away from the Lord, and
from caring about spiritual things, and has the effect of causing the
mind to be taken up with the question, What shall I eat?--What shall I
drink?--and Wherewithal shall I be clothed?--I would request him
prayerfully to consider the following remarks: 1. I have had experience
of both ways, and know that my present mode of living, as to temporal
things, is connected with less care. 2. Confidence in the Lord, to whom
alone I look for the supply of my temporal wants, keeps me, when a case
of distress comes before me, or when the Lord's work calls for my
pecuniary aid, from anxious reckoning like this: Will my salary last
out? Shall I have enough myself the next month? etc. In this my freedom,
I am, by the grace of God, generally, at least, able to say to myself
something like this: My Lord is not limited; he can again supply; he
knows that this present case has been sent to me: and thus, this way of
living, so far from _leading to anxiety_, is rather the means of
_keeping from it_. And truly it was once said to me by an
individual,--You can do such and such things, and need not to lay by,
for the church in the whole of Devonshire cares about your wants. My
reply was: The Lord can use not merely any of the saints throughout
Devonshire, but those throughout the world, as instruments to supply my
temporal wants. 3. This way of living has often been the means of
reviving the work of grace in my heart, when I have been getting cold;
and it also has been the means of bringing me back again to the Lord,
after I have been backsliding. For it will not do,--it is not possible
to live in sin, and at the same time, by communion with God, to draw
down from heaven everything one needs for the life that now is. 4.
Frequently, too, a fresh answer to prayer, obtained in this way, has
been the means of quickening my soul, and filling me with much joy.

May 12. A sister has been staying for some time at Teignmouth on account
of her health; and when she was about to return home to-day, we saw it
the Lord's will to invite her to stay with us for some time; as we knew
that she would stay longer if her means allowed it. We were persuaded
that, as we saw it to be the Lord's will to invite her, he himself would
pay the expenses connected with her stay. About the time when she came
to our house, a parcel with money was sent from Chumleigh. A few weeks
before, I had preached at Chumleigh and in the neighborhood. The
brethren