However, while young, I lived in Lancaster county, Va., and after this, until I commenced my itinerancy, the most of my time was spent in Sussex, Dinwiddie, and Brunswick counties, of the same state.

[After adverting here to the incident by which the "family records" were destroyed, and which prevented his ascertaining with precision the date of his birth, the bishop proceeds thus :-]

This may serve as an apology for not giving an account of my age, as I cannot do it with any certainty. Sometimes I have been embarrassed when the question which Pharaoh asked Jacob has been put to me, "How old art thou?" I could only reply, with a desire to "minister to edification," "The days of the years of my pilgrimage : few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage." O who of our fellow beings will not say, "My time has imperceptibly glided away; I have left undone many things I ought and designed to have done."

If this question be asked as an excitement "to give all diligence that we may know and redeem the time," it may be useful: but if idle and vain curiosity dictate the question concerning men who have endured "the common lot," I would say, this is knowledge that "vanisheth away," and will only amuse the unemployed and curious class of mankind.

My father was a Virginia planter, who laboured much for that which profited little. In this, however, he was not singular. It was the case in all that tract lying between the Blue Ridge and the Atlantic coast. The negroes toiled hard to support themselves and their masters. Our forefathers, by false calculations, having introduced slavery into the state, and especially into this region, where the land was originally poor, and their families large, soon wore out the soil. Besides, with a large and increasing white and coloured population, and an insatiable desire to accumulate wealth, it was impossible to restore or renew the soil. Thus they were burdened with poverty and fruitless labour, which discouraged enterprise and exertion. Husbandry was committed chiefly to the Africans, who knew little and cared less about it. Industry and economy were driven from the country, and the comfort that flows from them too generally followed in their desolating flight.

Here I received my education, and was raised among a class of citizens, who, when they could afford it, "sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." But I feel thankful that my father taught me to "be diligent in business," by which I acquired a stability of constitution and a love for manly perseverance, which remain to this day.

As to my religious education, for the most part, it was such as was common among the Episcopalians. My father attended the church, as a number of his fellow citizens did, because it was customary. It will, I hope, be no breach of charity to say, that many in that church, at that period, were "ever learning, but never able

to come to the knowledge of the truth." I well remember that, among both the aged and the young, but few had a clear and satisfactory knowledge of the moral obligations connected with the precepts of the gospel. We went to church on the Lord's day, and when we returned, the old spent their time in eating and drinking, and the young in vanity and wickedness. Our country abounded with dancing schools and dancing masters. Young ladies and gentlemen, before they could appear in the circles of polished society, had to learn systematically the arts of revelling and dissipation, and all the eccentric and odd gesticulations that they and their teachers could invent. What aggravated our sins was, that we sat under the ministry of a "man of God," who was, like Micaiah, the son of Imlah,

"Faithful found

Among the faithless: faithful only he
Among innumerable false."

This excellent minister of Christ would thunder at sinners of any and every description, many of whom would fly from his warning voice as from a house in flames; and even in their flight he would

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cry aloud and spare not." He was made the instrument of turning many to righteousness, who experienced the humility, faith, hope, and charity of the gospel, witnessing a good confession in life and death. He united "them that believed," and were of one heart, into classes, as our Wesley had done in England, and met them regularly; and such as he could not attend to, he gave up to the Methodist preachers, that they might be guided by their counsel, and afterward received into glory. He looked upon the world as his parish, and though his appointed sphere of labour was the parish of Bath, Dinwiddie county, yet duty prompted him to labour in the adjoining parishes, and in "the highways and hedges," calling sinners to repentance: and he "conferred not with flesh and blood."

Under the ministry of this "servant of the Most High God," I received my first religious impressions. Until this time, I and many of his parishioners were as ignorant of the plan of salvation, by faith in Jesus Christ, as though we had never heard the gospel. The most gay and careless, and even the intemperate and profane, were ranked among his communicants. Why was such a preacher placed in this situation? compelled to "cast his pearls before swine." The doctrines were good, clearly explained, faithfully applied, and earnestly enforced. But there was no hedge about them,-no discipline to separate the precious from the vile,-no fan thoroughly to purge the floor, to gather the wheat into the garner, and blow the chaff away. Every friend to the honour of God and the prosperity of Zion, should contend for a strict administration of discipline. This will bind the children of God together, and they will "let their light so shine before men as to glorify their Father which is in heaven," and frown into silence the opposition of gainsayers.

In this way the Rev. Devereux Jarrett laboured for the promotion of "pure religion and undefiled" among his parishioners, striving and praying and looking for a revival, which would produce a change in their hearts and lives. But suddenly he was alarmed by the appearance of men who were exceedingly zealous in preaching the doctrine of baptism by immersion, proving to their own satisfaction, and that of some others, that this was the only way in which this ordinance could be religiously administered.

[The controversy on this subject, as it was conducted, had an unfriendly influence on the mind of young Mr. George. He perceived that those preachers claimed to be absolutely and exclusively right respecting their views of baptism, although in his judgment they were unable to answer the arguments urged against them. Entertaining a just veneration for the ordinance, as administered by the church in which he had been educated, and for the talents and piety of many great and good men who thus administered it, when he heard it denounced as "the relic of popery, sprung from the mother of harlots, and one of the abominations of old Babylon," it is not wonderful that an impression should have settled upon his mind, even at that early age, that "these men highly honoured themselves in thinking that they only had the key to unlock the mystery of this important sacrament;" or that he should have felt and avowed disgust at the ostentation of men of ordinary merit, assuming such high prerogatives, and demanding universal submission to their favourite tenet."

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There was another branch of controversy urged at that time, which excited his observation, and called forth a passing remark. His own words respecting those who urged it are,-"Thinking they ought to exalt the name and merits of a Saviour, and give him the entire glory of the salvation of sinners, they became Solifidians, and decried good works, lest men should trust in them for salvation. Oh! what deceivableness of unrighteousness' was here! Destroy good works, and you 'lay the axe at the root' of moral principles,and then there is an end of civil and religious society." For what doth it profit though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can such a faith save him? Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

After assigning such observations as reasons which induced him not to attend the meetings of that description, though his mind was seriously affected on the subject of religion, he proceeds with his narrative thus:-1

To return from this digression, I will now record some of the gracious dealings of God with my soul. We had no religious services either in my father's family, or in any that I visited. Our time was whiled away in fiddling and dancing. But, independently of any convictions received in church or elsewhere, I remember the visits of the Spirit of God, enlightening, melting, and alarming me, and with a contrite heart, and a conscience burdened with guilt,

and shuddering with apprehensions of eternal misery, I bowed before the Lord, and poured out my weak complaints and cries,

"Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learn'd
To form themselves in prayer."

I continued in this situation for many months, and only wanted suitable direction and encouragement. With these I should soon have found the pearl of great price. None of my acquaintances appeared to have any serious impressions; or if they had, they were concealed, as my own were. Soon after this my father removed from the neighbourhood of my old church and preacher; and having prejudices against the Baptists, and but little affection for the Methodists, I went "away from God's ordinances." The last named class of men, we were told, were an idle, lazy, enthusiastical race of tories, sent from England to sow the seeds of discord among the citizens of America; because some of their preachers, who had laboured in the colonies previously to the revolution, had left their flocks, and returned to Europe, objecting to the revolution, the oath of allegiance, &c. The Methodists were cruelly persecuted, and their enemies were furnished with weapons by some of those who had been instrumental in introducing the gospel, as held by Methodists, into North America. They wandered about almost unknowing and unknown,

"Till persecution dragg'd them into fame."

My circumstances were deplorable. Prejudiced against two sects, removed from my own church and minister, and living in the parish of an immoral clergyman, who "turned the grace of God into lasciviousness," by encouraging and participating in the amusements of the day, my religious impressions wore off; and "joining hand in hand" with others, I laboured to serve two masters, to disburden my conscience, and "live after the flesh."

At this time we heard that a certain Methodist preacher was travelling through a part of our parish and county, under whose labours hundreds were "falling down," and crying, "Sir, what must we do to be saved?" They "repented, believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and were converted." By these reports my "foolish heart" was hardened and “darkened." It was my delight to invent satirical epithets for these men, by which I and my companions were amused. In this way I continued to resist God, having founded my opinion on common report, (which, like poetry, takes great licenses,) until my father and stepmother were among the hearers of that venerable, holy, and useful minister, known to thousands in the south of Virginia, John Easter. In this case, as in all others, I took the liberty, during their absence, of preparing some "biting sarcasms" against the preacher and people, and their practice, that we might enjoy a momentary satisfaction in ridiculing them. Having placed myself in a favourable situation, the moment they entered I commenced my attack, but had scarcely finished the first sentence,

before I was checked by the looks and voice of my father. "Sir," said he, "let me never hear any thing of that nature escape your lips again." This serious and weighty reproof affected me, and induced me to think that my father was disposed to become religious. Under this impression, I accompanied the family for the first time to a Methodist meeting, and the chapel was so crowded in this gracious visitation, that it was difficult to obtain a seat. But as I was small, I got one, and fixed myself to hear. In a few minutes the worship was begun by singing and prayer. I was still careless. The preacher on that day was not the "Son of Thunder,” John Easter, but one who addressed us in a plain, argumentative way, with little effect; but when Mr. E. spoke, his word was clothed with power, and the astonished multitude trembled, and many fell down and cried aloud. Some fell near me, and one almost on me; and when I attempted to fly, I found myself unable. When my consternation subsided, I collected all my strength and resolution, and left my friends and the family, determining never to be seen at a Methodist meeting again. In this I was defeated. My father and his family, with many of my friends, remained in the assembly, while I "fled from the presence of the Lord;" and they determined to seek "and taste the heavenly gift, and be made partakers of the Holy Ghost." On the next day there was to be another meeting in our vicinity, and as the people passed our house, one and another said to me, "Come, and let us go up to the house of the Lord," and hear this awful messenger of truth. I replied to their entreaties and inquiries by surly negatives; but my father interposed his authority, and commanded my attendance. I made no resistance, but went, intending to steel my heart against conviction; and by engaging my mind with "trifles light as air," to quiet the clamours of a guilty conscience. I was unwilling to get religion in such a noise. However, it pleased God on this day "to open my eyes, and turn me from darkness to light," by the ministry of the word; and I was willing to become a Christian in "the way of the Lord." Day and night I cried for mercy, and when we had a meeting in the neighbourhood which continued four days, at two different churches, my "weary and heavy laden" soul found some "rest" but when I proved myself, I found it a sunny spot on the waste of desolation, a gleam of light in the darkness which covered me. "Like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove; mine eyes failed with looking upward: O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me. What shall I say?"

"I the chief of sinners am,

But Jesus died for me!"

In this disconsolate state I wandered from meeting to meeting, and from valley to valley, "seeking rest, finding none," and almost ready to yield to despair, yet resolved never to renounce my hope of mercy, while it was written, "The Lord will provide," and "His mercy endureth for ever." On one sabbath, while thus "tossed