In the progress of years I came to instruct some of the most vigorous and active minds I ever saw, both in mental science and in the interpretation of the Bible, and thus gradually evolved and applied "the principles of reason and rules of interpretation" in this work. The results will mainly appear in what follows. Up to this time, my feelings toward God (except sometimes when praying, as above described) were that, as He has said he was wise, and just, and good, I would take his word for it, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, and feel and act as he required as far as I had power. My service, however, was much like that of a slave to a hard master. If "the _fear_ of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," I certainly began aright. But the whole force of my being was turned, not toward Him, but toward my lost, and suffering, and darkened fellow-beings. And when all my darkness was removed, and by a simple intellectual process of argumentation I drew from His Holy Word all my soul had longed for, my chief joy was, not that I was safe, not that I could feel emotions of love to Him, but that _He felt as I did_ for this all-absorbing purpose and end of my existence--to save my fellow-men. Some minds seem to begin religious life with such emotions of love to the Creator as makes it easy to carry out the purpose to obey him. In my case, I began with the cool intellectual purpose to obey him, while it was _love_, not to Him, but to my fellow-men, that made it easy to carry out this purpose of obedience. But, in both cases, was it not the _spirit of obedience_ that was the grand requisite? The _all-controlling purpose of acting right_, by obeying all the laws of the Creator as discovered by the light of Nature, or by His revealed Word--is not _this_ the distinctive feature that marks the "_regenerated_" soul?