my
son. We embraced,--we wept. We were spared--the whole of our family were
spared, thank God--for better days, and for a happier lot.

11. There were other events which befell me while I was in Nebraska,
that had a salutary influence on my mind. I was frequently in the
greatest danger, and was as frequently preserved from harm. As I have
said, I slept three nights with a rattlesnake within three inches of my
breast. My eldest son slept repeatedly in the same terrible position;
yet we both escaped unhurt. Once I was within an inch--within a hair's
breadth, I may say--of being killed by the kick of a horse. On another
occasion, when my eldest son was forking hay in the field, and I was
piling it on the wagon, he heard a rattlesnake, and looked all round
upon the ground to find it, with a view to kill it, but looked in vain.
At length, turning his eyes upwards, he saw it writhing and wriggling on
one of the prongs of his hayfork, which he was holding up in the air. He
had pierced the deadly creature while forking the hay, and I had taken
the hay from the fork with my naked hands, and escaped unbitten. I had
quite a multitude of escapes from deadly peril, some more remarkable
than those I have described. And there were times when the thoughts of
those wonderful deliverances made me feel, that there were far more
incredible doctrines than that of a watchful and gracious Providence.

12. Again. When I commenced my career of religious exploration, I
expected I should get rid of all difficulties, and that I should reach a
region at last where all would be light; where there would be no more
harassing or perplexing mysteries. For a time my hopes appeared to get
realized. The doctrines of Calvinism I threw away in mass, and thus got
rid of the difficulties connected with predestination, election and
reprobation. The difficulties connected with infinite and absolute
fore-knowledge I got rid of by modifying and limiting the doctrine. Many
theological difficulties appeared to arise, not from the doctrines of
Scripture, but from anti-christian fictions, and false theories of
Scripture doctrines. These I set aside without much ceremony. But when
one difficulty was disposed of, another made its appearance, and in some
cases several. And when I got outside the religion of Christ, more
difficulties than ever made their appearance, and difficulties often of
a more appalling character. The doctrine of predestination came back in
the shap