bout again from place to
place, seeking especially to bring believers to a fuller trust in God
and a deeper sense of His faithfulness, and to a more thorough search
into His word. His inclination to such itinerant work was strengthened
by the fact that outside of Teignmouth his preaching both gave him much
more enjoyment and sense of power, and drew more hearers.

On April 13th a letter from Mr. Craik, inviting Mr. Muller to join in
his work at Bristol, made such an impression on his mind that he began
prayerfully to consider whether it was not God's call, and whether a
field more suited to his gifts was not opening to him. The following
Lord's day, preaching on the Lord's coming, he referred to the effect of
this blessed hope in impelling God's messenger to bear witness more
widely and from place to place, and reminded the brethren that he had
refused to bind himself to abide with them that he might at any moment
be free to follow the divine leading elsewhere.

On April 20th Mr. Muller left for Bristol. On the journey he was dumb,
having no liberty in speaking for Christ or even in giving away tracts,
and this led him to reflect. He saw that the so-called 'work of the
Lord' had tempted him to substitute _action for meditation and
communion._ He had neglected that still hour' with God which supplies to
spiritual life alike its breath and its bread. No lesson is more
important for us to learn, yet how slow are we to learn it: that for the
lack of habitual seasons set apart for devout meditation upon the word
of God and for prayer, nothing else will compensate.

We are prone to think, for example, that converse with Christian
brethren, and the general round of Christian activity, especially when
we are much busied with preaching the Word and visits to inquiring or
needy souls, make up for the loss of aloneness with God in the secret
place. We hurry to a public service with but a few minutes of private
prayer, allowing precious time to be absorbed in social pleasures,
restrained from withdrawing from others by a false delicacy, when to
excuse ourselves for needful communion with God and his word would have
been perhaps the best witness possible to those whose company was
holding us unduly! How often we rush from one public engagement to
another without any proper interval for renewing our strength in waiting
on the Lord, as though God cared more for the quantity than the quality
of our service!

Here Mr. Muller had the