after God, if, haply, they might find him; yet to esteem themselves dead and to abide the good time when, unless predestinated to eternal wrath, the mysterious Spirit would give them life and open their eyes to the beauties of the Saviour.” When John was in his twelfth year the migratory spirit again seized George Smith, who determined to plunge into the wilderness once more, with a view of securing cheap lands and providing for the future of his growing family. Having sold his Tennessee farm, he set out, in the autumn of 1795, accompanied by John and an older brother, on the trail that led across the Cumberland Mountains in the unsettled territory of Kentucky, in search of a “goodly spot where he might build a cabin, plant a patch of corn, and prepare as well as he could for the family” that was to join him in the coming summer. In the new home the life of the boy continued its developments along such lines as its rude surroundings stimulated. Of work there was plenty, and from his daily tasks he never shrank. Of opportunity for intellectual development there was none, and the thirst of the ambitious youth was unquenched. At this period John Smith’s spiritual nature gave promise of being as untamed as the forest that surrounded his home. Unhallowed sports crept into the backwoods. Sunday horse races and card-playing became the pastime of the young men. For the latter John had a fondness, and would creep away on Sundays to spend the day with idle companions in his favorite game; but the grief and patience of the father at last touched his heart, and he threw away his cards, saying, “It is wrong to distress so good a father as ours; it is a sin and a shame!” SOUL STRUGGLES This proved to be the turning point in the young man’s career, and with it came the question of religion demanding his consideration. Indeed the subject had been kept before him in some form from his earliest recollection. But the doctrine taught at that time was not very attractive to young hearts. Calvinism in its severest type was prevalent. It taught a “hell of the most appalling type, into which even little children might be cast; an unalterable destiny for every one, regardless of his conduct or his creed, as God might have chosen him for heaven or doomed him to hell before he was born; a dread uncertainty that rested on his fate; his utter inability to understand the Scriptures, to believe or repent, to love God or to obey him, until endued with power from on high; the necessity of some supernatural sign or sensation, some miraculous voice or vision, as an evidence of pardon and acceptance with God.”