lieved from the anxieties, cares, and troubles of this world, the reverse was my lot. For," continued he, "I have had more trouble and pecuniary embarrassments during the last five years, than all the rest of my life put together." And I suppose it was true; for the constable and the sheriff were daily at his elbows, teasing him for money. The burning of his mill, the fall of property, and the depreciation of currency, had so embarrassed his possessions, and left him as poor a man as the humble guest he was then entertaining.

And here I learned a salutary lesson, viz., that it is not all gold that glitters, and that those are not always the richest that live in the greatest houses or own the largest farms. O, how mistaken is the judgment of this world concerning the things that make for our peace! I can now truly say with the poet, "Give me Jesus-give me Jesus-and you may have all the world besides." The evening passed away pleasantly.

The next day was the Sabbath, and the colonel being an Episcopalian, all bowed the knee around the family altar while he read a prayer, concluding with the "Lord's prayer," in which all the family joined. His negro slaves, of both sexes, were all set free from Christmas till New-Year. This is a custom throughout Virginia and Maryland. It is their annual jubilee. Those who are not religiously inclined, generally pass their time in frolicking, dancing, getting married, &c. And so I left them,

in the full belief that the negroes enjoyed the greatest happiness, and the greatest slave on the plantation was the noble and generous-hearted colonel himself; that is, of the two great evils of slavery for the time being, the colonel was the most harassed. An honest man to be in debt without any thing to pay, is, as it has been said, like a cat being in hell without claws. I know how to pity him. These were fetters, however, that his own ambitious hand had placed upon his own freedom; but not so with the poor negroes; they were doomed to wear their chains perhaps until death should sign their release. It is a rare thing that the slave finds so kind a master as Colonel C. Something like the family in which Uncle Tom and Aunt Chloe found a birthplace until the extravagance of Mr. Shelby, the sure forerunner of poverty, turned Uncle Tom out of his paradise, and he was doomed to run the gauntlet of hell, with one or two exceptions, until death signed his release. This picture of slavery, in all its phases, has been so perfectly portrayed before the eye of the public by Mrs. H. B. Stowe, that I will not daub the painting with my unskilful brush, but my soul says Amen to her sentiment. So I soon found myself with my family at Kinderhook mills. So much for that visit.

I think about this time I was almost as far from God as I ever was. Having regained my health, I was determined, in spite of everything, to make some money out of the job. When stern Justice

said, "Cut him down; why cumbereth he the ground? Has he not been called, from time to time, both by general and special providences, to turn and seek the Lord? Has he not mocked God with vain promises? Has he not, for more than thirty years, trampled under foot the prayers and tears of a pious mother, whose constant anxiety was that her only child might become a Christian? Has he not sinned against light and knowledge continually? Why not number him with all the nations that forget God?"-While this was the cry of Justice, Mercy cried, "O, spare him a little longer!" Glory to God! It was because Jesus had not left the mercy-seat-had not yet ceased pleading my cause, showing his bleeding hands and side to the Father, praying that another effort might be made for my salvation-that I am now the spared monument of his amazing mercy! The Father, looking upon his Anointed, granted the petition, and glory be to his holy name, "whose mercy endureth forever."

And now the last blessed and effectual effort was, to drop a dark curtain before me and totally exclude me from the sight of all sublunary and transitory things. My sight began then, very gradually, to leave me, and that without the least pain. The next Sabbath, being New-Year, I drove in my carriage to Hedgesville, a distance of about eleven miles, and heard the Rev. John A. Collins preach, at a quarterly meeting. He was the last

man I ever saw in a pulpit. My desires were somewhat awakened, under his preaching, to seek the Lord; and before I returned home, I purchased a large family Bible. I opened it, and by looking very close, was able to read one verse, and that, I think, was the last I ever read. I drove my horse within a mile of home, but my sight failed so fast, that my wife was unwilling to ride so any farther. But she not being acquainted with driving herself, we took the horses from the carriage and went home without it. This was the last time I ever attempted to drive.

Soon after this, I had occasion to go to Baltimore. One of my workmen put a horse before my buggy to take me to Martinsburg, where I intended to take a stage. On the way, and about half the distance, we were under the necessity of fording a large creek. As we arrived at the shore, the driver said he thought the creek had risen about two feet. I concluded that if it had not risen more than that, we should be able to ford it with safety. I could now see just well enough to discover the shape of the horse between me and the sun. So we plunged into the creek, but it had risen four or five feet instead of two, and we soon found ourselves in eight or ten feet water, and that running wild as a torrent. The horse, being checked, was unable to swim, and strangling, turned a perfect somerset; and as he came up with his head towards the buggy, he came very near pulling us under. We were now all float

ing down the stream, and it was death to jump out, as no man could stand the torrent, so that all hopes of life seemed, for a time, to be cut off. O, how horror and despair rushed upon my guilty soul at that perilous and solemn moment! I cried aloud for mercy, and as a kind Providence had so ordered it, a man, on a very large horse, came to our rescue; my horse, in the meantime, having come in contact with some obstruction in the river, nobly held all at anchor.

The man on the large horse came in to our relief, and set us safely on terra-firma, while the horse was got loose from the buggy and swam ashore, leaving the buggy there. Well," says the reader, "did you not fall on your face and give thanks to that invisible Hand that snatched you from a watery grave, and as a brand from a burning hell?" With shame and confusion of face, I must tell you, that my proud heart would not suffer me to bow the knee, even under those solemn circumstances. Had no one been present but myself, I should probably have got down on my knees and expressed my deep-felt gratitude to my Deliverer. I owed my deliverance to the mercy of God. But, like Napoleon, unacquainted with retreat, I went up the creek about five miles, and crossed it on a bridge, and made my way to Baltimore. My principal business was to obtain relief for my eyes. I visited several eminent physicians, but obtained no relief, and but little encouragement from them. But hope still