“After finishing the correction of the parables, I left Dinapore to go to Monghir. Spent the evening at Patna, with Mr. G——, in talking on literary subjects: but my soul was overwhelmed with a sense of my guilt, in not striving to lead the conversation to something that might be for his spiritual good. My general backwardness to speak on spiritual subjects before the unconverted, made me groan in spirit at such unfeelingness and unbelief. May the remembrance of what I am made to suffer for these neglects, be one reason for greater zeal and love in time to come.”
“April 19th.—A melancholy Lord’s day! In the morning, at the appointed hour, I found some solemnity and tenderness: the whole desire of my soul seemed to be, that all the ministers in India might be eminently holy; and that there might be no remains of that levity or indolence, in any of us, which I found in myself. The rest of the day passed heavily; for a hurricane of hot wind fastened us on a sand-bank, for twelve hours; while the dust was suffocating, and the heat increased the sickness which was produced by the tossing of the boat, and I frequently fell asleep over my work. However, the more I felt tempted to impatience and unhappiness, the more the Lord helped me to strive against it, and to look to the fulness of Jesus Christ. Several hymns were very sweet to me—particularly,
‘There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
‘The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
O may I there, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away!