they were in point, and when not. I was an adept at repeating the Catechism; but as I had no margin Bible to point out the references, I had to range through the whole scriptures, and exercise my judgment, which of course was sometimes right, and sometimes wrong. When I was shown that I had brought forward a passage that did not apply, it made me think better next time; the passages I found out I remembered where to find again; and those that were brought forward by others, I added to my own stock. This was an exercise that did me more good, than all the other exercises of the school: for, in after life, when I had forgotten the Catechism, and the other things I had committed to memory, I did not forget how to find in the Bible, those passages I had formerly known; and if I happened to be reading the Bible, and came to any of those passages that had been read in the school, it awakened in my mind the remembrance of what had taken place there. I would then recollect something of the impressions that had been made at the time on my mind, and endeavoured to remember what was said by the minister on these occasions; but I shall notice this again; in a future part of the narrative. There were rewards sometimes given to any who repeated chapters, psalms, or hymns. The most remarkable instance of this kind that took place while I was in the school, was a present by a gentleman, of Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, and Sermons to Young Persons,[1] to be given as a reward to the boy (it was a school for boys only) who repeated best, from memory, Dr. Watts' Divine Songs for Children. We received copies of the hymns, and a time was fixed for the trial. I was very eager to obtain the prize, and even made it a matter of prayer. I wished to have the book, because I had conceived to myself, that it would teach me how to get to heaven. When the day of trial came, the minister was not present, but we were heard by one of the elders. The greater part of the children were very young, and most of them had learned only a few of the hymns. There were only four that could go any length in them, and only three that could go completely through them; and their merit was so equal, that it could not be said which was best. I was one of those three; but as it could not be determined who merited the book, it was deferred until next Sabbath evening, when it was expected that the minister would be present. He came, and we repeated the hymns to him with such equal accuracy, that he declared he could not give the prize to one more than another; and to make us equal, he procured other two copies of Doddridge's Rise and Progress; but, as he could not find copies of his Sermons to Young Persons, he bound in Boston's Fourfold State in their place, and I was put in possession of one of them. I continued in the school about two years.