up the plan, and have never had reason
to regret having done so.

The public means of grace by which I could be benefited were very few.
Though I went regularly to church when I did not preach myself, yet I
scarcely ever heard the truth; for there was no enlightened clergyman in
the town. And when it so happened that I could hear Dr. Tholuck, or any
other godly minister, the prospect of it beforehand, and the looking
back upon it afterwards, served to fill me with joy. _Now and then I
walked ten or fifteen miles to enjoy this privilege._

Another means of grace which I attended, besides the Saturday-evening
meetings in brother Wagner's house, was a meeting every Lord's-day
evening with the believing students, six or more in number, increased,
before I left Halle, to about twenty. In these meetings, one or two, or
more, of the brethren prayed, and we read the Scriptures, sang hymns,
and sometimes also one or another of the brethren spoke a little in the
way of exhortation, and we read also such writings of godly men as were
calculated for edification. I was often greatly stirred up and refreshed
in these meetings; and twice, being in a backsliding state, and
therefore cold and miserable, I opened my heart to the brethren, and was
brought out of that state through the means of their exhortations and
prayers.

As to the other means of grace, I would say, I fell into the snare into
which so many young believers fall, the reading of religious books in
preference to the Scriptures. I read tracts, missionary papers, sermons,
and biographies of godly persons. I never had been at any time of my
life in the habit of reading the Holy Scriptures. When under fifteen
years of age, I occasionally read a little of them at school; afterwards
God's precious book was entirely laid aside, so that I never read one
single chapter of it till it pleased God to begin a work of grace in my
heart. Now the scriptural way of reasoning would have been: God himself
has consented to be an author, and I am ignorant about that precious
book, which his Holy Spirit has caused to be written through the
instrumentality of his servants, and it contains that which I ought to
know, the knowledge of which will lead me to true happiness; therefore I
ought to read again and again this most precious book of books, most
earnestly, most prayerfully, and with much meditation; and in this
practice I ought to continue all the days of my life. But instead of
acting