be peculiar. The question came with force: _Are you willing to be peculiar for God?_ My spirit seemed to be willing, but the flesh rebelled. I thought much of my good name. Now I saw, that to be a _real_ child of God, was to suffer and bear reproach. O, how I writhed in agony. What! to have my good name cast out as evil, _to be misunderstood_, considered as _filth_, rejected of men. Here was _dying_; this was _painful_, to bring all my powers to submit to the will of God. I thought, when I was converted that I had given all to him; but here was something that I did not see at that time. I had commenced a pilgrimage, and had no disposition to go back. I had left _Sodom_, and still the command was ringing in my ears, “_Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed_.” As the light was shining upon me, _and the way_, and after much wrestling in prayer, not only my will responded to the will of God, but I could say all through me-- “Lord, obediently I’ll go, Gladly leaving all below.” After this my peace flowed like a river. “Jesus all the day long Was my joy and my song.” I lived in a heavenly atmosphere, far above the common walks of life. Glory to God and the Lamb forever! for a salvation that has _life_ and _peace_ and _joy in the Holy Ghost_, amen! and amen! The fire burns while I write--bless the Lord! I believed that Jesus saved me from _all_ my sins. I did not understand the nature of inbred sin. I had felt nothing but love to God and all mankind. _The roots of old depravity had not yet been disturbed, hence I did not believe they existed._ I was soon to be tested upon this point. Soon after my conversion I had placed in my hands several works on holiness: Wesley, Wallace, Foster, and Mrs. Palmer. On examining these books I felt that I had got in the _first_ blessing all they claimed for the _second_. I was soon to learn that justification, though clear and positive, _did not remove the roots of bitterness_, the remains of the carnal mind.