ce. It was
particularly difficult to find _cheap_ furnished lodgings, having five
rooms in the same house, which we need, as brother Craik and we live
together. How good is the Lord to have thus appeared for us, in answer
to prayer, and what an encouragement to commit everything to him in
prayer!

June 25. To-day it was finally settled to take Bethesda Chapel for a
twelvemonth, on condition that a brother at once paid the rent, with the
understanding that, if the Lord shall bless our labors in that place, so
that believers are gathered together in fellowship, he expects them to
help him; but if not, that he will pay all. This was the only way in
which we could take the chapel; for we could not think it to be of God
to have had this chapel, though there should be every prospect of
usefulness, if it had made us in any way debtors.

July 6. To-day we commenced preaching at Bethesda Chapel. It was a good
day. July 13. To-day we heard of the first cases of cholera in Bristol.
July 16. This evening, from six to nine o'clock, we had appointed for
conversing at the vestry, one by one, with individuals who wished to
speak to us about their souls. There were so many that we were engaged
from six till twenty minutes past ten.

These meetings we have continued ever since, twice a week, or once a
week, or once a fortnight, or once a month, as our strength and time
allowed it, or as they seemed needed. We have found them beneficial in
the following respects:--

1. Many persons, on account of timidity, would prefer coming at an
appointed time to the vestry to converse with us, to calling on us in
our own house. 2. The very fact of appointing a time for seeing people,
to converse with them in private concerning the things of eternity, has
brought some, who, humanly speaking, never would have called upon us
under other circumstances; yea, it has brought even those who, though
they thought they were concerned about the things of God, yet were
completely ignorant; and thus we have had an opportunity of speaking to
them. 3. These meetings have also been a great encouragement to
ourselves in the work, for often, when we thought that such and such
expositions of the word had done no good at all, it was through these
meetings found to be the reverse; and likewise, when our hands were
hanging down, we have been afresh encouraged to go forward in the work
of the Lord, and to continue sowing the seed in hope, by seeing at these
meetings fre