Should He who has brought me thus far see it to be for my good to set me on the banks of deliverance, may I have no desire to live for anything but to sing his praise! After being recognised by the Church as a minister, he was again tried with a season of spiritual desertion; and this phase in his religious history, with his reflections upon it, and the holy resolution and hope with which he concludes, may be useful in strengthening the faith of others under similar circumstances.
10 _mo_.

4 .-- O what a stripping time have I had since I wrote last! My pen would fail to set forth the inward desertion I have experienced for months past, so that my poor mind is almost worn out with waiting and watching in the absence of the Bridegroom of souls.

My enemy seems to have set up his throne in me, and leads my wandering thoughts captive at his pleasure.

I have no weapons of my own to fight him with, and it seems as if Infinite Goodness had refused me the grant of that armor which I have before experienced the means of putting my adversary to flight.

For what end this may be I know not, but the suffering time is hard to the natural part.