onfusion this day, he was not, in the midst of all my idolatry, a
barren wilderness, nor a land of drought to me. I had many Sabbaths;
literally the Sabbath was a sign between my covenant God and me: ill
spent it often was, but not with company; it was spent in retirement.
The Lord did not leave me so far as to give up the Sabbath to the
world. Though my heart was incrusted, and spiritual life scarcely
discernible, sometimes the Lord met me, and strange to tell, not with
threatenings causing terror, but with compunction, melting, turning,
and ere the day was over, manifestations of pardon, though not joy;
for I was grieved at my ingratitude.

"I did expect affliction long before it came, and my presumptuous
heart calculated upon the fruit being the peaceable fruit of
righteousness, and to take away sin; but still I held my way, gadding
about, drinking the waters of Sihor and the rivers of Syria, and
eating the worldling's dainties. Oh, Oh, at last it came; yes, it
came. Thou didst cut off the desire of my eyes with a stroke, and with
that made the world a blank to me. But O the stately steps of thy
providential mercy previous to that trying hour. O my God, I must ever
wonder and stand amazed at thy exuberant grace. In consistence with
thy covenant, thou mightest have struck me among these worldlings, in
that dry and barren land, where not one tongue could speak the
language of Canaan, nor bring forth from thy precious Bible the words
of consolation to my wounded and bereaved spirit; richly had I merited
this; but never, no, never hast thou dealt with me as I sinned.
Through the whole of my life, from the time that the Lord called me
out of darkness into his marvellous light--from the time that he first
led me to the Saviour, and enabled me to take hold of his covenant,
wanderer, backslider, transgressor, rebel, idolater, ingrate, and if
there be any name more expressively _vile_ and _abominable_,
that is mine. And from the hour of my birth, through the whole of this
refractory perverse life, 'the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and
gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving
iniquity, transgression, and sin,' has been, and now is, thy
name to me.

"No, ye strong-built walls, ye grated windows, ye gloomy cells,
ye confine no such sinner as I. And did the Lord take vengeance on my
inventions? O no, _mercy_ preceded, _mercy_ accompanied
judgment; yea, it was all mercy, not vengeance. He bro