mine me at once, but the ministers throughout the country, it must be acknowledged are poor preachers, and the interest sinks in their hands. I am sorry at the account you give of yourself about fixing, as I fear I must ever despair of being near you. The London ministers too well know their interest in the city to let you come down into the country. I have sent you two little books, "Dr. Watts on the Strength and Weakness of Human Reason," and his "Redeemer and Sanctifier," as an instance of my kind regard for you. I beg I may have a letter from you when you have received them. I send them by a private hand, but hope they will come safe. I much approve of your leaving the Saturday night society; I saw the inconvenience of it myself before I left the country; though I have received very great advantages from it, and rejoice that I set it up, still as the mixed company was found a fault, you did well to separate."

The prosperity which attended Mr. Darracott's ministry at Penzance was greatly promoted by private means, which are of far greater importance than many seem to imagine. That pastoral visits, and social meetings for private devotions, ought not to preclude opportunities for study, nor induce a habit of desultory preaching, is readily admitted; for this would be sacrificing the primary means of usefulness to the secondary. But

after employing in the study as much time as is consistent with the preservation of health, and essential to the mental improvement which good preaching requires, sufficient leisure will still be left for abundant pastoral attentions, without which the flock will never prosper. "I am determined," says Mr. Darracott, "to set up a religious society here; I have spoken of it from the pulpit, and it seems well relished; I shall preach some whole sermons upon it, to encourage and direct in it."

"I have again increased my labours, and I do assure you with a great deal of pleasure, to preaching three times on the Sabbath. I have added a private lecture to some young men in my own room every Friday evening, and a public lecture every Wednesday; in both which God does seem already to give me great encouragement. I make it my constant delightful business to visit the people from house to house, by which I inform myself how religion is regarded by them, being led to suit my public discourses more advantageously; several seem to be under convictions, which I hope will end in true conversion. I bless God as to my health I never was better; I seem to renew my strength as I renew my labours. I meet with some particular temptations. O pray for me!

"I had lately a very large and kind letter

from the doctor; I am, indeed, delightfully pleased with the account he gives of things thereabouts. Mr. Whitefield, I find, has been there; I have written a letter to that good man, to desire him to come down into Cornwall, but I fear his going so soon to Georgia will prevent him. I therefore desired the doctor to write to Mr. Morgan to come down, or get some person of the like holy fire: do you, my dear friend, do your utmost with Mr. Morgan. This country is sadly ignorant, and does deserve as much compassion as Wales can do. I am daily seeing how teachable a disposition they are of, and how greatly they thirst after the gospel, and 'tis pity they should perish in such multitudes for want of it. Here are, indeed, many clergymen, but they are sadly negligent of their flocks."

In another letter he says, "I am going to visit every person in my congregation, and talk with them. Pray for me."

While he was thus labouring with ardour and success, he was seized with an alarming disorder in the year 1738. In the February of that year he wrote an account of this illness, not as afflicting him by threatening his life, but as disappointing him when indulging the hope of more abundant labours and success. A few weeks after, he gave to a friend a detail of "the conversion of another soul," in a style which expressed a deep sense of the Redeemer's declara

tion, that one soul outweighs a world. Under this impression, he endeavoured to console himself, and compensate his flock for the abridgment of his public labours by increased attention to all private means of usefulness. But the

debility of which he complained so rapidly increased, and was accompanied with spitting of blood to a degree so alarming, that he was thought to be far advanced in a consumption.

As a change of air was deemed requisite, he removed to Barnstaple in Devonshire, where he had many friends. Here he spent the former half of the year 1739. He could not preach as usual, but endeavoured to employ himself by embracing such means of usefulness as still lay within his reach, and particularly by corresponding with his pious friends. Whitefield and Wesley were among the number, and he mentions the promise of the former to come and supply his lack of service in the West of England. As he began to recover after leaving Penzance, it was thought the air of that place would not agree with him, which induced him to look out for a new field of labour. The presbyterian congregation at Wellington, in Somersetshire, being destitute of a pastor, and having heard of his situation and character, were, happily for them, induced to give him an invitation, which led to his permanent settlement and distinguished success.

CHAP. III.

FROM MR. DARRACOTT'S SETTLEMENT AT WELLINGTON TO HIS LAST ILLNESS.

AFTER having preached occasionally at Wellington for some time, Mr. Darracott went to reside there, early in the year 1741. This town, which contained but a few thousand inhabitants, would be deemed by many too narrow a field for such a labourer, but he who deserved a nobler If the town sphere had a heart to create one. was not large, the congregation to which he was invited to preach formed but a very small proportion of its inhabitants. The members of the church amounted to no more than twenty-eight; though their former pastor, Mr. Berry, who died at an advanced age, had the reputation of a very excellent man. Perhaps his ministry had been protracted, as that of some valuable men has unhappily been, beyond the period of mental or physical vigour, and thus had contributed at last to the diminution rather than the increase of his flock.

His successor, far from lingering on the verge of the field, contenting himself with looking