several weeks, as miserable, as he often expressed himself at the time, as any man well can be who is not actually in perdition. As in the case of the Psalmist, "the pains of death and the sorrows of hell gat hold upon" him. He attended the means of grace: he wept, and cried earnestly to God: he requested the prayers of good men in his behalf; yet for a long time no deliverance came. He was bound as with a chain of adamant, which no human power can ever dissolve: a dark cloud rested upon his spirit; and in vain did he seek relief by means of his own devising. "Before faith came," he was "kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterward be revealed." He felt himself to be powerless for all purposes of spiritual and moral good; and, in the bitterness of his grief, he exclaimed, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" In the anguish of his soul, he sometimes even expressed a desire to die, that he might know the worst of his case.

The day of liberty at length arrived. Under the guidance and aid of the Holy Spirit, he exercised an appropriating faith: of that faith Christ, as a sacrifice and a Saviour, was the object; and, in the very act of believing, the God of hope filled him with all joy and peace. The happiness which he then felt was too rich and permanent to be the effect of any merely natural cause. It was a "peace" which "passeth all understanding;" it was a "joy" that is "unspeakable, and full of glory;" and it remained with him to the end of life in undiminished freshness and elevation. From this time the bias of his nature was changed. The law of God was written upon his heart. He loved God, for he felt that God loved him. He abhorred sin, because it is hateful to God. He was free from the guilty "fear, which hath torment;" for the direct witness of his personal adoption enabled him, with unhesitating confidence, to cry, "Abba, Father.” He had

power over all sin: he delighted in acts of religious worship and of evangelical obedience: he loved the children of God for their heavenly Father's sake; and he loved all mankind, as God's offspring, and the purchase of Christ's redeeming blood.

A conversion thus strongly marked, and scriptural in its character, is a blessing beyond all that words can express, at whatever period of human existence it may take place. It is a preparation for all the duties and trials of the present life, and it is no less a preparation for death and eternity. To every Christian, and especially to every Christian minister, it is a mighty advantage, especially in seasons of temptation and discouragement, and even of spiritual declension, to remember the time when he indubitably "passed from death unto life;" and then confidently to say,—

"Surely on me my Father smiled,

And once I knew thee reconciled,
And once I felt my sins forgiven !"

Luther's character as a Reformer was greatly affected by his religious experience. He had felt the sentence of death in his conscience, as a convicted transgressor of the moral law of God, and obtained effectual relief by a practical acquiescence in the evangelical doctrine of justification by faith; and hence his resolute fidelity in the maintenance of that great truth, in opposition to the unscriptural teaching of the Papal Church. This is equally true with respect to the two Wesleys and their friend Whitefield. And the painful mental process through which Robert Newton passed prepared him to sympathize with guilty men in all their misery; and the heavenly consolation which he obtained by faith in Christ impressed his mind with the efficacy of the atonement, and the perfect adaptation of the gospel to the spiritual and moral wants of the world. In

this manner he was trained to be what has been not unaptly called a "salvation-preacher."

No sooner had he tasted that the Lord is gracious, than he began to take an active part in the prayer-meetings which were held at Roxby and in its vicinity; and, under the constraining power of Divine love, which dwelt richly in his heart, he soon began, in those rustic assemblies, to call sinners to repentance, after the example of his brother Booth. He preached his first sermon in a cottage at Lyth, a village near Whitby. An aged man now living, who was present on the occasion, says, that the text which he selected as the foundation of his discourse was, "We preach Christ crucified;" a subject to which he adhered with unswerving fidelity to the end of his ministerial life. Upon the site of that cottage now stands a small Methodist chapel, the pulpit of which is placed over the very spot where the youthful evangelist, standing behind a chair, proclaimed salvation through the sacrificial blood of the cross.

Of his early efforts as a preacher, Mr. Toase says: "At the very beginning he was popular and useful. Though young, his appearance was manly, and there was a noble bearing in all that he said and did. It was evident, even at that time, that he was intended to fill no ordinary place among the ambassadors of Christ. I was younger than he, and always looked up to him with admiration, and often followed him to places where he exercised his early ministry. He had not been long on the Preachers' Plan before he was called to occupy the principal pulpits of the circuit; and in all cases his labors were highly acceptable. O, those were happy days! We were simple-minded and sincere. We loved as brethren, and were of one heart and soul, and thought no sacrifice too great for the advancement of the cause in which we had embarked."

CHAPTER II.

SOME men are so evidently designed by the providence of God to accomplish great purposes, that it is hardly possible, even in the early part of their lives, to mistake their destination. Such was Robert Newton, who was no sooner made a partaker of the gospel salvation, than he began to recommend to others the mercy which he had received; and he had scarcely entered upon this new and sacred employment, before a general impression was made upon the minds of his hearers, that he would occupy an elevated position among the ministers of Christ.

In the month of February, 1798, he was made happy in God soon after this he began to preach, and his name was placed upon the Circuit Plan; and in the month of July, in the following year, he was recommended to the Methodist Conference, as a candidate for the itinerant ministry, accepted in that character, and appointed to the Pocklington Circuit, not having fully completed the nineteenth year of his age.

In those times a travelling preacher, generally speaking, was expected to be provided with a horse, and a pair of saddlebags, in which he carried his Bible and such other books as he might need, his shaving apparatus, and a change of linen. Before Robert left home, his father bought him a horse; and when the day of his departure arrived, considerable excitement prevailed, not only in the family, but among the neighbors. Ann Newton inscribed on the wall of her brother's room, "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our

eyes." He left his home with the tears and blessings of many his father's heart yearned over him, and he accompanied his son a few miles across the moors, and with a faltering voice at length took his leave, saying, "Preach repentance, faith, and holiness, my lad;" to which the young evangelist responded, "I will, father." They then parted; but before Robert had completed his journey across the moors, he dismounted, fell upon his knees on the ground, and earnestly invoked the blessing of God upon himself and his future labors.

In this spirit of zeal and self-sacrifice he met a physician, who was acquainted with the Newton family, and who, on learning the errand upon which Robert was bent, said, "You have mistaken your calling: a young man of your abilities should get into the medical or some other profession: you will never get any thing among the Methodists. Return home, and do not throw yourself away." This was a view of Robert's project which, we need not hesitate to say, had never entered into his mind. He was intent upon winning souls to Christ, and was as indifferent to any other kind of "getting" as was an earlier servant of his Lord, who could say to the men in whose presence he had lived and acted for three years, "I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel." What amount of these things Robert Newton might have been able to "get" in one of the professions that were recommended to him, we know not. As a Methodist preacher, he had food and raiment, and such accommodation as his Master never had; and what he gained more will be best ascertained when "the dead, small and great," shall "stand before God" to be judged, and when the heavens and the earth shall pass away.

It was the custom with Methodist preachers, in the times of which we are now speaking, when they took a journey of any considerable length, to deliver a sermon at the place where