In early life my mother taught me to say, "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." And when I came to riper years she taught me to read the Holy Scriptures, and they were they that were the power of God to my salvation, for in early life they were treasured up in my heart; my mother often encouraged me to read the Bible, and particularly on the Sabbath; when I was quite a small boy, she told me if I would read the Bible through by course she would give me a new one. I consequently commenced with all the eagerness of a saint and continued until I had accomplished the great work, though but a child when I commenced, early impressions made upon the tender mind while it is not clogged with the cares of the world are not easily erased from the mind. Although I was once an innocent child and sat in my mother's lap, and clung to her breast, being encircled in her arms for protection and safety, and had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression and had been dandled in the lap of paradise, yet I was born under the law and in sin did my mother conceive me. I feel to bless the Lord my God and Redeemer to-day that my parents taught me in early life to read the Scriptures, and in them I found this passage, "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." If we are made alive to Christ, then we become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ to an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. Who will not sell all for such an inheritance. Oh, young man, young lady! I ask you in the name of my Master, sell all that you have and buy the truth, the pearl of great price, and sell it not. In early life the spirit of the Lord strove with me, when but a child the tears of penitence would steal down my cheek in my wakeful moments, and I can say as did Paul, "I was _alive_ once without the law, but when the _commandments_ came, sin revived, and _I died_." Let us ask the apostle Paul what he means by _life_, by the _commandments_, by _death_. Paul, do you mean by this death, you was unconscious? Oh! now, friends; previous to this death I was persecuting the church under a mistaken notion, and had a conscience void of offense toward God and man. Then you mean, Paul, by this death, you was unhappy, and your unhappiness was brought about by the coming of the commandments, and by their being set home upon your heart with reviving energy by the Holy Spirit? Again, Paul, what do you mean by being alive once without the law? I mean I was without the word of Christ that speaketh better things than that of Abel. I was living under the Jewish dispensation, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, and acting under a mistaken faith. I verily thought I was doing God service when I was persecuting the Church. (Paul was mistaken.)