in that town on Bishop Colenso's work on the Pentateuch. I was present.
When he had done, he invited me in the kindest way imaginable to speak.
I had heard next to nothing in the lecture to which I could object, but
much that I could heartily approve and applaud. To all that he had said
in praise of the Bible I could subscribe most heartily. Indeed I felt
that the Bible was worthy of more and higher praise than he had bestowed
on it, and I expressed myself to that effect. The meeting altogether was
a very pleasant one, except to a number of unbelievers, who were
dreadfully vexed at my remarks in commendation of the Bible. I saw Mr.
Williams repeatedly afterwards, and his kind and interesting
conversation, and his very gentlemanly and Christian demeanor, had
always a beneficial effect on my mind.

10. One of the first to express a conviction that I should become a
Christian was an American lady, whom I sometimes saw in London. She had
herself been an unbeliever, but had been cured of her skepticism by
spiritualism. She was then a Catholic. She gave me a medal of the Virgin
Mary, and entreated me to wear it round my neck. To please her I
promised to do so. But the medal disappeared before long, and what
became of it I never could tell; but my friend had the satisfaction to
see her prophecy fulfilled in my happy return to Christianity.

11. An acquaintance which I formed with the Rev. W. Newton, of
Newcastle-on-Tyne, must also be reckoned among the things which exerted
an influence on my mind favorable to Christianity. Mr. Newton had been a
Baptist in his earlier days, but getting into perplexity with regard to
certain doctrines, he became a Unitarian. He came to feel however, in
course of time, that something more than Unitarianism was necessary to
the satisfaction of his soul, and to the salvation of the world; and at
the time that I became acquainted with him, he had made up his mind to
leave the Unitarians. On my way to the far-off regions of unbelief, I
had passed through the Unitarian territory; and I passed through the
same territory, or near to its border, on my return to Christianity; and
had it not been for my interviews with Mr. Newton, and a somewhat
startling event or two that occurred about that period, I might have
lingered for a time in that cold and hungry land. Mr. Newton helped to
quicken my steps, and I moved onward, and rested not, till I found my
way back to the paradise, or a garden that very much r