influence. But life to him was no longer what it had been in the past.
With the poet, he had found that

"Life is real! life is earnest.
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest
Was not spoken of the soul."


He procured a Bible and studied it diligently. He soon found that it was
a wonderful book, for what troubled him in one part was explained in
another. One day while reading in the tenth chapter of Mark, he found
to his surprise that, instead of his being a man, he was only a child,
a mere babe, in God's sight. John had expected to be changed and to be
different in every way, but he did not know that, in order to realize
his desire to be a "man after God's own heart," he must commence at the
beginning and be as a little child again. But he was willing; for he saw
how his past life had been completely wasted, and he was glad to begin
anew.

In the second chapter of I Peter, John found much encouragement, also in
I Cor. 13:11, where he read: "When I was a child, I thought as a child:
but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Again he was
determined to become a man, and to develop as quickly as possible. From
that time on he availed himself of every opportunity to do good to all
mankind, and this was no hardship. His great whole-hearted nature made
him love to do good and to be a help to all who were in need.

At other times John read the conversation between Christ and Nicodemus,
and the account of how Jesus thanked his heavenly Father for hiding His