that they may be compelled to look upwards alone.

My parents, without being properly acquainted either with themselves or the Lord Jesus, were at least outwardly very pious, and were, so to speak, compelled by necessity, to cleave to the Lord, and expect assistance from him. They took a pleasure in devout meditations, and regularly went to church, although the word of God was not preached in its purity; for they themselves had no correct idea of it. They taught me a number of prayers by rote, and obliged me to repeat them every morning and evening. But they knew very little themselves of a serious repentance, a regeneration of the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, and of a real and active faith in the Saviour, in newness of life; and hence they were unable to tell me anything about it. They had never seen a true Christian, nor heard a truly Christian ser

mon.

The preacher, it is true, told the people what they ought to do, and leave undone, in order to please God; he warned them against gross sins and vices, and exhorted them to the practice of virtue; but he made

it appear as if a man could do all this in his own strength, and needed no conversion nor any renovation by the Spirit of God. He was never heard to speak of the unfathomable corruption of the human heart; of redemption by the crucified and risen Saviour; or of the righteousness of faith, and the necessity of regeneration. The people in that part of the country spent their lives in universal darkness; and it entered into the mind of no one, that in order to be saved a thorough and complete change must take place in the soul. They were, at the same time, much afraid of being disturbed in their false security; and when their consciences were awakened by the power of the word of God, and accused them, they regarded it as a temptation, by which the adversary of souls was attempting to seduce them from their established faith. But the latter was only an outward faith-a belief of the head and the memory, and not of the heart. They thought that if they accepted as truth what was contained in the Bible and the Catechism, and did not doubt of it-that this was the true faith. When they wished to be very pious, they

exerted themselves to live outwardly moral, according to the law: however, few of them took even this trouble; the most of them lived in a very careless manner, and thought within themselves, “Our faith is of the right kind; God will therefore save us, even though we often do what is wrong." I was not taught any better: however, I owe my parents many thanks, for they told me everything as well as they knew it themselves, and they were quite in earnest to render me pious. But this is not in the power of the most well-meaning parents to accomplish; it can be effected by God alone; and if he had not had pity upon me, I should have perished notwithstanding all this.

When I was six years old, I was able to read Swedish well, and soon after, to write it also. You must not, however, suppose that this was the result of close attention at school, for in that part of the country there are no schools. The parents themselves instruct their children to read a little, or take some one for a few weeks into the house, to give instruction to the children. My father was glad that he could himself read and

write, and instructed me in these two important arts, for the acquisition of which I had a great desire. When he saw that I gave him so little trouble, and so easily understood every thing, he was greatly pleased, and would gladly have sent me to a large school in Carlstadt, and even to the university; but of this there was no hope; he would not have been able to have met the expense, since he found it difficult enough to earn the daily bread for the family by the labour of his hands. When I was once able to read alone, I sought for books with great avidity, for those which were in the house I had soon read through; but with the exception of old prayer books, and volumes of sermons, there was little enough to be found. However, it was very fortunate for me, that such an early opportunity was afforded me for learning, which is very rarely the case with children in that neighbourhood, as I shall subsequently have to relate; for as soon as I grew a little older, I was obliged to employ myself in all kinds of manual labour, and the pleasing time for learning was over.

In this manner I reached my tenth year.

A great famine then arose, similar to that in which the prodigal son longed to eat of the husks of the carob, which are given to the swine, and we were compelled to live upon the bark of trees and other coarse fare, that we might not die of hunger. We had indeed often been obliged to resort to this species of food, when we had no money to buy better. But this time it was more grevious than ever; for even if we had had money, no bread could have been procured, and the wretched food appeared daily on the table. You have probably never eaten bread composed of the bark of trees, chaff, and a little bran; and would reject it with disgust, if it were given you to eat; we were, however, glad at that time to have enough of such bread. But because there was even a want of this, my father could no longer keep me with him; and I felt happy, when a farmer made me the offer, in the beginning of the summer, to remove to his house and tend, his flocks; for there I might hope to have at least bread to eat.

My good mother accompanied me a part of the way, as far as her weakness per