thus, my difficulty in understanding it, and the little enjoyment
I had in it, made me careless of reading it; and thus, like many
believers, I practically preferred, for the first four years of my
divine life, the works of uninspired men to the oracles of the living
God. The consequence was, that I remained a babe, both in knowledge and
grace.

The last and most important means of grace, prayer, was comparatively
but little used by me. I prayed, and prayed often, and in general, by
the grace of God, with sincerity; but had I prayed as earnestly as I
have of late years, I should have made much more rapid progress.

CHAPTER III.

SELF-DEDICATION.

1826-1829.

DESIRE FOR MISSIONARY LABOR--PROVIDENTIAL RELEASE FROM MILITARY
SERVICE--VISIT AT HOME--LED TO THE LAND OF HIS FUTURE
LABORS--PROGRESS IN RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE--DESIRE FOR IMMEDIATE
USEFULNESS.

In August, 1827, I heard that the Continental Society in England
intended to send a minister to Bucharest, the residence of many nominal
German Christians, to help an aged brother in the work of the Lord.
After consideration and prayer, I offered myself for this work to
Professor Tholuck, who was requested to look out for a suitable
individual; for with all my weakness I had a great desire to live wholly
for God. Most unexpectedly my father gave his consent, though Bucharest
was above a thousand miles from my home, and as completely a missionary
station as any other. I now prepared with earnestness for the work of
the Lord. I set before me the sufferings which might await me. And he
who once so fully served Satan was now willing, constrained by the love
of Christ, rather to suffer affliction for the sake of Jesus than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. I also prayed with a degree of
earnestness concerning my future work.

One day, at the end of October, the above-mentioned brother, Hermann
Ball, missionary to the Jews, stated that he feared, on account of his
health, he should be obliged to give up laboring among the Jews. When I
heard this, I felt a peculiar desire to fill up his place. About this
very time, also, I became exceedingly fond of the Hebrew language, which
I had cared about very little up to that time, and which I had merely
studied now and then, from a sense of duty. But now I studied it, for
many weeks, with the greatest eagerness and delight. Whilst I thus from
time to time felt a desire to fill up brother Ball's place