to the point I aimed at. There were the sick and the needy around us--
many of his own congregation--with whom I might reciprocate sweet
comfort, and at whose bedside I might administer the balm that should
serve them in the hardest hour of their extremity. It should be his
office to conduct me to their humble habitations: it would be
unspeakable joy to him to behold me well and usefully employed."

And it was with eagerness that I accepted the touching invitation. I was
not loth or slow to take advantage of it. To serve mankind, to evince my
gratitude for mercies great and undeserved, was all I asked. To know
that I had gratified my wish, was peace itself. Highly as I had
estimated the character of Mr Clayton, I had yet to learn his real
value. I had yet to behold him the dispenser of comfort and contentment
in the hovels of the wretched and the stricken--to see the leaden eye of
disease grow bright at his approach, and the scowl of discontent and
envious repining dissolve into equanimity, or mould itself in smiles. I
had yet to see him the kind and patient companion of the friendless and
the slighted--slighted, because poor; the untired listener to long tales
of misery--so miserable, that they who told them could not track their
dim beginnings, or fix the time in distant childhood when wretchedness
was not. I had yet to find him standing at the beggar's pallet, giving
encouragement, inciting hope, and adding to the counsel of a guide the
solid evidences of a brother's love. With what a zeal did I attempt to
follow in my patron's steps--with what enthusiasm did I begin the course
which his sanction had legalized and rendered holy--and how, without a
doubt as to my title, or a reflection on the propriety of the step,
impelled by religious fervour, did I assume the tone and authority of a
teacher, and arrogate to myself the right of determining the designs of
the Omnipotent, and of appointing the degree of holy warmth below which
no believer could be sure of forgiveness and salvation!