Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
It pleased God to pour out on me the spiri of prayer and the grace of supplication,
so that in loud acclamations I was enabled to praise and glorify his most holy name.
When I got out of the cabin, and told some of the people what the Lord had done for
me, alas! who could understand me or believe my report! None but to whom the arm
of the Lord was revealed. I became a barbarian to them in talking of the love of Christ:
his name was to me as ointment poured forth; indeed it was sweet to my soul, but to
them a rock of oence. I thought my case singular, and every hour a day until I came
to London, for I much longed to be with some to whom I could tell of the wonders of
God’s love towards me, and join in prayer to him whom my soul loved and thirsted
after. I had uncommon commotions within, such as few can tell aught[4] about. Now
the Bible was my only companion and comfort; I prized it much, with many thanks
to God that I could read it for myself, and was not lost to be tossed about or led by
man’s devices and notions. The worth of a soul cannot be told.—May the Lord give
the reader an understanding in this. Whenever I looked into the Bible I saw things
new, and many texts were immediately applied to me with great comfort; for I knew
that to me was the word of salvation sent. Sure I was that the Spirit which indited
the word opened my heart to receive the truth of it as it is in Jesus—that the same
Spirit enabled me to act with faith upon the promises which were precious to me,
and enabled me to believe to the salvation of my soul. By free grace I was persuaded
that I had a part and lot in the rst resurrection, and was enlightened with the ‘light
of the living,’ Job xxxiii. 30. I wished for a man of God, with whom I might converse;
my soul was like the chariots of Aminadab, Canticles vi. 12. These, among others,
were the precious promises that were so powerfully applied to me:
All thing whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive,
—Matt. xxi. 22.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you,
—John xiv. 27.
I saw the blessed Redeemer to be the fountain of life, and the well of salvation. I
experienced him to be all in all; he had brought me by a way that I knew not, and he
had made crooked paths straight. Then in his name I set up his Ebenezer, saying,
Hitherto he had helped me: and could say to the sinners about me, Behold what a
Saviour I have! Thus I was, by the teaching of that all glorious Deity, the great One
in Three, and Three in One, conrmed in the truths of the Bible; those oracles of
everlasting truth, on which every soul living must stand or fall eternally, agreeable
to Acts iv. 12.
Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved, but only Jesus Christ.
May god give the reader a right understanding in these facts!
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