I would here remark, by the way, that there are many things in Scripture that were cleared up to me in this country, which before were quite unintelligible, and that circumstance rendered me so careless in reading my Bible. I shall mention one or two, which may suffice:--for instance, our Saviour says, "No man putteth new wine into old bottles, if otherwise, the bottles burst and the wine is spilled; but men put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved." Now, I was wont to think that old bottles were not worse than new ones, if they were properly cleansed; but, when I saw the bottles of the east, made of the skins of animals sewed together, and of various sizes, I formed another opinion; for I saw that after these leathern bottles were in use for some time, the seams were very apt to give way, and our Saviour's words would be realized. Another expression which puzzled me was this, "No man seweth a piece of new cloth upon an old garment, else the new piece that filled it up, _taketh away from the old_, and the rent is made worse."--With regard to this, I thought I had seen the tailor, when I was with my grandfather, making a very good job of an old coat, by mending it with new cloth; but when I saw the thin cotton garments of India, worn to a cob-web, I was then satisfied that he would be a clever artist indeed, that could sew a piece of new cotton cloth, however fine, to a spider's web, without tearing it in pieces. Once more, and I shall have done; the apostle says, in the thirteenth of First Corinthians, "Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face:" Now, I could not perceive the fitness of this figure, as people use a glass, or glasses, to enable them to see better; but when I saw the glass of the east, (and I suppose in the country and age of the apostle it was similar,) I say, when I saw the glass here, made of paste from rice-flour, blown and fired, my opinion was entirely changed, as it is quite dim, and full of white scales; so that, if persons look through it, they observe objects as the blind man did, mentioned in the gospel, who, when his sight was only in part restored, said that he saw "men like trees walking." I could bring forward many other passages, but I give you these as specimens; and, to deal plainly with you, my dear reader, I must tell you that I was very little short of a Deist before the Lord brought me here; because, as I could not see how this and the other thing could be, I in a manner rejected them as false, or at least gave myself very little concern about them; but when such things as these were made out to me, I then perceived that it was in consequence of the blindness of my mind, and not from the want of truth and evidence in the Bible, that I was not able to understand such difficulties; and, by the blessing of God, I gradually conceived a greater and a greater liking for that best of books, which alone points out to sinful men the way of salvation.