seen a believer, and never hear the Gospel preached; it was therefore a
great joy to them to see me. They told me that the Lord had blessed my
last visit to them; and having been informed of my coming, they were
prepared to ask me many questions. One of them, Knabe, about thirty years
ago being possessed of property, was persuaded to lay it out in coal
mines. He joined with two men who spent his property, and after some time
they became bankrupts, so that there was not money enough to pay the
workmen and some other creditors, even after all their goods had been
sold. This evening brother Knabe asked me what he ought to do about the
money which had been left unpaid three and twenty years; whether he was
still under an obligation to pay it, if he could. My answer was at once
that he was, being in the sight of the Lord still a debtor, though cleared
by the laws of men. He then told me, that some years since some property
was left to him, and that he also, in the years 1816, 1817, and 1818, when
the corn prices were very high, had laid by some money, and that therefore
he was fully able to pay the debt. He saw immediately that this was the
right way, and said that he would act accordingly. He added that now he
saw why he had made so little progress in divine things. I have learned
that this brother has lately taken two destitute orphans into his house,
whom he entirely supports by the labour of his hands (he earns his bread
by thrashing corn), and that the people, though they consider him, on
account of his love for the Lord, a weak and foolish person, yet look upon
him with respect.

April 6. I spent this morning in answering questions which my father put
to me about secular things in England. This I did for the following
reasons:--1. I had scarcely ever spoken about these things in my letters,
indeed so little, that my father told me, he had often intended to ask me
whether it was forbidden in England to send letters abroad about such
matters, as I never wrote about them. I had refrained from doing so,
partly, on account of want of time; and, partly, because I had better
things to write about, wishing to direct his mind to the things of God. 2.
Now, however, I spoke on these subjects, because I particularly desired to
be as kind, affectionate, and obliging as I conscientiously could,
considering that this was the testimony I was especially called on to
give. Formerly I had much pressed the things of God on him, and not with