An incident that occurred some years previous made a deep impression on my mind. The ecclesiastical body with which I was connected had requested the officers of vacant churches to visit all the families in those churches, and talk and pray with them. I shrunk from the task; but encouraged by Mr. P----, I entered on it with fear and trembling. By the time the first visit was paid I felt as if I should like to spend my days in such a work. Late in the evening of my first day I stopped at a house where the man and his wife were members of our church. A young man was present who was to be married in a few days. I had some acquaintance with him, and asked him if he had ever felt any concern about his soul. He said, “A little sometimes, but not much.” I urged him to seek first the kingdom of God: and his righteousness, and said to him, “For aught you know, before another morning you may be dead, or on a sick-bed from which you may never rise.” At midnight that night he woke up sick. In a day or two I was sent for. He told me the moment he woke sick he thought of what I said, and felt that he should never get well. He lingered three months; but more than a month before he died he professed his faith in Christ. From that time till he died, he daily urged his ungodly, intemperate parents to repent and meet him in heaven. The father soon became much distressed about his soul; and a year after, he died a most triumphant death, committing his children to my care for religious instruction. Within a few years the mother and most of the children were united with God’s people. All attributed their salvation to the exhortations of that son and those of us who attended him and his father. This encouraged me to try to do more. On the morning of October 20, 1844, I rose in peace, with my happy little family around me; but a holy Providence ordered that in twelve hours my dear wife was to be in the cold embrace of death, and that her death was to be the first of a chain of providences to lead me “out into the highways and hedges.” The next Sabbath morning our pulpit was occupied by Rev. Mr. W----, who presented the moral and religious wants of our country, and tenderly appealed for laborers. At the close of the service I was introduced to him, and he accompanied me to the new-made grave of my beloved companion. The band that had bound me to my home was loosed. On Monday morning the preacher called on me again; preliminaries were arranged; and I was commissioned as colporteur for Western Virginia, consenting first to labor a short time among the colliers in Western Pennsylvania. CHAPTER II. I left home for the field of labor assigned me on the first day of November, 1844. On my way on horseback I came alongside of a young gentleman of very fine appearance. We immediately entered into conversation about the beautiful farms and fine improvements we passed.