Or have you a high opinion of your own talents and acquirements, of your piety, and zeal, and other endowments? Do you think they will entitle you to a principal place among your fellow missionaries? Will you not be content unless you are a leading man among them? Are you ambitious of associating with those who are your superiors in character, rank, and influence? Will you be ready to despise a fellow missionary merely because he is not your equal in talents and acquirements, while, perhaps, he is your superior in piety and zeal? Are you apt to be overbearing to your equals and inferiors? Will you not be content unless they submit to your views and wishes?

Are you of a charitable temper? Are you disposed to put the best construction on the words and actions of your fellow men? Is it with reluctance that you view in an unfavourable light the conduct of others, and only when the force of evidence compels you? Does it afford you much more pleasure when you can think well of them? And when you cannot remain blind to their faults, are you ready to make those allowances for them which the circumstances of the case will admit? Are you disposed to throw over them the mantle of love, and not to speak of them without necessity? Or are you disposed to view the conduct of others with suspicion? Does it afford you a secret pleasure to discover their imperfections and errors; and even when their conduct is laudable, are you apt to ascribe it to unworthy motives? Is evil speaking a practice in which you indulge? Are you ready to listen to unfavourable reports of others, and in your turn to contribute to their further circulation?

Are you of a meek temper? Have you learned to govern your angry passions? Can you receive with patience and gratitude the reproofs of a friend? Can you bear with calmness and equanimity the unmerited reflections, the abusive language, and the provoking conduct, of others? Or are you of an irritable turn of mind? Are you hasty in your spirit to be angry? Are you ready to be carried away by the violence of passion? Are you apt to speak unadvisedly with your lips?

Are you of a forbearing temper? Have you learned to make scriptural and rational distinctions as to the relative importance of different parts of divine truth? Are you disposed to live in peace and harmony with those who differ from you as to the non-essentials of religion? Do you feel it to be of more importance to maintain the "unity of the spirit in the bond of love," than to contend about the inferior "matters of the law?" Or do you feel a bigoted attachment to all your opinions in religion, and especially to those which are peculiar to yourself, or to that section of the church of Christ with which you are connected? Are you a zealot for them? Are you disposed to think a man unfit for Christian communion with you unless he adopt your creed in all its extent?

Have you learned not only to exercise forbearance with your fellow Christians as to those minor points in which you differ from them but do you think, after considering the character of your own mind, and your conduct in similar circumstances, that you will be disposed to bear with your fellow missionaries when they differ in opinion with you as to the particular plans to be pursued in the prosecution of the mission? Will you be ready to yield up your views to the majority, unless when conscience will not permit you to do so? Will you be prepared to co-operate with them in carrying the measures they propose into effect, even though they should not seem to you the best which might have been adopted? Or will you be disposed to do little unless the measures proposed meet with your entire approbation? Are you of a stiff, unyielding disposition? Are you apt to indulge in scrupulosity about little matters ?

Will you you be disposed to exercise forbearance, not only as to the sentiments, but as to the frailties of your fellow missionaries? Have you learned to lay your account with finding imperfections in the best of men? Are you prepared to make due allowances for their faults, and to love them on account of their excellencies, notwithstanding the defects which cleave to them? Or are the faults of their character ever apt to preponderate in your eye, and to conceal from you their virtues? Are you apt to deny them every excellence on account of the imperfections you see in them?

Are you of a peaceable temper? Are you disposed to live in harmony with others? Have you a dread of dissension? Are you ready to make every sacrifice for the sake of peace, except the interests of truth and holiness? Or are you apt to be quarrelsome? Are you ready to take offence? Are you ill to be won when once offended? Is it long before you forget injuries? Are you backward to forgive them?

Are you of a disinterested temper? Are you ready to look, not merely on your own things, but also on the things of others? Are you disposed to sacrifice your own ease and comfort to the welfare of others? Do you think you are prepared to make such sacrifices on account of your fellow missionaries as well as of the heathen? Or are you of a selfish disposition? Are you ready to make the ease and comfort of others bend to your interest? Are you disposed to place the heaviest burdens on the shoulders of others, while you choose for yourself such as are lighter and more agreeable?

Such are a few of the points to which we have to request your attention relative to your temper. We might have enumerated many others, but as we can attempt only a hasty sketch, we must leave these to your own investigation.

[To be continued.]

CURE OF GUTTA SERENA.

HAVING experienced a very extraordinary cure of gutta serena, I feel it a duty which I owe to God and my neighbour to give it great publicity. Already have I made it known to several medical men high in the profession, to many of my correspondents, and to several who are now labouring under the distressing malady from which I have been mercifully restored. But this does not satisfy me: I wish the remedy which has been so successful in my case to be universally known. I am far from supposing that it will succeed in every case of gutta serena; but as it has succeeded in mine, and since my recovery, in two others also,-one perfectly, and the other partially, so far, that the latter person referred to is able to read a common sized print, I am encouraged to hope, that the publication may prove a great blessing to many who are now literally "walking in darkness:"—a state of affliction, the horrors of which can only be correctly estimated by those who have been deprived of sight.

In addition to the conviction of my own mind, that I ought not to conceal so great a benefit, I have been long and frequently urged by many pious and intelligent friends to send it forth into the world; but that which finally determined my conduct in this case, was the request of the brethren assembled in our late conference held at Leeds. As a member of that conference, and one who concurred in this request, you will, I doubt not, feel great pleasure in giving it efficiency by allowing to my very extraordinary case a place in the pages of your valuable and widely extended miscellany.

I am, dear sir, affectionately yours,

Bristol, Sept. 8, 1824.

JACOB STANLEY.

Remarkable cure of Amaurosis, or Gutta Serena, in the case of the Rev. JACOB STANLEY, Wesleyan Methodist minister, now in Bristol. In the month of September, 1813, when stationed in the Liverpool circuit, one night, whilst I slept, I was attacked by gutta serena. Of this I had no previous intimation; my sight, till that time, having been perfectly good, and my general health excellent; with the exception of occasional headaches, to which I had been more or less subject from my childhood. The disease affected my left eye only. When I awoke I perceived light from the corners of my eye; but before it were spots of various kinds; some gilded, and some black; and a large black body resembling, sometimes, flakes of soot, and at other times, a piece of fringed black gauze. At first I thought some matter had collected on the surface of the eye; but after wiping it with my handkerchief, and washing it with water, I found the cause lay deeper.

I applied to a respectable medical friend in Liverpool, who pronounced it gutta serena. His opinion was confirmed by one highly distinguished in the profession at Dudley; to whom I made a journey on that occasion. I was put under an alterative course of medicine; took a kind of mercurial snuff; was electrified in the eye by sparks, and had the electric fluid poured in from a wooden point; had a solution of cayanne dropped into it twice a day; and was repeatedly blistered in the temples and behind the ears. From these means I certainly derived some benefit; but the process being tedious and confining, and ill comporting with my public duties, and finding that my right eye continued good, I deliberately came to the resolution to pass through life with one eye; a resolution which I have lived long enough to regret.

In the latter end of the year 1816, in consequence of preaching one evening in wet clothes, I caught cold, which induced gutta serena in my right eye. The spots and the cloud hindered distinct vision. After a few days I was nearly blind. I became alarmed; and applied to an eminent oculist, Mr. Ware, of London, from whom I received much kindness, and to whom I feel myself under very great obligations. The means employed by him were in a few weeks effectual to the perfect restoration of my sight.

From that time, at intervals, I was repeatedly threatened with the total loss of sight; but a prompt recurrence to the remedies prescribed by Mr. Ware, always succeeded in parrying the threatened evil; till Sunday, May 18, 1823, when being at Stroud, preaching in aid of the Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School in that place, the cloud returned, and owing to certain engagements, which it would be of no importance to state, I was unable to have recourse to those means which in former cases had been successful, till the following Thursday evening, when I tried the usual remedies and found them utterly ineffectual. The disease had acquired a degree of strength and obstinacy which bade defiance to them. After vainly attempting to cure myself, I thought it advisable to place myself once more under the care of Mr. Ware. I did so; and after five weeks residence in London, returned to Bristol convalescent. I could see to read even a newspaper without the aid of glasses. The first sabbath after my return I imprudently ventured to preach twice, and to administer the Lord's supper; and again to preach the following evening, in one of our large chapels. These three services undid all that had been done. I instantly had recourse to the remedies which had been successful, and received my sight I preached again, and became blind. Again I blistered, and saw; then preached and became blind. Thus I proceeded, alternately preaching and becoming blind; and blistering, and

receiving my sight; till I found myself reduced to this alternative either, for the present at least, to cease to preach, or to become blind altogether. I chose the former in the latter end of July, 1823. But, having trifled so long, the disease had become so obstinate as to resist the efficacy of all former remedies. At this time a highly esteemed medical friend in Bristol, deeply interested himself in my behalf, and put me under a very powerful alterative course, and also caused a seton to be made in my neck, which was kept open for eight months. In addition to this, leeches were frequently applied to my temples; and, occasionally, blisters to my right temple; I also used the mercurial snuff; was electrified in the eye twice a day for about two months; and used two or three different lotions. Sometimes I could see, even well enough to read a few lines of clear and strong print: and then in the space of an hour was not able to distinguish a blank from a printed page. Frequently, by the light of the noonday sun I have not been able to distinguish the features of my own family within a distance of two feet. My feelings, at such times, though in general I succeeded in concealing them, were such as it is not in the power of language to describe.

In this state, I visited my daughter, Mrs. Baldwin, at Stourport, when a young friend who had been afflicted with gutta serena in one eye, called to see me. I expected to find her blind in that eye; but, instead of this, I found to my astonishment and joy that she was nearly restored; at least, so far that she could see both to read and work without difficulty. I inquired by what means she had recovered her sight; and she informed me, as I understood her, that it was by the application of a large blister to the spine. I resolved that, on my return to Bristol, I would try it. I did so; and the effect was astonishing. I felt its operation on my eye in the course of the night. It produced a tremulous sensation: a sensation which I cannot better describe than by calling it a prickling sensation; only without pain. But when I awoke, what were my astonishment and delight, when, for the first time, I was able to discern the figures and colours upon the curtains and carpet, and the paper of the room! I say the first time; for we had removed into that house during my affliction. And what were the joy and surprise of my family, when, after the devotions of the morning, I took a book and read eight or ten pages together, without glasses and without difficulty! Of the feelings of that morning, I have, and ever shall have, a most lively, and joyous, and grateful rememberance!

I repeated the blister, nine inches long, and about three or four broad, upon the spine, from the shoulder downwards, once a week, for five or six weeks in succession; until the optic nerve acqui