from all public speaking. May the Lord grant that I may be
brought nearer to Him through this, for I am not at all in the state in
which I ought to be, and I think sometimes that our late afflictions have
been lost upon me, and that the Lord will need to chastise me severely.

July 22. The last mentioned taxes were called for this morning, just
after the Lord had sent us 5l., from a distance of about eighty miles. So
the Lord has again of late, repeatedly, in answer to prayer, sent help.
May this lead us to trust in Him for the future! July 28. Since the 14th I
have felt unwell, and though sometimes a little better, on the whole I
have been getting worse and worse. This morning I have seen our medical
attendant, who thinks that all the disease arises from a disordered
stomach.

July 31. Today brother C-r, formerly a minister in the establishment, who
came to us a few days since, began, in connexion with the Scriptural
Knowledge Institution, to go from house to house, to spread the truth as a
city missionary. [This was a remarkable interposition of God. Brother
Craik had before this, for some months, been unable on account of bodily
infirmity, to labour in the work of the schools, the circulation of the
Scriptures, &c., and my own weakness, shortly after brother C-r's arrival,
increased so that I was obliged to give up the work entirely: How
gracious, therefore, of the Lord, to send brother C-r, that thus the work
might go on! Up to July, 1837, this brother was enabled to continue in his
work, and thus this little Institution was in a most important way
enlarged as it regards the field of labour.]

August 15. Today dear brother Craik returned from Devonshire, much better
in his general health, but not better as it regards his voice.--August 24.
I feel very weak, and suffer more than before from the disease. I am in
doubt whether to leave Bristol entirely for a time. I have no money to go
away for a change of air. I have had an invitation to stay for a week with
a sister in the country, and I think of accepting the invitation, and
going tomorrow. August 26. Today I had 5l. given to me for the express
purpose of using change of air. Aug. 29. Today I received another 5l. for
the same purpose.

August 30. Today, for the first Lord's day since our arrival in Bristol,
I have been kept from preaching through illness. How mercifully has the
Lord dealt in giving me so much strength for these years! I had another
5l. sent,