A RETROSPECT 3 



bring them forth that the whole creation groaned 

 and travailed in pain all the ages. How they snort 

 at divinity schools, Sunday schools, missionaries, 

 protracted meetings, paid and educated clergymen, 

 prepared selmons, etc. Only he who is called of 

 God can preach (how true !), and he shall take no 

 thought of what he is to say until he gets into the 

 pulpit. Hence the sermons I frequently listened 

 to in my youth, that were supposed to be the direct 

 inspiration of the Creator of heaven and earth, were 

 of a kind to make Blair turn gray in an hour. But 

 how can the carnal mind understand these things ! 



I am bound to say that the God of our neigh- 

 bor was a more benevolent and merciful God than 

 the one my father believed in. He wanted all to 

 be saved, whether they would be or not, while the 

 other had carefully provided that only a part could 

 or should be saved. 



The disputants of course never succeeded in 

 changing each other's views, but only ia causing 

 them to be held more tenaciously. They both as 

 old men died in the faith they had early professed. 

 It was sufficient unto them while they lived, and 

 at the last it did not fail them. Father always 

 spoke of his approaching end with perfect assurance 

 and composure. He looked upon it as some jour- 

 ney he was about to make, some change of scene 

 that was to come to him, and which need give him 

 none but happy anticipation. I remember that 

 once while visiting him, a few years before his 

 death, he told me he was reading the Bible through 



