My native place is the city of Philadelphia. My parents were religious. My father died when I was five years old. My mother being a pious woman, did her best for the spiritual welfare of her children. Several years of my boyhood were occupied at school. I have always been exceedingly fond of reading and thinking, especially as it regards serious and religious things. I used to go with my mother to the Presbyterian church, of which she was a member. From her lips, and the lips of two spiritual ministers of the Presbyterian church, I first learned the gospel of Christ, was enlightened, and led, while yet a boy, to seek the Lord in prayer and repentance. For a long time I was seeking the Lord, and at last found rest and peace to my soul, by simply believing with all my heart, that Christ Jesus had "loved me, and washed me from my sins in His own blood" (Revelation 1:2). That hope and trust I ever hold fast.

      O how sweet and heavenly is the pure light of Christ, as it first beams into the heart of man, the blessed doctrine of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life, through a dying, and risen Saviour.

      Having been much benefited by the preaching and [187] writings of the people called Methodists, I united with them in church fellowship, in the eighteenth year of my age. I remember with pleasure the preaching of such men as Roberts, Ruter, Emory, and Rusling, who preached in Philadelphia in those days. About the age of nineteen, I went into a hardware store, and remained in that business for several years. In the mean time my mind became impressed with an earnest desire to preach the gospel of salvation among my fellow-men. I read, and studied and prayed. I was then licensed to exhort and preach. In 1827 I proceeded over the mountains, and was for five years engaged in spreading the glad tidings of salvation in different places in western Pennsylvania and Virginia.

      Having always been fond of reading and study, the great and leading doctrines of Christianity have long been familiar to me. I not only know them, but love them as the truth of God. I have always held the blessed faith and hope of salvation through Christ crucified, as I at first received it. In 1832, my mind was wakened up to the investigation of the subject of Christian baptism. * * * When convinced on it, I had but one course to pursue; and I was obedient to the light I had received, and was honored and blessed in being "buried with Christ in baptism" (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12).

      Afterward, having returned eastward again, I [188] united with a small body body of preachers and brethren, called the Church of God, with whom I agree in faith and practice, and with whom I continue to bear the cross, in hope of a crown of righteousness in the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, whose coming, I believe, draws very near.

[THW 187-189]