at he offered me a deed
of his farm if I would do so and live with him; but I declined acceding
to his request under any circumstances, expressing my conviction that
even could I do so, I thought it unwise and wrong for any parent to
place himself in a position of dependence upon any of his children for
support, so long as he could avoid doing so. One day, entering my room
and seeing a manuscript lying on the bed, he asked me what I had been
writing, and wished me to read it. I had written a meditation on part of
the last verse of the 73rd Psalm: "it is good for me to draw near to
God." When I read to him what I had written my Father rose with a sigh,
remarking: "Egerton, I don't think you will ever return home again," and
he never afterwards mooted the subject, except in a general way.

On recovering, I returned to Hamilton and resumed my studies; shortly
after which I went on a Saturday to a quarterly meeting, held about
twelve miles from Hamilton, at "The Fifty," a neighborhood two or three
miles west of Grimsby, where I expected to meet my brother William, who
was one of the ministers on the circuit, which was then called the
Niagara Circuit--embracing the whole Niagara Peninsula, from five miles
east of Hamilton, and across to the west of Fort Erie. But my brother
did not attend, and I learned that he had been laid aside from his
ministerial work by bleeding of the lungs. Between love-feast and
preaching on Sunday morning, the presiding elder, the Rev. Thomas
Madden, the late Hugh Willson, and the late Smith Griffin (grandfather
of the Rev. W. S. Griffin), circuit stewards, called me aside and asked
if I had any engagements that would prevent me from coming on the
circuit to supply the place of my brother William, who might be unable
to resume his work for, perhaps, a year or more.

I felt that the vows of God were upon me, and I was for some moments
speechless from emotion. On recovering, I said I had no engagements
beyond my own plans and purposes; but I was yet weak in body from severe
illness, and I had no means for anything else than pursuing my studies,
for which aid had been provided.

One of the stewards replied that he would give me a horse, and the other
that he would provide me with a saddle and bridle. I then felt that I
had no choice but to fulfill the vow which I had made, on what was
supposed to my deathbed. I returned to Hamilton, settled with my
instructor and for my lodgings, and made my first a