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When I had reached within sixteen miles of Princetown, I met a man who, after salutations, told me that he was in such distress about his sins that he could not have patience till I reached the settlement, but had come off to me as soon as he heard that I had come to the Island in the hope that I might be the means of giving him some relief. I asked if he had been long distressed. He said that he had been uneasy for about a year, but the last two months he was in great anxiety, and that every day he was getting worse and worse, and saw no outgate for himself. He bewailed much the waywardness of his heart in all of his attempts to pray and repent. He said, that when most desirous to pray, he could not fix his heart; and so his most earnest attempts to repent were rendered utterly unavailing. I was truly glad to hear him going on with a most pitiful relation of his case. When he finished, I paused a little and said, ‘It seems to me that you are a lost sinner; I know nothing for you but to believe on the Lordjesus Christ.’ With the utmost surprise he replied, ‘What? Would you have me to believe as I am?’ ‘Yes,’ said I, just as you are, for you can never prepare your- self for it more than you are just now.’ I endeavoured to

show him that he mistook the character of the Saviour when he thought he durst not believe till he had pre- pared himself for it by prayer and repentance; that salva— tion was a gift of God, through Christ, to lost sinners; and if he was a lost sinner, he was as welcome to it as any other, for there was no respect of persons with God. I endeavoured to show him that God suited his salvation to the needs of lost sinners, and a sinner could have none of these till himself should bestow them upon him; that salvation, and faith, and repentance, and good designs, are all the gifts of God, and freely offered to him in the gospel, and that he ought thankfully and without delay to accept them; that if he would do so, he would be happy from that moment, and if he would not, all his attempts to pray and repent would be lost labour. In a word, I preached the gospel to him, and his anxiety began to abate.22

LEADERS OF THE CHURCH