hings
the more I saw of the folly and inconsistency of ministers in spending
their lives striving and remonstrating with sinners in order to induce
them to do that which they had it not in their power to do. Seeing that
God had from all eternity decided the fate of every individual that was
to be born of woman, how vain was it in man to endeavour to save those
whom their Maker had, by an unchangeable decree, doomed to destruction.
I could not disbelieve the doctrine which the best of men had taught
me, and towards which he made the whole of the Scriptures to bear, and
yet it made the economy of the Christian world appear to me as an
absolute contradiction. How much more wise would it be, thought I, to
begin and cut sinners off with the sword! For till that is effected,
the saints can never inherit the earth in peace. Should I be honoured
as an instrument to begin this great work of purification, I should
rejoice in it. But, then, where had I the means, or under what
direction was I to begin? There was one thing clear, I was now the
Lord's and it behoved me to bestir myself in His service. Oh that I had
an host at my command, then would I be as a devouring fire among the
workers of iniquity!

Full of these great ideas, I hurried through the city, and sought again
the private path through the field and wood of Finnieston, in which my
reverend preceptor had the privilege of walking for study, and to which
he had a key that was always at my command. Near one of the stiles, I
perceived a young man sitting in a devout posture, reading a Bible. He
rose, lifted his hat, and made an obeisance to me, which I returned and
walked on. I had not well crossed the stile till it struck me I knew
the face of the youth and that he was some intimate acquaintance, to
whom I ought to have spoken. I walked on, and returned, and walked on
again, trying to recollect who he was; but for my life I could not.
There was, however, a fascination in his look and manner that drew me
back towards him in spite of myself, and I resolved to go to him, if it
were merely to speak and see who he was.

I came up to him and addressed him, but he was so intent on his book
that, though I spoke, he lifted not his eyes. I looked on the book
also, and still it seemed a Bible, having columns, chapters, and
verses; but it was in a language of which I was wholly ignorant, and
all intersected with red lines and verses. A sensation resembling a
stroke of electricity ca