the Bible especially. Many young people are indifferent, or mere formalists in the matter of religion; but I think very few indeed can charge themselves with so strong a feeling as dislike.
At the time when Sarah Martin was a school-girl, the Bible was often made a lesson or a punishment book; and bat little was done to make its truths attractive or clear to the minds of the young. Pictorial aids, sweet narratives, poetic elucidations, and interesting questions were rarely used—never, I may say, in the ordinary schools of the time; so that the Scriptures seemed like a sandy desert, and young feet soon grew weary in traversing it. But our gracious Lord does not leave Himself without a witness, where there is a thinking mind. Frivolity and the love of pleasure are the thorns that most frequently choke the good seed of wisdom and truth.
At the age of nineteen, Sarah heard a sermon that impressed her, from the words: "Knowing the terrors of the law, we persuade men." This was a ray of light to her, but the dawn came slowly. It was however a great matter that, with the growing light, she was able to see herself as she was—a sinner. She began to read the Bible and examine for herself; but with at first no other result than great self-condemnation, and some confusion of mind from theological books. But as she beautifully says in her simple memoir,[1] "Seeing salvation, not in
- ↑ Life of Sarah Martin, p. 9. Beligious Tract Society.
