ow, by the grace of God, some
desire to benefit others, and he who so faithfully had once served
Satan, sought now to win souls for Christ. I circulated every month
about three hundred missionary papers. I also distributed a considerable
number of tracts, and often took my pockets full in my walks, and
distributed them, and spoke to poor people whom I met. I also wrote
letters to some of my former companions in sin. I visited, for thirteen
weeks, a sick man, who, when I first began to speak to him about the
things of God, was completely ignorant of his state as a sinner,
trusting for salvation in his upright and moral life. After some weeks,
however, the Lord allowed me to see a decided change in him, and he
afterwards repeatedly expressed his gratitude that I had been sent to
him by God to be the means of opening his blind eyes.

Having heard that there was a schoolmaster living in a village about six
miles from Halle, who was in the habit of holding a prayer meeting at
four o'clock every morning, with the miners, before they went into the
pit, giving them also an address, I thought he was a believer; and as I
knew so very few brethren, I went to see him, in order, if it might be,
to strengthen his hands. About two years afterwards, he told me that
when I came to him first he knew not the Lord, but that he had held
these prayer meetings merely out of kindness to a relative, whose office
it was, but who had gone on a journey; and that those addresses which
he had read were not his own, but copied out of a book. He also told me
that he was much impressed with my kindness, and what he considered
condescension on my part in coming to see him, and this, together with
my conversation, had been instrumental in leading him to care about the
things of God, and I knew him ever afterwards as a true brother.

This schoolmaster asked me whether I would not preach in his parish, as
the aged clergyman would be very glad of my assistance. Up to this time
I had never preached; yet I thought that by taking a sermon, or the
greater part of one, written by a spiritual man, and committing it to
memory, I might benefit the people. I set about putting a printed sermon
into a suitable form, and committing it to memory. There is no joy in
man's own doings and choosings. I got through it, but had no enjoyment
in the work. It was on August 27, 1826, at eight in the morning, in a
chapel of ease. There was one service more, in the afternoon, at wh