a loss, or so magnificent a gain, the throne of grace was all his
hope, that he might be guided by that counsel that cannot err, and
that should eventually insure his reception to eternal glory.

While in this inquiring state, he experienced much doubt and
uncertainty arising from the apparent confidence of many professors.
In his own esteem he appeared to be thoroughly humbled; and when
he lighted on that passage--'To one is given by the spirit the word
of wisdom, to another, knowledge, and to another, faith' (1 Cor
12:8,9), his solemn inquiry was, how it happened that he possessed
so little of any of these gifts of wisdom, knowledge, or faith--more
especially of faith, that being essential to the pleasing of God.
He had read (Matt 21:21), 'If ye have faith and doubt not, ye shall
say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into
the sea; it shall be done'; and (Luke 17:6), 'If ye had faith as a
grain of mustard seed, ye might say to this sycamore tree, Be thou
plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and it shall
obey you'; and (1 Cor 13:2), 'Though I have all faith, so that I
could remove mountains.' The poor tinker, considering these passages
in their literal import, imagined they were meant as tests to try
whether the believer possessed faith or not. He was a stranger to
the rules of Hebrew rhetoric; nor did he consider that they were
addressed to the apostles, who had the power to work miracles. He
had no idea that the removing a mountain, or planting a sycamore
tree in the sea, were figures of speech conveying to us the fact
that, aided by faith, mountainous difficulties might and would be
overcome. Anxious for some ocular demonstration that he had faith,
he almost determined to attempt to work a miracle--not to convert
or confirm the faith of others, but to satisfy his own mind as to
his possessing faith. He had no such magnificent idea as the removal