me to an end. There were but three persons in the
whole town with whom my soul had any fellowship. One of them had spent all
his money in coal mines, and was then earning his daily bread by thrashing
corn. As a boy I had in my heart laughed at him, for he seemed so
different from all other people. Now I sought him out, having previously
been informed that he was a believer, to acknowledge him as such, by
having fellowship with him, and attending, a meeting in his house on the
Lord's day evening. My soul was refreshed, and his also. Such a spiritual
feast, as meeting with a brother, was a rare thing to him. May we
believers who live in Great Britain, and especially those of us who are
surrounded by many children of God, seek for grace, more highly to prize
the blessings which, we enjoy through fellowship with brethren! This dear
brother, who had then been a believer for more than twenty years, had only
a few times heard the gospel preached during all that period. What a
wonderful thing that I, one of the vilest of those brought up in that
small town, should have been so abundantly favoured, as to have been
brought to the knowledge of the truth, whilst none of all my relations,
and scarcely one of those who grew up with me, so far as it has come to my
knowledge, know the Lord!

I left my father's house on February 10th, with the prospect of seeing
him again in about a twelvemonth, as a missionary among the Jews. But how
has the Lord graciously altered matters!--I was kindly lodged for a
night at Halberstadt by an aged brother, and then proceeded towards
Rotterdam, by the way of Munster. At Munster I rested a few days, and was
very kindly received by several brethren. They were officers in the army,
and two of them had been, but a little while before this, Roman Catholics.
I lodged in the house of a beloved brother, a tailor, who likewise had
been a Roman Catholic.

About February 22nd I arrived at Rotterdam. I took lodgings in the house
of a believer, where two German brethren lodged, whom I had known at
Halle, and who intended to go out as missionaries in connexion with the
Dutch Missionary Society. It was a peculiar feeling to me, for the first
time in my life to find myself among Christians of another nation, to
attend their family prayer, hear them sing, &c. In spirit I had fellowship
with them, though our communication was but broken, as I understood but
little of the Dutch language. Here also I heard for the first t