I was brought up by a pious mother, received religious instruction when I was young, and thought I was doing all that was required. At the age of eighteen, I went to a Baptist church for the first time, and heard Elder Plummer Waters preach from Solomon's Song, 2:8, "The voice of my beloved--behold he cometh, leaping upon the mountains." Never before had I seen myself such a sinner.

      I saw two persons baptized, the first I had ever seen immersed, which brought me to seek the Lord in a different way from what I had thought I should.

      It would consume too much space to tell all my distress of soul, until it pleased the Lord to show me peace in Christ Jesus. I was then enabled to rejoice in God, and say with the Apostle, "The commandment I thought ordained to life, I found to be unto death" [Romans 7:10]. It is thirty-six years since I followed the Lord in a watery grave, and never shall I forgot the day, for the Spirit of God was with me, and I can say He is still with me. Although, like Bunyan's pilgrim, I have encountered many difficulties in journeying from the city of Destruction, I still believe that

[THW 28]