4 KELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 



who wished for education might have obtained it. Many availed 

 themselves of the privilege ; and some of my schoolfellows now 

 rank in positions far above what they appeared ever likely to 

 come to when in the village school. If such a system w T ere es- 

 tablished in England, it would prove a never-ending blessing to 

 the poor. 



In reading, every thing that I could lay my hands on was de- 

 voured except novels. Scientific works and books of travels were 

 my especial delight ; though my father, believing, with many of 

 his time who ought to have known better, that the former were 

 inimical to religion, would have preferred to have seen me poring 

 over the "Cloud of Witnesses," or Boston's "Fourfold State." 

 Our difference of opinion reached the point of open rebellion on 

 my part, and his last application of the rod was on my refusal to 

 peruse Wilberforce's "Practical Christianity." This dislike to 

 dry doctrinal reading, and to religious reading of every sort, con- 

 tinued for years afterward ; but having lighted on those admirable 

 works of Dr. Thomas Dick, " The Philosophy of Religion" and 

 " The Philosophy of a Future State," it was gratifying to find my 

 own ideas, that religion and science are not hostile, but friendly to 

 each other, fully proved and enforced. 



Great pains had been taken by my parents to instill the doc- 

 trines of Christianity into my mind, and I had no difficulty in un- 

 derstanding tlie theory of our free salvation by the atonement of 

 our Savior, but it was only about this time that I really began to 

 feel the necessity and value of a personal application of the pro- 

 visions of that atonement to my own case. The change was 

 like what may be supposed would take place were it possible to 

 cure a case of "color blindness." The perfect freeness with 

 which the pardon of all our guilt is offered in God's book drew 

 forth feelings of affectionate love to Him who bought us with his 

 blood, and a sense of deep obligation to Him for his mercy has 

 influenced, in some small measure, my conduct ever since. But 

 I shall not again refer to the inner spiritual life which I believe 

 then began, nor do I intend to specify with any prominence the 

 evangelistic labors to which the love of Christ has since impelled 

 me. This book will speak, not so much of what has been done, 

 as of what still remains to be performed, before the Gospel can be 

 said to be preached to all nations. 



