walk from the village in the direction of Almondbury common.
Faster and faster he went, faster and faster as if to keep up with the
rapid current of his thoughts; the distance was uncounted, the
direction unheeded, the time forgotten; one thought only occupied his
tempest-torn mind, what must he do to be saved! There are some who
would think him very foolish to give himself so much concern on a
matter of that sort; but the fact is, Abe was just beginning to act the
part of a wise man in renouncing his old habits and declaring for
Christ. No human eye followed him on that lonely walk to the common,
and no human friend accompanied him; he was alone, the thought pleased
him; he looked around all over the face of the common, but no person
was visible. _Abe was alone with God_, and he determined to speak to
Him, and tell Him all his burden of sorrow. Near to where he stood,
there was a large tree growing, whose lofty branches were uplifted to
heaven; it stood just at the bottom of a little grassy slope of four or
five yards deep, and close to the side of a small clear stream of
water, which ran gurgling and rippling along, moistening the great
roots of this tree; it was here, under its spreading boughs and gnarled
trunk, _Abe found a place for prayer_. Down on his knees he cast
himself, and his first utterance consecrated that spot as a closet,
"God be merciful to me a sinner!" He only needed to utter the first
cry, others followed in rapid and earnest succession, till all the
restraints upon his soul were broken asunder, and in an agony he
wrestled for salvation. Hour after hour fled by; twilight gave place
to darkness; lights shone from the cottage windows away on the
hill-sides; distant watch-dogs answered each other's unwearying bark;
neighbours in the village yonder, stood chatting by their open doors in
the quiet night, and in many a cottage home hard by, children and
grown-up men sat quietly eating their last meal before retiring to bed:
but none of them knew that out on Almondbury common, at the foot of a
great rude tree, a man, one of their neighbours, a sinner like
themselves, _was praying_. No, no, they didn't know: there is many a
thing goes on of vital interest to us, which even our nearest friends
know nothing about; but there are other eyes, invisible, which look
down upon us from their starry heights seeing all our ways. So they
looked, while Abe wrestled for liberty. His chief snare at this time
was