livelihood as we have; our Saviour has given you teachers, as he has given us:  be thankful to him that they make known to you his precious words, and all his deeds, which are full of life and happiness.  I have, from my earliest infancy, been instructed in this blessed doctrine, for I have grown up in the congregation.  When you read this, you may very likely think that I have always lived to the joy of our Saviour; but, alas, I have been, particularly in my youth, very often ungrateful towards him who died for me.  But when this was the case, I was never happy, and I found no rest for my soul, until I cast myself at the feet of Jesus, and implored his forgiveness; and even now I can do nothing else, when I am distressed about myself and my great sinfulness.  When I am in my kaiak procuring provisions, or on other occasions alone, and I call to mind that my Saviour was for my sake nailed to the cross, and suffered for my sins, which are numberless, I acknowledge myself the chief of sinners; I then pray to our Saviour with deep abasement, and often with loud weeping.  At such times I feel that he draws nigh, and fills my heart with such comfort that I am quite melted by his love.  This is also the reason why I make our Saviour my most important object; I cleave to him as a child does to its mother, and I will never turn away from Him.  Nothing is more profitable to me than the contemplation of his sufferings.  Of this alone I speak to my fellow-men.

“My dear brethren and sisters, I must still tell you that I have been four times in danger of my life when running in my kaiak, for so often have I been overset when I was quite alone.  When almost suffocated in the water, I prayed to our Saviour for deliverance.  Each time I raised myself up by means of the bladder, but it was God my Saviour who saved me from these dangers.  In him alone I trust, and provide for myself, my wife and children with pleasure.  Although, as long as I am upon earth I shall feel my weakness and corruption, yet I go with it all to our Saviour, as a child does for help to its parent.  I pray thus:  ’O! my Jesus! thou lover of my soul, let me feel thy nearness, impress thy sufferings and death upon my heart, melt it and make it tender through the power of thy blood, and according to thy good pleasure, make me well-pleasing unto thee.  Thou hast bought me with thy blood, that I might be saved; throughout my whole life will I rely upon thee, my God and Redeemer!  I will place thee before my heart, as thou for my sake in agony and sore distress in the garden of Gethsemane wast weighed down to the ground with my guilt, until sweat mixed with blood, forced itself through thy body, and fell in great drops to the ground.’  At such times my heart grows warm, and my eyes overflow.  This alone is able to soften our hard hearts—­this I experience, and your hearts cannot be subdued and softened by any thing else.  You must go to Jesus’ cross, for there is no other way to happiness.—­Take