s to the Most High for my redemption from the bonds
of sin and misery. If you will join with me heart and hand in youthful
thanksgiving, then shall we two go and worship together; but, if not,
go your way, and I shall go mine."

"Ah, you little know with how much pleasure I will accompany you, and
join with you in your elevated devotions," said he fervently. "Your
state is a state to be envied indeed; but I have been advised of it,
and am come to be a humble disciple of yours; to be initiated into the
true way of salvation by conversing with you, and perhaps of being
assisted by your prayers."

My spiritual pride being greatly elevated by this address, I began to
assume the preceptor, and questioned this extraordinary youth with
regard to his religious principles, telling him plainly, if he was one
who expected acceptance with God at all, on account of good works, that
I would hold no communion with him. He renounced these at once, with
the greatest vehemence, and declared his acquiescence in my faith. I
asked if he believed in the eternal and irrevocable decrees of God,
regarding the salvation and condemnation of all mankind? He answered
that he did so: aye, what would signify all things else that he
believed, if he did not believe in that? We then went on to commune
about all our points of belief; and in everything that I suggested he
acquiesced, and, as I thought that day, often carried them to extremes,
so that I had a secret dread he was advancing blasphemies. He had such
a way with him, and paid such a deference to all my opinions, that I
was quite captivated, and, at the same time, I stood in a sort of awe
of him, which I could not account for, and several times was seized
with an involuntary inclination to escape from his presence by making a
sudden retreat. But he seemed constantly to anticipate my thoughts, and
was sure to divert my purpose by some turn in the conversation that
particularly interested me. He took care to dwell much on the theme of
the impossibility of those ever falling away who were once accepted and
received into covenant with God, for he seemed to know that in that
confidence, and that trust, my whole hopes were centred.

We moved about from one place to another, until the day was wholly
spent. My mind had all the while been kept in a state of agitation
resembling the motion of a whirlpool, and, when we came to separate, I
then discovered that the purpose for which I had sought the fields