ged to resort to this
conveyance. The case of Bibles and Testaments which he had forwarded
was so large, that the only method by which it could be carried was to
set it up on end in the basket attached to the back of the Diligence;
and such was the weight and size of the box, that it was with no small
difficulty, and by the assistance of several men, that it was safely
adjusted. At first the passengers objected to taking their seats with
such a weight behind, lest they should meet with some accident, or be
impeded in their progress. After much persuasion, however, and after
presenting a number of Religious Tracts to each passenger, and
requesting the conductor to drive slow, they were prevailed on to
proceed on their journey. The course they were pursuing led through a
part of the country solely inhabited by _Roman Catholics_, where, the
year before, M. ---- had distributed a number of Bibles and Tracts,
the reading of which, he had subsequently ascertained, had been
forbidden by the priests, who had not only demanded them, but
consigned most or all of them to the flames. M. ---- thought
necessary, in this journey, to suspend his distributions in this
immediate vicinity. But the providence of God had other views, and
so ordered it, that, without the instrumentality of men, the sacred
records should be scattered among that people. On reaching the place
of his destination at the foot of the mountains, and alighting from
the Diligence, M. ---- discovered that the case had opened at the top,
and that not a few Bibles and Testaments had been scattered along the
way. Travellers were soon seen coming up, some in wagons and some on
horseback, some with a Bible and some with a New Testament under
their arm. They informed him, that, for eight or ten miles back, the
inhabitants had been supplied by the Diligence, as the books had
fallen out whenever they descended a hill, or travelled over rocky and
uneven ground.

While taking the case from the Diligence, several more persons came
up, each bringing his Bible or Testament, which they most readily
offered to return to M. ----, but which he as cheerfully requested them
to accept, observing to them, that they had been destined for their
perusal by that Providence whose unseen hand directs all human events.
Though ignorant of the contents of the volume which God had thus given
them, they expressed many thanks to M. ---- for his generosity, and
were about to proceed on their way, appa