and lies at the bottom of the ocean. Joshua was the youngest of the family,
the almost idol of his parents, and of a house full of lusty sisters, who
vied with one another which should teach him most and secure most of
his confidence. So he lived on until nearly thirty a bachelor. Such
opportunities as were afforded the common farmers' boys of New England in
the eighteenth century young Joshua diligently improved, and became a close
student, and well qualified as a teacher of common schools of his day. His
specialties were mathematics, penmanship, bookkeeping, business science
and forms, and navigation. And he continued to do more or less in this
profession until fifty years of age. He was converted among the first
fruits of Methodist labors in that part of New England.

Then, every Methodist studied closely into her doctrines, and this young
man became qualified to state clearly, and ably defend, all that was
peculiar to that Church. The cast of his mind was logical, candid,
patient--he was never inclined to hasty conclusions. He loved to dig
deep, collect strong evidence, and wait till conclusions were sound and
inevitable.

His brethren soon marked him for the ministry, and so advised; but, with
his great modesty and high opinions of a divine call, he was not then, and
never was, satisfied that he had such an essential individual commission.
Without a full consciousness of duty in the line of that awful
responsibility, this pious young man refused to look in that direction. He,
however, cherished a high sense of the honor involved in the confidence
of the Church, and felt impelled to lay himself out to do his best as a
private member.

Under the ministry of such able Methodist preachers as Asbury, Jesse
Lee, and George Roberts, young Joshua had imbibed the main doctrines of