record., musty, perhaps, and always incomplete; some ancient “Sermons” by the venerable pastor they “sat under” half a century ago; a book or two of “Poems” by “nobody knows who;” a few old works on some abstruse notions; a “French Grammar and Exercises;” Mangnall’s “Questions;” “Advice to a newly-married pair,” and — I was going to say — a “Cookery Book,” but I think that might be an exaggeration where all else is simple, earnest fact. Now, what could my poor Pastors care for rubbish such as this? The books might fill their shelves, but they could never feed their minds, and my work would fall fearfully short of its grand and solemn aim were I to mock their eager hunger with the mere semblance of a feast.

I would lovingly impress upon all my readers that the Hook Fund seeks to convey the richest and most substantial mental sustenance it can procure, to those who, by reason of well-worked yet ill-fed brains, find themselves in much the same condition as an impoverished field when the farmer has forced crop after crop from the soil, and neglected to supply the nourishment which such exhaustive measures demand.

John Ploughman’s wife knows that poor pasture needs rich fattening, and she once heard John say that “sensible persons do not expect a garden to yield them herbs from year to year unless they enrich the soil; they do not expect a locomotive to work without fuel, or even an ox or an ass to labour without food; let them, therefore, give over expecting to receive instructive sermons from men who are shut out of the storehouse of knowledge by their inability to purchase books.”

If dear friends have in their possession any of the Puritan Divines, or any standard works of sound theology, which they know would help to “thoroughly furnish” some man of God, I will thankfully accept and distribute them; for I want to bring about, by God’s blessing, a better state of things in our ministers’ libraries, and furnish their study tables with a fair abundance of sacred lore; but from a miscellaneous collection of valueless volumes I pray to be delivered.

May 22. — When the Lord Jesus “dwelt among men,” His teachings were constantly enforced by a reference to His own handiworks in nature; he drew illustrations from tree, and flower, and bird, and “without a parable spake He not unto them”; He “used similitudes” to impress and deepen the lessons of love and mercy which fell from His gracious lips.

I think the same tender teaching is still continued, though He has passed away to heaven, and our poor, dim human eyes cannot see His “matchless form,” nor our dull mortal ears catch the heavenly harmonies of His divine voice: “He left not Himself without witness” in this matter, but still -often condescends to convey counsel and comfort to His n6

perplexed and weary children under the shadow of a metaphor, or through the significance of a parable.

Nor are these precious “object lessons” of the Great Master far to seek. In the common surroundings of daily life, no less than in the boundless stores of Nature’s treasure-house, the observant eye, the listening ear, or the consecrated hand may find them, tenderly placed in the learner’s way, fully prepared for use, and abundantly rewarding his diligent attention.

I often stumble on a message to my soul in unlikely and quaint places; and this morning I found in the columns of a daily paper a revelation of one of Nature’s secrets, from whence I drew and took to my heart a most precious suggestion touching the “sweet uses of adversity.” The writer of the article in question tells in graceful and forcible language the facts — long disputed, but now fully assured, bearing upon the production and formation of pearls; and though perhaps such a result of his labour never presented itself to the mind of the journalist, yet from his words one soul, at least, discovered a new way of treating troubles, and thanked God for thus revealing “under what ugly conditions the most exquisite results may be obtained.”

In some unlucky moment (says the writer alluded to) the oyster has admitted into its shell a grain of sand, and the sharp-edged atom irritates the tender creature — so tender, indeed, that it will only live within walls of mother-of-pearl; and to defend itself against the obnoxious intruder, which it can neither eat nor expel, it covers the grain with the substance we call “pearl.” The eccentric magician who thus, returning good for evil, endows with priceless value the vagabond atom, so incomparably worthless before, does not, however, remain content with ‘having rendered its annoyer harmless, but continues to heap coals of fire on its head — continues, that is, to lay on film after film, smothering the wretched grit deeper and deeper in the precious substance, until the speck, once only a grain of sand upon the seashore, grows into the fascinating gem, against which divers stake their lives, and which the east and the west compete to buy.

They say that fable is full of morals drawn from “the fair pearl in the foul oyster”; but I think we may wrest yet another secret from the laboratory of the humble mollusc, and learn by its example to turn our troubles into treasures.

Have we a “thorn in the flesh,” a fretting, wearing ailment, either mental or physical? By God’s grace let us seek to cover and overlay it with the radiant loveliness of patience, meekness, and cheerful resignation! Our tender Lord will teach us the wondrous alchemy whereby our pains may be transmuted into the pearls of sweet obedience, our sufferings into the sapphires of love, our tears into the diamonds of sacred joy! Think of this, tried and afflicted child of God! Every pain borne meekly for His sake; — sorrow and suffering endured without murmuring; — bitter words restrained from love to Him; — wicked tempers checked and bridled lest His Spirit should be grieved; — all these efforts are, by His potent grace, gradually covering and concealing the distressing cause of your pain, and developing treasures fairer and more priceless than the “pearl full white and orient” which might worthily prove a “king’s ransom.”

The patient travail of the poor suffering oyster will perchance erewhile command the admiration of a world, and the result of its costly labour may adorn the diadem of an empress; but the hidden jewels of which we speak will win the commendation of the Lord of heaven and earth, and the possessor of the “ornament of a meek and quiet spirit” wears a pearl within his breast of peerless value, a treasure which, “in the sight of God, is of great price!

Oh, my soul, see that thou set to work at once diligently to fashion gems which may be laid at thy Saviour’s feet as trophies of His power! And when the Heavenly Merchantman comes, “seeking goodly pearls,” offer thou to Him with humble joy the jewels with which His own love and grace have decked thee!

* *

June 1. — This morning I have received fresh and delightful evidence of the truth of my assertion that, “the gift of one volume of sermons creates a relish for more.” Mental appetite increases by indulgence, and is rather strengthened than satiated by a rich and abundant provision.

If my friends will read the following extract from a letter received to-day from a clergyman of the Church of England, in connection with my remarks on aforesaid page, they will see what an excellent commentary it affords on my text, and n8

how perfectly it establishes my theory, that to spread a feast of the richest and most substantial dainties of sacred literature is a sure way to develop mental hunger as well as to assuage it. Thus the letter runs: —

I cannot thank you sufficiently for your munificent donation of books; I had no idea they were so excellent and suitable. What extraordinary toil and trouble must have been expended in their compilation and production! I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and bless God that He has disposed you to send these books to me. I shall not fail to send you some money for some more sermons as soon as 1 can afford it. I should like all of them. I feel like a wild animal: my mind having, as it were, tasted — not of bloody but of such excellent wisdom — has an insatiable appetite for more.

This needs no comment on my part, but I look up from transcribing this note to “thank God and take courage”!

June 1 6. — The following communication deeply affected my heart to-day. It was addressed to my dear husband, and contained only these few words: —

Rev. and dear Sir, — Please find enclosed a P.O. order for £2 is. 6d., and a small slip of paper which will explain the use to which the money is to be put. It was directed to be sent to you by a Christian friend of mine, Mrs. D — , of Greenock, and was found in a drawer after her death. I may state that she had a struggle to support herself by her needle, and selling small furnishings, and was long in poor health, but her heart was in her Master’s work, and she now receives her reward.

The little slip of soiled and tom paper bears the following inscription, written in a weak and cramped hand: —

Silver threepenny pieces coming in
in the way of business, and taken during
this year. Dedicated to the Lord’s work,
under the hand of Mrs. Spurgeon, London.

Here is a veritable “widow’s mite,” which the Lord has noted as being cast with an unsparingly loving hand into His treasury! How sacred that morsel of paper becomes in my eyes! Such a gift as this is an endowment of blessing to the Book Fund. It is a true “sacrifice,” a consecrated “offering,” acceptable to the Lord, and well-pleasing in His sight; and I feel that such a legacy of love cannot fail to enrich my work in a far deeper sense than its mere money value would signifiy.

As I look at the few words traced by her trembling fingers, I wonder when the poor, lone woman heard of the Book Fund, and what induced her to interest herself in the welfare of my poor Pastors! I can imagine her unselfish joy when, one by one, the devoted coins came into her hands “in the way of business”; her delight at their steady increase, her reverent care to lay them by with prayer and thanksgiving, her humble satisfaction at thus storing up her substance for the Lord, whose “work” she must have loved so sincerely.

Now she treads the golden streets, and casts her bright crown at her Saviour’s feet; pain and poverty, toil and trouble, all passed away for ever; but the story of the little silver coins so faithfully dedicated to His service will, I think, touch many a heart with its simple pathos, and “this thing that she hath done” shall be spoken of amongst us with well-merited tenderness, and teach us a sweet lesson of holy consecration and self-denying love.

June 22. — My dear little book, you must faithfully bear the record of the Lord’s great mercy to me and mine this day! With the loving shouts of the people still ringing in my ears — the warm grip of many fingers yet pressing on my hands — and my heart still throbbing with the unwonted excitement of appearing in the midst of a crowded gathering — I turn to you now in the quietude and rest of home to entrust to your pages a grateful memorial of a happy day!

The “Girls’ Orphanage” has been inaugurated amidst great rejoicing, the Lord inclining His people’s hearts to give liberally to the work, so that its “stones were laid in lair colours” of faith and hope, and my beloved sees this new “labour of love” abundantly prospering in his hands. Blessed be the Lord who thus giveth to His servant the “desire of his heart,” fulfilling “all his petitions.” The people gathered round with glad hearts and beaming faces, and many a prayer ascended from loving lips that the dear children, who should be housed and taught and cared for in the new homes, might all grow up there in the fear and love, of God, and be a blessing in their day and generation.

The band of thirty little girls marching along in front of the boys (“place aux dames” 1) attracted much attention, and touched all hearts; some of them are such wee mites, and they look very pretty and tender, when compared with the hosts of sturdy boys, who come tramping by in such overwhelming numbers that one wonders if there be any end to them! Few can look unmoved on such masses of orphan children; for in spite of their merry faces, their bright ways, and their happy laughter, the painful fact will force itself upon the mind of the observer, that every one of these little ones is taken from a desolate home, where the saddest of all earth’s bereavements has been suffered; for the children are “fatherless,” and the wife is a “widow.” There was “April weather” on many a face to-day; I saw the tears stealing down cheeks on which approving smiles were struggling for the mastery; but the sunshine gained the victory, and the pitying drops were quickly wiped away, for the happy condition and appearance of the children led all to forget the sorrow which brought them there, in intense thankfulness for their present joy and future prospects.

If ever the strange title of “Godfather” were permissible, I think it would be in the case of Mr. Spurgeon towards his boys and girls at Stockwell; for God has made him, as it were, in His stead, a “father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widow” 1 The Lord bless him on his birthday, and on every other day, and give him many more years in which to be a blessing to the church, the College, the Orphanage, and the world!

July 5. — The morning letters make their appearance with the breakfast-tray, and very often they bring such gratifying assurance of good accomplished and comfort bestowed, that the simple meal is either transformed into a love-feast, or blessedly interrupted by thanksgiving and praise. A day dawning with such brightness should yield a constant sunshine of holy joy and peace 3 but, alas! this world’s clouds soon gather round the spirit, and too often the fair promise of the morning sky is dimmed and blotted by the mists of earthly care. Yet it is good to have seen the glory of a

1 2 1

sunrise, even though the day prove dark; faith’s glance pierces the clouds, rejoices in the light still there, and looks forward to a renewal of the blessing on the morrow.

The two following letters will be fair specimens of the “good things v with which my table is constantly spread, and by which the Lord graciously refreshes my spirit, and incites me to renewed effort in the work. The first is from a Congregational minister: —

Dear Madam, — When I wrote for the fifth volume of Mr. Spurgeon’s “Treasury of David” I felt that you would place me under an obligation of lively gratitude by acceding to my request; but when, instead of one volume, I am the fortunate recipient of seven, and all of them of great interest and utility — to congratulate myself, and express my thanks to you, in a measure proportioned to your bounty, is a task more easily undertaken than adequately performed. Happily, where the will is present your kindness will esteem it to be more than the deed; my words, which are poor and imperfect in themselves, have yet this no inconsiderable merit, that they are the stammering utterances of the heart.

I am not a stranger to Mr. Spurgeon’s “Sermons,” having now and again treated myself to their perusal in numbers, and few presents could have been more acceptable to me than these four beautiful volumes, containing his weekly discourses to his congregation. I shall read them regularly, endeavour to drink deeply into the spirit of them, seek to get at the secret of their wonderful power, and, as far as possible, reproduce the advantage so obtained in my own poor ministry. The “Homiletic Encyclopaedia” cannot fail to be of great service to me, and from the perusal of the other volumes I believe I shall derive stimulus and refreshment in my work. I join my prayers with yours that the gift may also be made the means of the conversion of many souls.

Dear Madam — I cannot exactly give you the blessing of “one who is ready to perish,” but the blessing of a hungry intellect and heart, for which you have furnished such an ample repast, I do most sincerely and feelingly ask you to accept; and, above all, in the blessing of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost may you have your reward.

The second letter is from a Church clergyman: —

My dear Madam — The books have arrived safely, and I must thank you very much for the kind additions you have made to those I mentioned. The “Lectures” I have long wished to possess; but I never for one moment imagined that the author’s wife would be the giver. Need I say how heartily I reciprocate the prayerful wish that by their assistance, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, I may more clearly, more earnestly, and more humbly be enabled to preach the truth as it is in Jesus, and win for Him more glory than ever I have done before.

Your generosity and kindness is unparalleled in my personal experience, and it strikes me perhaps more because we are of a different

creed and persuasion. I can but once more thank you deeply and truly; and earnestly pray that God’s blessing may for ever rest on you and yours, and that you may be richly repaid out of His treasury for your kind and unselfish thought of others.

* * * #,

July 23. — There is an “exceeding great reward” in seeing the work of the Lord prospering in one’s own hands; but when such prosperity overflows and engages other hearts, and hands also, we look up with adoring gratitude to Him who gives us such wonderful wages for such poor and feeble 1 service.

I accept, as a gracious token of my Lord’s favour, the fact that He has given my little Report for last year grace in the sight of so many of His people, and that in several instances its perusal has kindled the desire to help on the work it advocates, not only by donations to the Book Fund, but by special personal participation and interest. Friends have been led to think seriously of the needs of poor Pastors, many hearts have been roused to a consideration of the sad condition of a vast number of ministers, and to some the conviction has come with startling suddenness, that their own pastor, beloved for his work’s sake, and honoured as a spiritual guide and counsellor, was, nevertheless, fainting under a pressure of temporal discomfort, from which the commonest measure of love and gratitude should have saved him. Happily, to those who are right-minded, such an awakening is efficient and permanent. From henceforth he who communicates to them of spiritual things, is” ministered unto” in earthly matters, and this being the way ot the Lord’s own ordaining, both are blessed, and mutual satisfaction and abundant provision proclaim peace in Zion’s borders.

A very pleasing effort for the benefit and refreshment of Christ’s poorer servants is recorded in a note received to-day, a portion of which I here transcribe. My friend says: —

I think you will be interested to know that I lent your “Report” to some friends here, and they were so struck by it that they found out six

poor ministers in S, and sent them twelve books on loan. The

books are to go the round for a year, each pastor keeping them a month,. and then fresh ones are to be sent out of their library, other friends helping by lending new books, and paying carriage. These good people

have once invited the six poor ministers to B for the day, giving

them a substantial dinner and tea, and asking ministers of the town to meet them in the evening for social intercourse and prayer. I tell you this, knowing you must feel interested, because it all arose from reading your “Report.”

Interested! Yes, indeed! and intensely thankful to God that He has allowed the silent pleading of the little book to arouse Christian sympathy for His worn and wearied soldiers.

* *

August 1 to 18. — Amidst the confusion and inconveniences attendant upon a speedy removal to a new residence, the dear work of the Book Fund must suffer a temporary suspension. Correspondence may be continued, and promises of future bounty may make glad the hearts of longing Pastors; but for some few weeks there can be no regular preparation and despatch of parcels. Every Thursday of every week for these four years past has hitherto been devoted to this pleasant business, the labour of many willing hands being impressed for the service, and punctually every Friday morning the “Globe Express” van has come to receive and transmit the loving gifts. But alas for all order and rule in such times as these I Rooms are dismantled, shelves displaced, the books themselves are consigned to vast cases, and discomfort reigns paramount. What a stirring up of one’s quiet nest this removal is! and how tenderly one learns to look on familiar objects from which we are to be parted for ever i The heart yearns over a place endeared by an intimate acquaintance of twenty-three years, and full of happy or solemn associations. Every nook and corner, both of house and garden, abounds with sweet or sorrowful memories, and the remembrance of manifold mercies clings like a rich tapestry to the walls of the desolate rooms. On this spot nearly a quarter of a century of blissful wedded life has been passed, and though both husband and wife have been called to suffer severe physical pain and months of weakness within its boundary, our house has been far oftener a “Bethel” to us than a “Bochim.”

The very walls might cry out against us as ungrateful did we not silence them by our ceaseless thanksgiving; for the Lord has here loaded us with benefits, and consecrated every inch of space with tokens of His great lovingkindness. The sun of His goodness has photographed every portion of our dear home upon our hearts, and though other lights and shadows must be reflected there in coming days, they can never obliterate the sweet images which grateful memory will jealously preserve. Tender remembrances will render indelible the pictures of the sick chamber — which so many times had almost been “the gate of heaven 99 to our spirit; the little room, tenderly fitted up by a husband’s careful love, and so often the scene of a scarcely hoped-for convalescence; the study — sacred to the Pastor’s earnest work, and silent witness of wrestlings and communings known only to God and his own soul;* the library — where the shelves gladly suffered a constant spoliation and renewal for the blessed work of the Book Fund.

It is hard to leave all these sympathetic surroundings and dwell in the house of a stranger; but we believe we have seen the cloudy pillar move, and heard our Leader’s voice bidding us” Go forward”; so in trustful obedience we strike our tent, and prepare to depart to the “place of which he has told us.” And our new home may be to us a “Tabor,” if our Lord will but dwell with us there! On our first view of it we were strongly reminded of Bunyan’s description of the “Delectable Mountains,” and every subsequent visit deepens that impression. “A pleasant prospect on every side,” said he, “these mountains are EmanueFs land, they are within sight of His city, the sheep also are His, and He laid down His life for them.”

The shepherds show the pilgrims the gates of the Celestial City, “if they had the skill to look through their perspective glass”; it may be that the Lord our Shepherd has called us

* In this room, by desire of the incoming tenants, has been placed the following inscription, written by Mr. Spurgeon: —

“Farewell, fair room, I leave thee to a friend:

Peace dwell with him and all his kin.

May angels evermore the house defend,

Their Lord hath often been within.” to the top of this hill to show us “something like the gate, and some of the glory of the place” beforehand, that our hearts may be set a-longing for the bliss of our eternal home. “Oh, Lord, if thy Spirit go not with us, carry us not up hence i”

* *

Westwood, Beulah Hill.

August 18 to 30. — In spite of the turmoil and trouble caused by the painful process of removal, our first fortnight on Beulah’s Hill has been a time of great and unaccustomed joy. Blest for this period with a singular accession of health and strength, the new owners together visited the various spots of interest in their little kingdom, making pleasant discoveries every day; now tracing a winding garden-path to some unexpected opening, now looking with growing admiration upon the glorious views of earth and sky, ever breathing the bright clear air with a lively sense of exhilaration and refreshment, and constantly pausing to marvel at the goodness of God in “choosing such an inheritance for them.” It seems almost like living a new life, and as if pain and sickness were left behind in the valley for ever! Unclouded sunshine rests on home and heart, the dear work of the Book Fund happily mingles its responsibilities with the new delights, and our unwonted surroundings are quickly endeared by this gracious and peaceful inauguration. “In the country of Beulah,” says John Bunyan, “the air is very sweet and pleasant, and their way lying directly through it, they solaced themselves there for a season. Yea, here they heard continually the singing of birds, and saw every day the flowers appear in the earth, and heard the voice of the turtle in die land.” These bright days and golden hours may not last long, but they are very precious in present possession, and will leave blissful memories behind them. “Here they were within sight of the city they were going to,” says he, again, and sometimes we have seen so glorious a vision of splendour in the distant horizon that we should scarcely have wondered if across the smiling, sunlit plain, the turrets of the New Jerusalem had suddenly become visible, or if “one of the inhabitants thereof” had

accosted us with a message from the King. Is it any wonder that we ask, as did Bunyan’s pilgrims, “Whose goodly vineyards and gardens are these?” or that the reply gives infinite peace and rest to our hearts — “They are the King’s, and are planted here for His own delights, and also for the solace of pilgrims.”

* *

September 8. — Very soon after the sunshine and singing recorded in last month’s pages, it seemed good to the Lord to take away our joy, and bring darkness and mourning into our pleasant places, by laying his dear servant on the bed of pain and languishing. “Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil?” It may be He is thus testing our love and obedience, and to His glory and honour it shall be, if we are enabled to bless Him as truly when painful dispensations overtake us, as when great deliverances or gracious providences are vouchsafed to us.

Israel journeyed from Marah’s turbid waters to Elim’s wells and palms; in our case the way has led backward, and we have left the sweet resting-place to find our next halt must be by the side of the bitter pool. The Lord grant we may not even think a murmur, but gladly let Him “prove us there,” praising Him in tribulation as cheerfully as in prosperity, and waiting meekly till His loving power is shown in turning the trial into a triumph. Our Father knows what is best for His children, and often mixes with our greatest earthly blessings some unpalatable sorrow, — some cup of “bitter water,” which acts as a tonic to our spiritual appetite, and strengthens our relish for nobler and higher enjoyment.

September 30. — The intervening days of this month are regretfully passed over without record of Book Fund experiences or correspondence, because affliction, both personal and relative, has prevented my usual entry of events. I am thankful, however, to say that the beloved work has not suffered through our suffering, nor have its loving gifts failed on account of my weakness. Somehow, I have managed to write the necessary letters, and keep all the machinery in motion, and now at the end of the month I am pleased to see there is but small diminution in the number of volumes despatched.

If I were to tell of “all the goodness and mercy” which has followed hard upon the footsteps of death and danger during the past month, I should most likely be able to interest my readers; but as it would be inexpedient to turn the “Book Fund Diary” altogether into an autobiography, I must forbear, and leave unrecorded, except in my heart, the special subjects of gratitude which fill my soul with joyful remembrance of the Lord’s loving and tender care.

October 3. — It would seem to be a matter of the very least importance as to which day of the week was chosen for the despatch of Book Fund parcels; but I have lately noticed so many expressions of grateful joy at receiving them on a Saturday, that I am delighted to find that even in this minor detail the work has been well and wisely ordered.

A Congregational minister thus writes: —

Accept my warmest thanks for the books, and also for the kind thoughtfulness which arranged for their reception on Saturday. Having been worried and worked over-much this week, and feeling very far from well, I was in a state of physical exhaustion and mental depression, which by no means augured well for to-morrow, when your parcel arrived. The very sight of it did me good, and when I opened it and discovered its precious contents I cannot tell you how many degrees better I felt at once.

“You have well-timed your present, dear Madam,” writes a London pastor, “coming on a Saturday evening it has rejoiced my heart, and given my soul an impetus which I trust will remain with me all day to-morrow.”

These are but two instances out of scores I have by me; but they suffice to show the silent yet blessed influence which this book-giving exerts on the minds of weary and overworked Pastors.

* % *

October 19. — The two following letters, both from clergymen of the Church of England, will, I am sure, be read

with interest; the first is written by a vicar in an eastern county, and he says: —

As we came up to the station, the porter said he had a parcel for me, which, to my joy, I found to be the valuable present I applied for, and something in addition. My dear Madam, your abounding benevolence has overwhelmed me, and I cannot find words to express my gratitude for such a treasury of spiritual knowledge and grace as I now possess in this marvellous work. I thankfully recognize the good hand of the Lord in it, and I trust He will give me the spirit of love and diligence to search into His rich storehouse of gospel light and consolation for my own good, and that I may be able to draw it out plentifully from time to time for the needs of my dear people, many of whom are now hungering and thirsting for it. There has been a great awakening here during the first mission week, and now I have to nourish the young plants in the garden of the Lord. Although I cannot repay the kindness you have extended to me, I pray God may still more visibly bless you and your talented husband even than in the past. If ever the Lord raises me in my circumstances, I trust I shall remember how much I owe you, and repay to the full. May the love of Christ be more abundantly with us, in our own souls, and be visible to us in increasing measure in our respective fields of labour. Last night I read nearly half of first volume of “Lectures to Students” with immense delight and instruction. The close study of the Psalms I shall begin with directly, D.v.

Then comes the testimony of a curate in the north of England: —

Your kindness has completely overwhelmed me! I felt, on the arrival of your parcel, as if I must be so unministerial as to jump for joy! I thank you from the depths of my heart for the truly magnificent gift you have so generously bestowed upon me. May the Lord reward you a hundredfold for your great goodness! As soon as I had read your very kind letter which came with the bcoks, I knelt down and prayed, as you suggested, that “the gift might bring glory to God, as well as comfort and quickening to my own spirit.” As the volumes lie before me on my table, my heart is full, and words can but feebly express with what pleasure I subscribe myself,

Yours ever gratefully,

Are not these and similar letters precious evidences of the real helpfulness of the beloved Book Fund work? A gift which sends a man to his knees, and is likely to lead him often there, must of necessity exercise a blessed and holy suasion over his daily life and solemn calling; and from him the mercy extends and widens, embracing others in its sweet ministry; for whether he be a preacher to tens, or hundreds, or thousands, all who come within reach of his influence will assuredly in some measure share the blessing.

* *

October — Some weeks since the generous friend, whose munificent gift of writing-paper and envelopes for use in my work I chronicled on page 108, laid the Book Fund and myself under still greater obligations by sending a similar present for distribution to poor Pastors. It was almost, if not quite, as wholesale in quantity, nicely done up in packets, and ready for enclosure in my book parcels. This kindly considerate gift has already been much appreciated by my friends, all who have received it sending warm thanks to the thoughtful donor. Ministers usually have a somewhat extensive correspondence, and need, beside, a good store of writing-paper for extracts, notes of sermons, etc.; and the price of a few dozen quires with suitable envelopes is, in their straitened circumstances, always a matter of consideration. Those who receive this unexpected addition to my usual grants, will be well supplied with material for the labour of the pen for many days to come, and I cannot help earnestly hoping that my friend’s loving gift may be used to such gracious purpose by each recipient, that all the words they trace upon the now spotless pages may be fitly spoken as “apples of gold in baskets of silver.”

* *

November 30. — If funds were constantly flowing in, and a perennial spring supplied the golden streams which feed the Book Fund exchequer, no supplicating cry to heaven would be needful, no occasion given for uplifting of the hands in earnest prayer that God would “remember for good” the works of His poor servants, and fulfil to them His precious promise of unfailing help. I have been much “heartened up” under the present gloomy falling off of loving gifts, to my Fund by referring to a short article in The Sword and the Trowel for 1876,* which the dear Editor wrote when

* “Watching the Ebb.” — rThe. Sword and the Trowel. 1876.

passing through a similar, but naturally much more serious, strait He says: —

The trial of faith by the decrease of supplies is meant to make us give all the glory to God. Continuance without change breeds carnal security, .and that is the mother of self-conceit. It is a very beneficial thing to be made to see how dependent we are every moment, how readily we may be emptied out, and how impossible it would be for us to continue in prosperity if the Lord’s hand were withdrawn. The best established work for the Master has no more endurance in it than a bubble unless He daily smiles upon it. To be laid absolutely at the Lord’s feet, and to be made to stay there, is a most needful thing for US. We see that the Lord alone is our all-sufficient helper, and we give Him the more hearty and undivided praise. If such results come to us they will be “comfortable fruits of righteousness.”

Many a time has the gift of money to my work been so directly from the hand of God that its reception has proved a veritable “means of grace” to my soul; but, on the other hand, I can also testify that a season of drought, like the present, has its own special spiritual blessing. Have we not often drawn a little child to our side by the irresistible attraction of some pleasant thing in our possession, ever and again apparently withholding it, that the timid little one may approach more closely, while its very craving lends it courage? Even thus does our loving Father sometimes deal with His little children. With a detained mercy in His hand He tenderly beckons us to draw nigh to Him, and when we can with full assurance of faith “come boldly” even to His feet, does He not give us the “desire of our heart,” and add thereto blessings * above what we ask or even think”? Such a time of love more than repays for the patient waiting which precedes it, and the boon is all the more valued and precious since we have been taught to covet earnestly its possession. I take as a “token for good,” and as a very blessed answer to prayer, a gift which I received this morning, and which has greatly impressed me. How easily the Lord can incline any heart to help! Never was a £$ note more welcome — never did one come from so unexpected a quarter! My readers can judge of my surprise and pleasure, if they read the following words which accompanied the money: —

Dear Madam, — Some time ago you sent me “The Treasury of David,” and Another book, when I was at I now have pleasure in

In the Service &f the Bdok Fund. 13 1

sending you five pounds in aid of your Book Fund. Please accept this small contribution from a Wesleyan Minister, who admires your large-hearted efforts to do good.

I pray the Lord abundantly to reward this dear brother for so gracious and graceful a gift, and I look with divinely renewed faith and hope “to the hills from whence cometh my help,” to Him who made and owns all the silver and the gold, and who can as easily send me £560 or ^5, 000, if my work required it, as this ^5 for which I am so thankful.

*

December 2. — Those dear friends who have been interested in my work from the commencement will not think the record of the year is complete without a word about the lemon tree. From the time when in a little pot, in my sick chamber, two tiny leaves, no bigger than a pin’s head, emerged from the black earth and were tenderly covered by a medicine glass — to the present day when it stands in fair proportions, and boasts a height of seven feet or more — it has been closely identified with the Book Fund, and in some mysterious manner believed to be an emblem of my work. Friends used to cherish the pretty fancy, and send their gifts as “a few drops of water for the lemon plant,” or “another leaf for your tree”; but though that pleasant fashion has fallen into disuse, there are many who constantly remember my favourite, and will be delighted to hear that its removal to “Westwood” has greatly contributed to its health and beauty. I do not, however, intend now to enlarge upon its charms, but rather to use an unpleasant peculiarity it has, in order to “point a moral and adorn a tale” I have to tell

. Attentively considering it the other day, I saw with some surprise that it bore a few very sharp thorns. “Ah I” I said, “dear emblem tree, are you so true to your mystical character as all that?” For, dear friends, Book Fund work is not all composed of pleasant fruit and flowers, there are some thorns concealed here and there which wound the hand which inadvertently touches them. Sometimes I receive an answer to the necessary enquiries I have tQ make,

which hurts me sorely, and makes me wince. “Permit me to say I have no wish to be considered a pauper” wrote an angry man a day or two since, because I asked him kindly whether he came within the limits of my work, and possessed an income under ^*150 per annum!

Ever since the “Master” gave me this charge to keep. He knows I have tried to minister in gentle, kindly fashion to His servants; but occasionally the spirit of my service is overlooked by them, and my gifts are either claimed as a right or disdained as a charity.” Few and far between” are these ugly thorns on my flourishing, beautiful tree; tender and loving acknowledgments of my work are the rule, and when an exception comes I can well afford to forgive and forget it. Were it not that a chronicler is required to be faithful, and give fairly both sides of the history he is writing, I should have left unrecorded this painful part of a most pleasant and blessed service. The flowers of Paradise will doubtless be thornless, but here on earth one cannot gather many roses without pricking one’s fingers, nor have a splendid lemon tree without seeing and bewailing its sharp spikes, nor possess any unmingled good but God’s love.

* * it

December 6. — Another large chest full of writing paper and envelopes has arrived from the friend who gives in so princely a manner! His first present came as an “Easter Offering,” the second 1 must call a “Michaelmas Gift,” and this certainly will be a “Christmas Greeting” to the Pastors who will receive it; for, in order that they may thus welcome it, I have had the allotted portions of paper and envelopes neatly packed in small parcels, and Christmas cards enclosed in each.

I think this is a fitting opportunity of stating that the absence 6f all items of stationery, etc., on the expenditure side of my balance-sheet, is due to the extraordinary generosity of this dear friend, who so liberally supplies me with the necessary materials for my large correspondence, that I “have all things and abound”: indeed, I’ am not sure but that I could, upon the strength of his bountiful gifts, set up a small stationer’s shop on my own account If any friends having a talent for economy, and believing in the “I-can-do-without-it” principle, should receive a note from me, and be shocked at my using extravagantly good and ornamental paper, will they kindly remember that it is all given to me, in “royal portions,” in an utter lavishment of liberality, with every device, and monogram, and stamped address, which could possibly please the most fastidious taste? And to his loving deeds my friend adds the adornment of kind and gracious words, for he concludes the letter which preceded this wonderful present to-day, by saying, “I need not assure you how much pleasure I have in sending these papers and envelopes to one who takes so much pains to aid and bless others, and whom I feel it a great privilege to help in this way.”

Here, too, I may becomingly record, though with a deeper sense of indebtedness than I know how to give expression to, the long-continued kindness of Messrs. Passmore and Alabaster, who annually print these “Reports” of mine without charge of any sort; and of Messrs. Straker and Son, who, on similarly generous terms, always bind them. This being the case, no exception can be taken on the score of expense to the pretty and tasteful form in which these good friends introduce my little book to subscribers; for it is all done by them from love to the cause, and no pains are spared to render the gift attractive and acceptable. Most gratefully do I, therefore, acknowledge my deep obligation to these large-hearted friends for so long and liberally helping forward my work. God bless and reward them! May they live, and continue the kindness for many years to come.

*

December 13. — Laus Deo! Not long did my gracious God keep His child begging at the door of His mercy for needful supplies for her work! He has opened His hand, and satisfied my desire, and once more proved Himself to be “a very present help in trouble.”

Last week I received a letter which was the forerunner of

the expected mercy. It was written by one who “serves the Lord with gladness” on a bed of suffering, where she lies waiting for the “consolation of Israel,” with some of heaven’s own peace and brightness already on her brow. She said: —

I wish I could send you a cheque filled in for a large amount, and set your mind at rest about the Book Fund; but “silver and gold have I none”; however, I have found something better than gold, and I give you this grand promise, dear friend, with which I began the day, and which snail be performed to you, “I will fill their treasures” (Prov. viii. 21).

My faith was strengthened by her loving confidence, and two days afterwards the blessing came; for I received enough money to liberate me from all bondage of anxious thought, and set me on my way rejoicing.

I am telling an “old, old story”; but to reverent ears it will be as charming and fresh as ever: the story of the infinite grace and tenderness of God in Christ, and the reality of His watchful care over all who put their trust in Him. Is it not wonderful that God deals so lovingly with us in the smallest details and needs of our daily life? Yet it is the same in nature as in grace, “His tender mercies are over all His works.” He “holds the waters in the hollow of His hand,” but He also nourishes the tiny streamlets of the valley; He rules amidst the armies of heaven, yet He guides the dewdrop to the lip of a thirsty flower, and, blessed be His name. He stoops from the throne of the universe to the help and succour of one of the least of His children, and turns from the hallelujahs of angels to listen to a sinner’s cry. I would I could praise Him for the “marvellous help” He has again given me! He has “put a new song in my mouth” for this fresh deliverance; but I cannot sing it half loudly enough! Did not the Psalmist say, “Praise waiteth for thee, O Lord, in Zion?” which some read “praise is silent to thee,” as if it were impossible even for Heman and Asaph, and Etham, and all the harps, and all the voices of the multitude to utter his praise, and so they kept silence, waiting till He Himself inspired them. “God only knows the love of God*,” and only his Spirit can express it. What can! do but lay down the harp, and, like David, go in and hs

sit before the Lord, and say,” Whence is this to me? and is this the manner of man, O Lord God?”

* *

December 17. — Almost as soon as my Christmas parcels had left the house this morning, there came a very delightful surprise-gift to me from the “Religious Tract Society,” con* sisting of 120 nice books, and a large quantity of Christmas cards. These latter have been despatched this evening, their distribution (in packets) to about seventy poor country pastors, giving delightful :employment to willing hearts and hands. I regret not being able to give away the books at once; but my arrangements for the despatch of parcels for the month having been completed, they must remain in stock till the new year.

This is the second bountiful present I have received from this excellent Society; for in May last they generously made me a very valuable grant of five hundred books, which have rendered me splendid service in enriching and enlarging my parcels. Very gratefully I tender my heartiest thanks to the dear friends with whom this generous thought originated, and to all those who kindly concurred in carrying it out; it has helped in a most pleasant and loving way many servants of the Lord in their arduous work, and it has been no small encouragement to me to receive so delightful a recognition of the importance and need of my efforts on their behalf.

* * * *

December 19. — This year of grace 1880 has been a very trying time for my poor Pastors, and I constantly wonder how some of them have managed to stem the torrent of trial .which poverty illness, and increasing needs have let loose upon them. Their griefs are indeed heavy, and their sorrows manifold; and no way seems opened to permanent alleviation of their terrible poverty and distress. Never before have I had so many sad tales of sorrow and suffering told to me. Never have I felt so painfully the burden such knowledge necessarily imposes, and never have I so Sorrowfully realized the utter inadequacy of my efforts to relievethem. The sum of money (^313 6s.) which the Pastors* Aid Fund has distributed is an honour to the dear and liberal donors, and the Lord will accept it at their hands, giving them back blessing for blessing; but what is this among so many? When a £$ or ;£io note is sent to some poor struggling brother, I am apt to say, “There, now, his trouble is over; his heart is made glad; the wolf has fled from the door, and in peace and comfort he can once more serve the Lord.” But for how long, dear reader? Ah! here lies the sad shadow irhich constantly broods over this otherwise fair prospect of loving usefulness, and which, alas! needs a far higher power than mine to lift and disperse. There is such terrible and constant need in hundreds of our ministers’ families, that though a gift of money does for a time help them, and tide them over their difficulties, the sad ebb soon sets in again and leaves them high and dry on the pitiless sands of poverty, Teduced to a state of humiliation and despondency which is fatal alike to their position and power. Oh! that we had a reservoir of generous treasure which might be made to overflow on these desert places, causing them to u rejoice and blossom as the rose,” or, to put it more plainly, and repeat a wish which I have before most devoutly expressed, would to God we had a “Sustentation Fund,” after the manner of our sensible Scotch friends, so that all our Pastors might be raised above the fear of actual want, and set free to follow their sacred calling, unfettered by the chains of carking, worldly care, with which our present system binds them hard and fast.

I am told there are many difficulties in the way of such a scheme in England, but I can scarcely believe them to be insurmountable, and I would hail with vehement delight the day when this battle should be fought and won — when all our churches should be constrained, either by force of argument, or eloquence of speech, or power of organization, or all these combined, to put an end for ever to this grievous discredit to our name, and give to our poor Baptist Pastors throughout the land the precious boon of comparative freedom from anxiety concerning their daily bread!

Reading Numbers (chap, xviii.) this morning, I could not fail to notice the splendid temporal provision made for the priests and Levites by the express command of Jehovah, and to contrast such rich and abounding supplies with the narrow means and straitened circumstances of so many of the ministers of Christ in these days. “All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, and the first fruits,” besides “all the best thereof” of other offerings — this was the priests’ “reward of service” in those days, and when once set apart to the office all anxious thought or care about his maintenance in it was entirely removed! If the mind of the Lord has not changed concerning the way in which His servants should be treated, how grieved He must be to look upon the dire and dreadful poverty which crushes so many of them in these later times!

“I have given your priest’s office unto you as a service of £ift,” the Lord says, and what a magnificent provision it was, dealt out with an unsparing hand! How earnestly I wish that some of the plenty enjoyed by God’s priests under the Mosaic dispensation could be furnished to the tables of poor Gentile Pastors, some of whom, to my knowledge, go for days without tasting meat, and who would consider the luxuries set forth by the “firstfruits” an altogether unattainable gratification. See how God cared for the families of His servants also, and gave commandment concerning “thy sons and thy daughters with thee” (Numb, xviii. n), who were to eat “of the most holy things reserved from the fire.” He filled them with the finest of the wheat, and 4i satiated the soul of His priests with fatness,” and again and again in this chapter is the promise repeated, as if with loving persistence He would press upon them the abundance of His goodness (see verse 19). Now turn to the facts of the present day, and say, “Alas for the minister’s children!” Meagrely fed, and scantily clothed, they have a hard life .during their childhood, and often grow up to despise the people whose niggardly and selfish treatment has ruined their father’s prospects, or perchance broken his heart. Then, as time goes on, how can the boys be apprenticed, when every penny of the father’s pitiful stipend goes for food and other necessaries? And what becomes of the girls? These and similar questions can be answered only by thankfully

recognizing the kindness of friends whom the Lord raises up to succour His poor servants, and so I am brought by a very roundabout way to the end I had in view when commencing this paragraph, namely, to give my warmest thanks to those who, during this and many past years, have generously set apart a certain sum for the help of poor Pastors, and have honoured me by putting it in my charge to be distrk buted as occasion offered. And though I have been in* dulging in a somewhat sorrowful lament over the sad cases of poverty and need which distress my heart, I cannot fail to be inexpressibly thankful to those loving friends who have enabled me to do something to alleviate the need I have made known to them. God bless these generous hearts; what should I do without them? No trumpet proclaims their good deeds; the very recipients of their bounty are ignorant of their names; yet “their record is in heaven,’ 1 and they shall be recompensed at the “resurrection of the just.”

* *

December 26. — The days of the old year are fast passing away, and the pages of my little “Diary” are getting fewer and fewer: very soon its record of Book Fund experiences will be submitted to my friends for their kind approval, and its simple testimony to the unfailing love and goodness of the Lord will claim their earnest attention. I am very anxious that the business part of my Report should be satisfactory to my good helpers, and that the amount of work accomplished by means of their generosity should be accounted worthy of their increased interest and aid; but above and beyond this, my earnest prayer is that the Lord will use so feeble a work for His glory, and will bless the little messengers thus sent forth, to the comfort and strengthening of some weak ones, by leading them to more entire dependence and unwavering trust in a God who has dealt so gently, yet so bountifully, with me. Throughout the year I have tried to tell of His mercy and grace so tenderly that the sweet story might find instant response in every heart; but the words will fall coldly, and without force, unless He gives power to them, and makes them glow and burn, because .written for His sake.

Friends will here see something of the way by which He hath led me, though the half is not told them of the goodness and mercy which have followed me; nor can they discern, as I can, where the rough places were made plain, the deeps forded, the deliverances wrought, or the loving guidance and “marvellous help” vouchsafed.

The year has been filled with His goodness, and all through its changeful scenes and varied experiences the golden thread of God’s tender love has run, and the hand of faith has found it an unfailing clue to lead through the perplexities of mysterious providences, to the safe and happy walking of the King’s highway. Resting for a moment, like weary pilgrims, at this milestone of the year, we pour upon it the u oil and wine” of our gratitude and love, and before we pursue our journey, we thus consecrate it for ever as an altar of praise to our God and King. Gather round, dear friends and fellow-helpers, and let us worship Him together at this boundary line of our lives. Surely we all have some special offering of thanksgiving to bring before Him, or some sweet song of deliverance to sing, and while we unitedly bless Him for the great things He hath done for us, let us clasp hands in sacred communion around this stone of Ebenezer which we have raised, and pledge ourselves to more steadfast service and fuller consecration in the days of our pilgrimage yet remaining.

Vale! Old Year! Thank God thy sins are blotted out, thy sorrows shall be no more remembered; thy tears are wiped away; thy weariness and pain are forgotten; all thy memories are gilded with the glory of unnumbered mercies.

Salve! New Year! We welcome thee with gladness as an angel of light, though as yet thy face is veiled, and thy wings are folded. Thy closed hands are full of blessing for God’s redeemed ones, and thy covering wings do but conceal “the lovingkindnesses” and “tender mercies” which are to be the portion of His children. Thou art our glorious King’s messenger, bearing His sealed orders for the days to come, and whether thou bringest joy or sorrow, sickness or health, life or death, we welcome thee; for “we are persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities.

nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In this confidence, and with this hope, I wish all my friends

“A Happy New Year” right through;

and if they reciprocate the sincere desire thus expressed, they can do much to fulfil it, both for themselves and for me, by remembering the needs of my poor Pastors, and helping on by their kind gifts that sweet service for their jsakes —

THE BOOK FUND.

41 ]fo t the administration of this service not onlg supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also bp mang thanksgivings unto (pod.”

SUMMARY OF WORK.

Books Distributed during the Year 1880: — *7,144 Volumes.

Also 6,262 single Sermons for giving away. The recipients comprised 258 Baptists, 154 Independents, 317 Methodists, 130 Church of England clergymen, 112 Evangelists, 29 Missionaries, and 22 Presbyterians.