338 MEMOIRS OP PERIOD XI. I found I reaped force foul-advantage by them, efpecially the &ít, having given mylelf to folemn prayer on Wednefday. Jan. 23. On Friday _laft I bad two fits of the gravel again. I receive no relief in the cafe, but after fore vomiting. So re- covering out of oneof them, and going to family - worthip, I was exceedingly comforted with the first words fung, Pfal. lxviii. 13. " Though ye have 1i'n among the pots," &c. Jan. 29. The gravel ftill hanging about me, my progrefs on the catechifm is flopped. And now my foul is often faying, Lord, thall I not have wherewith to feed thy lambs, to feed thy fheep !' Feb. 12. Still that illnefs hangs about me. Faith being ftrengthened, I had laft week fbme comfortable views of the refurrecîion, being on that queftion. March 5. On the Lord's day Feb. 18. I was to enter on the fubje& of the Lord's hearing of prayer, having been led thereto by mywife's café, and the exercife on my fpirit about it ; and infifted thereon from the firft Sabbath of the preceding Auguft. V /hat I mainly infifted on, was ' the Spirit's help in prayer,' from Rom. viii. 26. ' The Spirit helped' our infirmities, &e. I had fondly thought, that perhaps the Lord might tryft the deliverance of my wife, with my being on that fubjebt ; but that morning. I found the had all the night been, and fill was, in a high fever; and thus was I met, at my,entry on that fubje&t. Yet it ftaggered me not, confidering the ufual method of Pro- vidence with me. The fever proceeded, with an inflammation that went over her face and head ; and fuch were the turns in her cafe all that week, and part of the next, that I was made to reel and nagger lilie one.drunk ; often feeing the knife at the throat ofall the tokens for hope I had. But readily in prayer, when hardeft put to it, that came before me, " I will come and heal her ;" and my text, Pfal. lxv. 2. " O thou that heareft prayer," had a kindly fweetnefs about it to me. On the Friday morning, when I fhould haveentered on,myfìudies, (that being my ordinary ftùdy-day), and particularly on that head, That God is the hearer of prayer, and will hear the prayers of his people, I was called to wait on her, nowbrought to an extremity, . and could have no accefs to ftudy at all that day. This was a (harp trial. I lay that night in the folding-bed, in the room where fhe lay ; ordered away an exprefs to Edinburgh, to call home my eldeft fon ; and on the morrow got fomething fcraped together on the head aforefaid. On the Sabbath morning, being heavily affeéted with the cafe, I went to prayer, and laid it before the Lord I defired he would work, a deliverance, and would pleafe to allow us a breathing-time for a while, before our fun fhould fet ; and I thought I faw, that that prayer was made by the help of his Spirit, laid for acceptance on the interceffion of his Son ; and begged.the outmaking of his word to me. "There after taking the Bible, I tllought with myfelf, That is God's
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