the object of the work before you.

At an early period, when I was little more than sixteen years of age, I
became a member of the Methodist society. Before I was twenty I became a
local preacher. Before I was twenty-three I became a travelling
preacher; and after I had got over the first great difficulties of my
calling, I was happy in my work; as happy as a mortal man need wish to
be. It was my delight to read good books, to study God's Word and works,
and to store my mind with useful knowledge. To preach the Gospel, to
turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, and
to promote the instruction and improvement of God's people were the joy
and rejoicing of my soul. There were times, and those not a few, when I
could sing with Wesley--

"In a rapture of joy my life I employ,
The God of my life to proclaim:
'Tis worth living for this, to administer bliss
And salvation in Jesus's name."

And I was very successful in my work. I never travelled in a circuit in
which there was not a considerable increase of members, and in one place
where I was stationed, the numbers in church-fellowship were more than
doubled in less than eighteen months.

In those days it never once entered my mind that I could ever be
anything else but a Christian minister: yet in course of time I ceased
to be one; ceased to be even a Christian. I was severed first from the
Church, and then from Christ, and I wandered at length far away into the
regions of doubt and unbelief, and came near to the outermost confines
of eternal night. And the question arises,