By these processes of reasoning, in the course of some two years, I found a congenial home in the Methodist Church, at first with some trepidation, but soon afterwards with perfect satisfaction. While this change in church relations involved quite a radical change in matters of ecclesiastical organization and polity, it must be kept in mind that it _did not_ involve any material change in matters of fundamental theology. But let it be noted here that during all this time I was striving for some degree of religious liberty; and in passing from the Baptist to the Methodist Church, I was at least making some progress towards it, however small it might be. To shorten my story, in a few months I found myself a "circuit rider" in the Louisiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South--(I was born and reared in the "pine hills" of Mississippi). It is not necessary to go into any lengthy details concerning my work at this time, beyond the fact that I was fairly successful in it, and for the time being, I found it eminently satisfactory and fairly pleasant to myself. However, under the workings of the itinerant system, in a few years I found myself located in the state of Missouri, where I transferred my church relations to the St. Louis Conference of the M. E. Church. This change involved nothing but a matter of personal choice and convenience. CHAPTER III NEW VISIONS AND DISTURBANCES Having thus changed my church relations, and feeling that I had a greater field of usefulness open to me, my zeal for efficiency and success increased. I had a sincere and consuming desire to "save men's souls." And believing my creed to be as infallible as the Bible upon which it was based, I studied to make myself efficient and able in its defense. By following the ordinary methods of interpretation, I soon found no trouble in doing this. Does the reader inquire here what are the "ordinary methods of interpretation"? Taking a chapter, or verse, or paragraph of the Bible here and there, thru the whole book, from Genesis to Revelation, and weaving them together as a connected whole, regardless of whether there is any natural connection between them or not; then disposing of all contradictory passages as either "figurative,"--with unlimited latitude on the interpretation of the "figures,"--or as pertaining to those "great and mysterious, unknowable things of God's divine revelation,"--mysteries too great for man to know! This method of interpretation is the common practice, to a greater or less extent, of every church in Christendom that accepts the doctrine of the infallibility of the Bible, and looks to it as its sole and final source of authority in religion. There is not a creed in Christendom today, and never has been, that cannot be supported and proved to be conclusively correct from the Bible by this method of interpretation. By the same method the Bible can be made the