About the seventeenth year of my age, I was put an apprentice to learn the trade of a house carpenter and joiner, and this by no means placed me in a more favourable situation than before; for my master, although considered an orderly man, and one who frequently attended Friends’ meetings, was yet in an eager pursuit after temporal riches, and was of but little use to me in my religious improvement. We had to go from place to place, as our business called, to attend to our work, and I was thereby introduced into hurtful company, and learned to dance and to pursue other frivolous and vain amusements. During my apprenticeship I passed through many trials and much exposure; and I have often thought, that had it not been for the interposition of divine mercy and goodness, I should have fallen a prey to the varied temptations which surrounded me; for although I was overtaken in many faults, in which my poor soul was deeply wounded, and for which I afterwards felt the just indignation of an offended God, yet when I have looked back on this scene of my life, and recounted the many snares that I escaped, all that is truly sensible within me has been bowed in humble admiration of the Lord’s mercies and deliverance; and in reverent gratitude, I was made to praise and magnify his great and adorable name, “who is over all. God blessed for ever.” In the midst of my vanity and exposure, the Lord, as a gracious father, was often near; and when I was alone, he inclined my mind to solid meditations.--Some of my leisure hours were occupied in reading the Scriptures, in which I took considerable delight, and it tended to my real profit and religious improvement. My youthful companions would often endeavour to persuade me and each other, that the amusements, in which we spent much of our precious time, were innocent; yet being very early convinced by the divine light that its teachings were truth, it had, in my calmer moments, an ascendency in my mind over all the reasonings and persuasions of men. Nevertheless, I had such a proneness to levity and self-gratification, that I often ran counter to clear conviction, and went on for a considerable time, sinning and repenting; for the Lord in great mercy had regard to me in my tried condition, and often opened a door of reconciliation to my poor soul. But I was too weak to keep my covenants in the midst of so many temptations, until by his righteous judgments, mixed with adorable mercy, he opened to my mind, in a very clear manner, the danger I was in of falling into eternal ruin.