. Tell me this, boy: did this stranger, with
whom you met, adhere to the religious principles in which I have
educated you?"

"Yes, to every one of them in their fullest latitude," said I.

"Then he was no agent of the Wicked One with whom you held converse,"
said he: "for that is the doctrine that was made to overturn the
principalities and powers, the might and dominion of the kingdom of
darkness. Let us pray."

After spending about a quarter of an hour in solemn and sublime
thanksgiving, this saintly man and minister of Christ Jesus, gave out
that the day following should be kept by the family as a day of solemn
thanksgiving, and spent in prayer and praise, on account of the calling
and election of one of its members; or rather for the election of that
individual being revealed on earth, as well as confirmed in Heaven.

The next day was with me a day of holy exultation. It was begun by my
reverend father laying his hands upon my head and blessing me, and then
dedicating me to the Lord in the most awful and impressive manner. It
was in no common way that he exercised this profound rite, for it was
done with all the zeal and enthusiasm of a devotee to the true cause,
and a champion on the side he had espoused. He used these remarkable
words, which I have still treasured up in my heart: "I give him unto
Thee only, to Thee wholly, and to Thee for ever. I dedicate him unto
Thee, soul, body, and spirit. Not as the wicked of this world, or the
hirelings of a Church profanely called by Thy name, do I dedicate this
Thy servant to Thee: Not in words and form, learned by rote, and
dictated by the limbs of Antichrist, but, Lord, I give him into Thy
hand, as a captain putteth a sword into the hand of his sovereign,
wherewith to lay waste his enemies. May he be a two-edged weapon in Thy
hand and a spear coming out of Thy mouth, to destroy, and overcome, and
pass over; and may the enemies of Thy Church fall down before him, and
be as dung to fat the land!"

From the moment, I conceived it decreed, not that I should be a
minister of the gospel, but a champion of it, to cut off the enemies of
the Lord from the face of the earth; and I rejoiced in the commission,
finding it more congenial to my nature to be cutting sinners off with
the sword than to be haranguing them from the pulpit, striving to
produce an effect which God, by his act of absolute predestination, had
for ever rendered impracticable. The more I pondered on these t