elf for entering the army, and that then I should be
examined as to my bodily qualifications, in the hope that, as I was
still in a very weak state of body, I should be found unfit for military
service. In that case it would belong to the chief general finally to
settle the matter; who, being a godly man himself, on the major's
recommendation, would, no doubt, hasten the decision, on account of my
desire to be a missionary to the Jews.

Thus far the Lord had allowed things to go, to show me, it appears, that
all my friends could not procure me a passport till his time was come.
But now it was come. The King of kings had intended that I should go to
England, because he would bless me there and make me a blessing, though
I was at that time, and am still, most unworthy of it; and, therefore,
though the king of Prussia had not been pleased to make an exemption in
my favor, yet now all was made plain, and that at a time when hope had
almost been given up, and when the last means had been resorted to. I
was examined, and was declared to be unfit for military service. With a
medical certificate to this effect, and a letter of recommendation from
the major, I went to this chief general, who received me very kindly,
and who himself wrote instantaneously to a second military physician,
likewise to examine me _at once_. This was done, and it was by him
confirmed that I was unfit. Now, the chief general himself, as his
adjutants happened to be absent, in order to hasten the matter, wrote,
with his own hands, the papers which were needed, and I got a complete
dismissal, and that for life, from all military engagements.

On February 5 I arrived at my father's house; it was the place where I
had lived as a boy, and the scene of many of my sins, my father having
now returned to it after his retirement from office. There were but
three persons in the whole town with whom my soul had any fellowship.
One of them was earning his daily bread by thrashing corn. As a boy I
had in my heart laughed at him. Now I sought him out, having been
informed that he was a brother, to acknowledge him as such, by having
fellowship with him, and attending a meeting in his house on the
Lord's-day evening. My soul was refreshed, and his also. Such a
spiritual feast as meeting with a brother was a rare thing to him.

I left my father's house on February 10, and about February 22 arrived
at Rotterdam. My going to England by the way of Rotterdam was not the
us