were mine; when a child’s tears and prayers were seen and heard before the throne!  The stragglings of grace and nature have been great since then.  I can look back to years of struggles and deliverances, years of revoltings and of mercies.  It is like “threshing mountains” to meddle with the strongholds of sin; but mountains, I sometimes hope, will be made to “skip like rams.”

10th Mo. 5th.  How long have I been like the “merchantman seeking goodly pearls”!  Ever since reason dawned I have longed for a goodly pearl; though dazzled and deceived by many an empty trifle, I cannot plead as an excuse that I could not find the pearl.  I have seen it at times, and felt how untold was the price, and thought I was ready to sell all and buy it, sometimes believed that all was sold; but why, ah, why was my pledge so often redeemed?  I have been indeed like a simple one, who, having found a “pearl of great price,” cast it from him for an empty, unsatisfying show.

1st Mo. 17th, 1841.  Very precious as have been the privileges vouchsafed the last two days, I can this morning speak of nothing as my present condition, but the extreme of weakness and poverty.  On 6th day evening R.B. addressed us in such a way as proved to me that the Divine word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  The chief purport was the necessity of a willingness to learn daily of the great Teacher meekness and lowliness and faithfulness in the occupation of the talents intrusted; “for where much is given, much will be required.”  Yesterday his parting “salutation of brotherly love” was such as cannot be effaced from my memory; and oh, I pray that it may not from my heart.  And now my prayer, my desire, must be for a renewed dedication.  The separation, as R.B. said, from the right hand and the right eye must be made:  the sacrifice which is acceptable will always cost something.

3d Mo. 8th.  Oh, may I become altogether a babe and a fool before myself, and, if it must be, before others!  God has been very graciously dealing with me.

3d Mo. 19th.  Words must be much more guarded, as well as thoughts.  This morning I am comforted with a precious feeling:  “I will take care of thee.”

3d Mo. 27th.  How does my heart long, this evening, that the one Saviour may be made unto me “wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption!” Teach me to keep silence, O God! to mind my own business and be faithful to it; to deny my own will and wisdom; give me the spirit of true Christian love, that my whole life may be in the atmosphere of love!

3d Mo. 28th. * * * To cease from my own works, surely in a very small degree, I can experimentally say, “this is the only true rest.”  This blessed experience seems to me the height of enjoyment to the truly redeemed.  Oh, a little foretaste of this sabbath has been