ebruary 22. To-day I attended the meeting in the morning, walked
afterwards six miles with two brethren, and rode to Plymouth. February
23. I am now as well as I was before I broke the bloodvessel. In
relating the particulars of this circumstance, I would earnestly warn
every one who may read this not to imitate me in such a thing if he has
no faith; but if he has, it will, as good coin, most assuredly be
honored by God. I could not say that if such a thing should happen again
I would act in the same way; for when I have been not nearly so weak as
when I had broken the bloodvessel, having no faith, I did not preach;
yet, if it were to please the Lord to give me faith, I might be able to
do the same, though even still weaker than at the time just spoken of.

About this time I repeatedly prayed with sick believers till they were
restored. _Unconditionally_ I asked the Lord for the blessing of bodily
health (a thing which I could not do now), and almost always had the
petition granted. In some instances, however, the prayer was not
answered. In the same way, whilst in London, November, 1829, in answer
to my prayers, I was immediately restored from a bodily infirmity under
which I had been laboring for a long time, and which has never returned
since. The way in which I now account for these facts is as follows. It
pleased the Lord, I think, to give me in such cases something like the
gift (not grace) of faith, so that unconditionally I could ask and look
for an answer. The difference between the _gift_ and the _grace_ of
faith seems to me this. According to _the gift of faith_, I am able to
do a thing, or believe that a thing will come to pass, the not doing of
which, or the not believing of which, _would not be sin_; according to
_the grace of faith_, I am able to do a thing, or believe that a thing
will come to pass, respecting which I have the word of God as the ground
to rest upon, and, therefore, the not doing it, or the not believing it,
_would be sin_. For instance, _the gift of faith_ would be needed to
believe that a sick person should be restored again, though there is no
human probability, for _there is no promise to that effect_; _the grace
of faith_ is needed to believe that the Lord will give me the
necessaries of life, if I first seek the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, for _there is a promise to that effect_.[15]

[Footnote 15: Matt. vi.]

March 18. These two days we have not been able to purchase m