My Early Experience.


I CANNOT recollect when I did not want to be

a Christian. At the age of four years I told

my mother that when I got to be a man, I was

going to be a preacher. "Why do you want

to be a preacher?" she asked. Said I, "Because,

preachers are good men, and I want to be good."

I thought ministers were never tempted, but in

 this I have found myself greatly mistaken. But I

 never changed my mind with regard to trying to

 be a good man, or a minister.

At the age of fourteen I began in earnest to seek

the salvation of my soul. I left my wicked 

playmates and united with a church. My former

 companions now forsook me, and pointed the 

finger of scorn at me. They said every thing evil 

of me that they could. One of my former 

associates met me one day as I was returning

 from the prayer-meeting, and swore that he was

 going to pound my religion out of me. With that

 he commenced beating  and kicking me, and 

pulling my hair. I do not know but that he would

 have hurt me very much, if his comrades had not

 pulled him off from me. Many said that I would 

backslide in a few days.

Some said that I was too young to know anything

about religion; but I tried to live near the Lord,

and enjoyed many happy seasons that no one

 besides myself knew any thing of. I learned by  

experience that it was good to hold communion

 with God when no eye was looking upon me, nor

 any ear was open to my cries but that of my

Father in heaven.

Elder M., the minister under whose labors I

joined the church, did all he could to help me

 along.

He often invited me to go with him to his 

appointments, especially when he was going to

 preach on some disputed point. He spent much

 of his time in teaching me to argue. He boasted

 that he was going to make a great man of me.

In about one year from the time I joined the

church, a protracted meeting commenced in the

neighborhood, and though I was but fifteen years

old, I was an instrument in the hands of God of

bringing several of my young companions into

 the church. I have often taken six or eight of 

them into the woods and prayed with and for 

them. My young associates had great confidence

 in me, and I in them. So we lived in sweet 

harmony.

But this was not to last. Some papers containing

advent doctrines were providentially thrown

into my hands. I read them with interest. Here

I learned new truths in which I rejoiced night and

day. I embraced the first opportunity to tell my

minister what I had been learning, expecting him

to embrace the same truths and rejoice with me.

But in this I was disappointed. For instead of

praising God for the new light, as I had done, he

went to ridiculing it. But still the truth looked

good to me, and I kept talking about it to all of 

my friends. For a while I hoped many of them 

would embrace it, but in this I was also 

disappointed.




  MOSES HULL.

 



 THE minister spoken of in my last article, whom

 I had hoped would embrace the truth, turned  

against me, and told my associates to treat

me coldly, and not hear me talk on religion.

Said he to one whom I had given some papers to

read, "Burn them up or let me have them! Don't

read his papers, nor hear him talk! I will manage

Moses." So my young companions all forsook me,

and when we met they either treated me with 

cold indifference, or abused me for backsliding,

 as they called it.

Elder M. invited me to come to his house and

spend an hour or two with him, and he would 

convince  me, as he said, of my errors. So I went

 to hear him talk. Sometimes he would argue out

 of the Scriptures, at other times he would tell 

me I could be a great man if I would come back 

to the faith I had left; and at other times he 

would tell me every body had given up the 

Advent doctrine in the East. Finding all his

 efforts fruitless, he tried to work upon my

 sympathies.

Said he, "Moses, folks told me you would 

backslide, but I told them you would not, but

 alas! find that I was wrong. You are gone. I took

 you into the church and trained you, and taught

 you to argue until your equals are hard to find, 

even among ministers. Little did I think I was 

training a pup to bite me. Now you can retrace

 your steps immediately, or we will turn you out

 of the church!" I went home crying to think I 

must be turned out of the church for believing 

the Bible; but so it was; for this time I must be

 rejected. I was disfellowshipped, and my 

associates were warned against having

anything to do with me. I began to realize that

I could not "be carried to the skies on flowery 

beds of ease." I mourned and wept to think I had

 been treated so cruelly.

My father did all he could to comfort me, but I

felt as though I had met with a great loss. My

church fellowship was gone, and I was 

disgraced, although I had done nothing amiss.

 My father opened the Bible and read, "Blessed

 are ye when men shall hate you, and when they

 shall separate you from their company, and shall

 reproach you, and cast out your name as evil for

 the Son of man's sake." Luke 6:22. Said he, "Men

 have separated you from their company; they 

have cast your name out as evil. Here is the 

place for you to rejoice.

The Saviour says, Leap for joy; in this is a title to the kingdom." But I could not realize the blessing. I tried over and over again to rejoice, but every effort was in vain, until my attention was called to the next verse:

"Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy; for, 

behold, your reward is great in heaven; for in the

LIKE MANNER did their FATHERS UNTO THE 

PROPHETS."

I then began to ask the question, Am I any

better than the prophets? They suffered more

 than I have or perhaps ever will. Shall I refuse

 their company? Weeping Jeremiah prophesied 

with his feet fast in the stocks, while they have 

only separated me from their company, and cast

 my name out as evil. Then the blessing came. If

 my former brethren rejoiced to get rid of me, I

 rejoiced to think that I was worthy to suffer

 for the truth.

I would have given the world, had it been mine,

to have had my enemies know how sweet God's

blessings were at that time. I praise God that

there is suffering in the way to the kingdom.





MOSES HULL.