that stage of life. I was boasting of it to a hired man,
with whom I was doing an errand, informing him that I was now "more
than half a man," and that in nine more years I would be a man, when "I
could do as I pleased." He informed me that, after all, it was not a
thing to be so proud of; that I had that day reached "the age of
accountability"; that on that day I became personally responsible to
God for my sins; that if I had died before that day I would have been
saved from hell by God's free grace, because of my infancy; but that
_from that day on_, I must account to God for myself; and that it would
be necessary for me to repent, and pray daily for the forgiveness of my
sins, lest I die and fall into the "bottomless pit" for all eternity.
This was news to me. I had never heard of before. It produced a
profound sensation in my thought; and to say it seriously troubled me
is to put it mildly. As soon as my errand was done I went to my mother
with it. She confirmed it. Then I sincerely wished I had died before
I reached that fateful day.

Another serious trouble confronted me. When told I must repent of my
sins and pray for forgiveness, I could not comprehend just what it
meant to "repent." I was told that it was "to be sorry" for my sins.

To be frank, I was not conscious of any sin. I had tried to be a good
boy; I was obedient to my parents, and did no evil to any one that I
was aware of. True, I made childish mistakes every day, as all
children do. But I could not recognize that I had been personally
sinful against God. I knew I had not meant to be. Then they told me
that I was _born_ a sinner! That when Adam ate the "forbidden fruit"
it made every person that was ever born into the world thereafter, a
sinner by nature; and I would have to repent of this sin, as well as
all that I ever committed, if I ever expected to escape the lake of
fire and brimstone "where the worm dieth not and the fire is not
quenched." My whole nature, even as a child, revolted against the
injustice of thus making me responsible for, and punishing me for
something some one else did thousands of years ago; but I had no remedy
and had to take it and prepare to repent of Adam's sin.

What a monstrous doctrine to teach a child! Can any mortal in this age
of the world believe such nonsense, or perpetrate such a caricature of
God? I wondered how the "Good Man" up in the skies on his great white
throne in his beautiful city of