Dr. Cone says, in a sermon, delivered in 1844, "My mother was baptized when I was a few months old. Soon after, as I was sleeping in her lap, she was much drawn out in prayer for her babe, and supposed she received an answer, with the assurance that her child should live to preach the gospel of Christ. * * * When but eight years old, I was first awakened to see my lost condition as a sinner, at a Baptist meeting. A sermon on the text: "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" (Jeremiah 8:22), deeply affected me. It left upon my mind an impression never eradicated--a system of theology never forgotten:--1. Total depravity; 2. Universal condemnation, and, 3. Salvation alone by the balm of Gilead--the blood of the Lamb. I was so affected by this sermon, that for months I was afraid to go to sleep without repeating the Lord's prayer, or some other little form taught me by my mother. About two years after this, I heard Dr. Green, of Philadelphia, preach powerfully from the text: "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). My mind was again seized with distressing convictions of my ruined condition as a sinner, of my base [167] ingratitude, and of the efficiency of the blood and righteousness of Christ alone to save me. For a time I strove to do good, but strove in my own strength, and evil, and only evil was present with me; so I soon ceased to pray, and gave myself up again to folly."

      Young Cone after this became a theatrical actor, and spent a number of years in that profession. In a letter to a friend he says: "Reason and reflection convince me that real happiness is the offspring of virtue, and the inseparable companion of content. How vain then to sigh for riches. Were they in our actual possession, content might refuse us the honor of her company, and happiness would consequently desert us." * * * On another occasion he speaks of himself thus: "From the time that I heard McGlaughlin preach on the balm of Gilead, my mind had never been at rest on the subject of my salvation. By day and by night God called me to repentance." In a sermon to the young, in 1844, he said: "Blessed with health and a great flow of animal spirits, God was not in all my thoughts; but though I had forgotten Him, He had not forgotten me; and He was pleased to visit me in a dream:--I seemed to be falling down a well, backwards, with my face turned towards the top. There I saw one standing, having the appearance of a man. He intimated his willingness to lift me out of the well. [168] But I was resolved to try to save myself. In an instant, to my utter amazement, the well widened, like the mouth of a bell, and was lost in the bottomless pit. The flames almost touched me; my arms sank lifeless by my side; my strength was gone; my heart seemed to be suffocated and ready to burst. I looked up to the good being at the top; he stood there still, regarding me with the tenderest compassion. In unspeakable anguish I cried, Save me! Save me!--and in a moment I was at the top of the well--I was safe! I never regarded dreams as worth remembering, and yet this dream told me the story of my life in such vivid colors, that I could not drive it from my mind. I was oppressed--terrified--at the prospect of hell, and began to pray and read the Bible diligently."

      In a letter dated October 16, 1810, he says: "My profession, which I adopted from necessity, is becoming every day more disgusting to me. It destroys all reflection which alone can improve and enlighten the human mind. I pray God that I may speedily exchange it for something better in itself. * * * What can be more degrading to the nature of man than to be stuck upon a stage for fools and clowns to gape at, or criticise." In 1811, he wrote, "I have been revolving in my mind my present situation, and have finally determined, let come what may, to abandon for ever a profession in which [169] I find nothing congenial to my desires or tastes."

      After he left the stage he became a soldier, and after that engaged in the newspaper business. For two years he did not attend religious worship more than twice. At length, in 1813, he bought a book, a volume of the works of John Newton. On looking in it, he says, "In an instant my whole life passed in review before me. I remembered taking that book out of the college library, while at Princeton, and reading Newton's Life to my mother. His dream of the lost ring reminded me of my dream of the well. A voice said to me, 'This is your last warning!' I trembled like an aspen leaf. Sermons heard when only eight years old, on the balm of Gilead, and on the Lamb of God, the dream--all were painfully present, and I thought my hour of doom had come. I commenced reading the Scriptures. My dear young wife thought I was going mad. O no, no, no, I was not mad! He who had compassion on the poor Gadarene (see Mark 5:1-20) was now bringing me to my right mind in a way that I knew not. The Psalms, John's Gospel, and the Epistle to the Romans were particularly precious to me. It required great effort to attend domestic duties, for I felt continually that it would profit me nothing 'to gain the whole world, and at last to lose my own soul' [Matthew 16:26]. One evening I went up into a vacant garret, and kneeled down; the instance [170] of Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:1-11) occurred to me; like him I turned my face to the wall and cried for mercy. An answer seemed to be given, in an impression, that just as many years as I had passed in rebellion against God, so many years must I endure, before deliverance could be granted. I clasped my hands and cried out, Yes, dear Lord, a thousand years of such anguish as I now feel, if I may only be saved at last! Whenever I could steal away unobserved into the garret, I prayed and poured out hot tears of bitter sorrow there. While thus engaged one night, the plan of salvation was revealed to me in the figure of Noah's ark. I saw an ungodly race swept away with the flood, but Noah and his family were saved, for God shut them in the ark. I felt that as a sinner I was condemned and justly exposed to immediate and everlasting destruction. I saw distinctly that in Christ alone I must be saved, if saved at all. Next morning I opened the thirteenth chapter of John, and came to where Peter said, 'thou shalt never wash my feet'; Jesus answered him, 'If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.' Peter said to Him, 'Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head' [John 13:8, 9]. At that moment my poor heart seemed to melt. I felt as if plunged in a bath of blood divine--I was cleansed from head to foot; guilt and the apprehension of punishment were both put away; tears of gratitude gushed from my eyes [171] in copious streams; I fell at the feet of Jesus, and gave thanks; my sins which were many, were all forgiven, and a peace of mind succeeded which passeth understanding. Bless the Lord, O my soul! from that hour to the present, a doubt of my calling and election of God has never crossed my mind. I wished next to be baptized. On Saturday, February 4th, 1814, I was baptized in the Patapsco River, near Baltimore, by Elder Lewis Richards, the ice being a foot thick, and cut for that purpose."

      The subject of the foregoing narrative was a Baptist preacher. After leaving the stage of the theatre, he ascended the sacred desk to persuade men to repentance. We are indebted to his Biography for this brief sketch.--EDITOR.

[THW 167-172]