in my soul.

4. I wanted further to see the foundations on which my belief in God and
Christ and in the Sacred Scriptures rested, that I might be able to
justify my belief both to myself and to others. I wished to have the
fullest evidence and assurance of the truth of Christianity I could get,
that I might both feel at rest and happy myself, and be able to give
rest and comfort to the souls of others.

5. With these objects in view I set to work. I prayed to God, the Great
Father of lights, and the Giver of every good and perfect gift, to lead
me into all truth, and to furnish me to every good work. I read the
Bible with the greatest care. I searched it through and through. I
studied it daily, desirous to learn the whole scope and substance of its
teachings, on every point both of truth and duty. I marked on the margin
of the pages all those passages that struck me by their peculiar
clearness, and their fulness of important meaning. These passages I read
over again and again, till I got great numbers of them off by heart. I
gave each passage a particular mark according to the subject on which it
treated. I then copied the whole of these passages into large Note
Books, placing all that spake on any particular subject together. I also
arranged the passages so far as I was able, in their natural order, that
they might throw light on one another, and present the subject on which
they treated, in as full and intelligible a light as possible. I divided
the pages of my Note Books into two columns, placing the passages which
favored one view of a subject in the first column, and those which
seemed to favor a different view in the second. I placed in those Note
Books passages on matters of duty, as well as on matters of truth. In
this way I got nearly all the plainer and more important portions of the
Bible arranged in something like systematic order. Having done this, I
went through my Books, and put down in writing all that the passages
plainly taught, and marked the bearing of their teachings on the various
articles of my creed, with a view to bringing my creed, and the
teachings of Scripture, into agreement with each other.

6. To help me in these my labors, and to secure myself as far as
possible from serious error, I read a multitude of other books, on
almost every subject of importance, by authors of almost all varieties
of creeds. I read commentaries, sermons, bodies of divinity, and a host
of treatises on various poi