Page:Black Jacob, a monument of grace.djvu/62

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jacob hodges.

intimate acquaintance with his more private habits of reflection and religious duties, will at once remove this surprise and reveal the secret of his eminent holiness and uniform stability of Christian deportment.

Although he had often informed me of his difficulties and conversed freely as to his religious experience, I have retained nothing that so fully reveals his more secret history as the following communication from the Rev. Mr. Dwight, corresponding secretary of the Prison Discipline Society. Mr. Dwight had been deeply interested in his history and character. He had visited him frequently while in prison at Auburn, and from his own lips had written down the exercises of his mind in passing that eventful crisis in his religious history which we have already recorded. He had also repeatedly visited him while he resided in Canandaigua, and drew from him, at each interview, a detailed account of his religious experience, which he carefully preserved.