youthful prophet, as it has many others before and since. His mother, two brothers, and a sister were "proselyted" to the Presbyterian Church, but he experienced in his "deep and often pungent feelings" partiality for the "Methodist sect."[1] He was greatly excited, and in the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, his mind by some influence was directed to that Scripture which saith: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth unto all men liberally and upbraideth none, and it shall be given him." This admonition was peculiarly encouraging to one in his situation, and he resolved to test it practically. For this purpose he retired to a solitary place in the woods, and the following is his statement of what then occurred:
"After I had retired into the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction. But exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction, not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such a marvellous power as I had never before felt in any being. Just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the power of the enemy which had held me bound. When the light rested upon me, I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said (pointing to the other), 'This is by beloved Son; hear Him!'"
The original purpose of the boy's prayer being to learn which of the sects he should join—for up to that time his mind had not embraced a wider range of freedom—as soon as he was able to speak he made the inquiry with the following results:
- ↑ The historian has recorded that, in 1814, when he was only nine years of age, "he was powerfully awakened by the preaching of a Mr. Lane, an earnest Methodist preacher."
