LETTERS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS; BY THE REV. JAMES CAUGHEY, OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. VOL. I. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO., STATIONERS' HALL COURT. 1844. 210.6.442 TO MY CHRISTIAN FRIENDS IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND; BUT PARTICULARLY THOSE AMONG THEM, WHO HAVE BEEN BROUGHT TO GOD, DURING THE LATE REVIVALS OF RELIGION. "GRACE be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always in your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. May he confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." Two years and a half have fled away, since my arrival in this country from America. With thankful Samuel, I would here raise my Ebenezer, and say, "hitherto hath the Lord helped me." During this time, with the exception of a few weeks upon the Continent, my labours have been incessant. On looking over my papers, I find, the Lord has enabled me to preach, on an average, nearly once a day; besides conducting a prayer meeting every night after preaching, and exhorting, times without number. During the revivals in which I have been engaged in England and Ireland, several thousand souls have professed to obtain the remission of their sins. To God alone be all the glory. Many of the above, doubtless, had been awakened under the faithful preaching of other ministers of Christ: a large proportion also, were already members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church; and some in communion with other Churches; yet, a goodly company were taken from the ranks of wickedness, and adopted into the family of God; who are the seals of my ministry, and, I hope, shall be the crown of my rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus. these have already fallen asleep in Jesus, and are now standing with the Lamb on Mount Sion: others have emigrated to America, and other countries, where, I trust, they are fighting the good fight of faith, and endeavouring to lay hold on eternal life; but the majority continue to reside in these Kingdoms. Several of To these I would say, with the Apostle,-" now I live, if ye stand fast in the Lord."-How far the work has been genuine; or whether you have been faithful to the grace of God, your own hearts can now declare: others have, no doubt, long before this, determined for you; as the life and conversation of each, have given the most convincing evidence, before friends and foes. Many invitations have I received to visit you at your houses, but in consequence of the peculiarity of my situation,—the demands made upon my time and strength for the pulpit, and an extensive correspondence with friends in America, and in different parts of these Kingdoms; beyond what any could imagine, I have been compelled to decline such invitations. On these accounts, I have often for weeks, avoided company altogether. I have resorted to the following method of atoning for my apparent unkindness, and want of sociability; viz. to present you with a part of the correspondence alluded to: I do this however by the advice and at the earnest request of many of my friends. Marks of great hastiness may appear in this little work; for I candidly confess, the time necessary to correct and re-write such letters for the press, seemed too much to spare from the more important work of calling sinners to repentance. The good to be effected, by publishing these letters, has always appeared too problematical, to allow me to neglect the main work which God sent me over the Atlantic to accomplish; the conversion of sinners to God. The SECOND VOLUME will be of a similar character to the first; but giving a sketch of Bandon, Liverpool, Leeds, and Hull; with an account of the revivals of |