FIRST CONVERSATION.


The first time I saw _Brother Lawrence_, was upon the 3d of August,
1666. He told me that GOD had done him a singular favor, in his
conversion at the age of eighteen.

That in the winter, seeing a tree stripped of its leaves, and
considering that within a little time the leaves would be renewed and
after that the flowers and fruit appear, he received a high view of
the Providence and Power of GOD, which has never since been effaced
from his soul. That this view had perfectly set him loose from the
world, and kindled in him such a love for GOD, that he could not tell
whether it had increased during the more than forty years he had lived
since.

That he had been footman to M. Fieubert, the treasurer, and that he
was a great awkward fellow who broke everything.

That he had desired to be received into a monastery, thinking that he
would there be made to smart for his awkwardness and the faults he
should commit, and so he should sacrifice to GOD his life, with its
pleasures: but that God had disappointed him, he having met with
nothing but satisfaction in that state.

That we should establish ourselves in a sense of GOD'S Presence, by
continually conversing with Him. That it was a shameful thing to quit