Excerpt from The Lives of the Early Methodist Preachers, Vol. 4 of 6: Chiefly Written by Themselves As I was my father's first-born son, he had an uncommon affection for me, and gave me as good an education as his circumstances would allow. As I was intended for the building business, all my time was taken up in learning what was proper to fit me for that employment, especially, architecture. When I was about fifteen years of age, I was sent to Hull, to learn my business with a brother-in-law. I was then remarkably serious, loved retirement, and kept no company, but went to the church constantly, and met on Sunday evenings with a society of well disposed people, in the vestry-room of the High Church. Whether these people were acquainted with the power of godliness, I know not, as I was then an entire stranger to everything of that kind myself; nor do I remember that any particular im pressions, of a Spiritual nature, were made upon my mind; only I thought, This is the way to serve God, and get safe to heaven. Indeed, I judged myself to be a very good Christian, and had not a doubt but, die when I would, I should be ever lastingly happy with God in His kingdom. When I was about eighteen years old, I fell in company with some people who had much conversa tion respecting the Methodists, against whom I was exceedingly prejudiced, believing them to be an ignorant, foolish, and wicked people: therefore I had not the least desire to be acquainted with them; nor had I so much curiosity as to wish to hear any of them preach, or to read any of their writings. One present strongly insisted that the Methodists. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.