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a sinner upon the merits, sufferings, and blood of Jesus Christ
our Lord, in the 25<hi rend="superscript">th</hi> Year of her Age. These particulars may ap-
pear to be somewhat foreign to the matter, but they were impress-
ive to my mind, and often made me wish to be good; and caused
me, when I did any thing I thought not right, to be very uneasy
and to pray God to forgive me; though as soon as any temptation
came in my way, I was immediately overcome by it again. I
felt drawings of the heavenly Father won from my earliest
Years, but did not understand what it meant. These were
dark times, at that period me heard of nothing but fearing God
and keeping his commandments. This I strove to do, but found
alas! I could not; on account of which I was often much perplex-
ed, and in fear lest I should at last be lout[?]. I went on in this
way, till <add>in</add> the Year <date>1740</date> M<hi rend="superscript">r </hi> <persname>George Whitefield</persname> came to <placename>Ameri-
ca</placename>, and preached the Gospel to the awakening of many Souls.
I also at that time, in my fifteenth Year, was awakened to see
my lost and undone state, on account of which I was much dis-
tressed; and the more clearly I saw it, the more my anxiety
increased, not only on account of all my sins, and the condemna-
tion I felt in my Soul on account of them, mixed with the fear
of death and hell: but also that I lived <add>was living</add> without Christ and
without God in the world greatly increased my distress. I could
scarecely eat, drink, or sleep. My fears and anxiety were <add>had</add> now ri-
sen to such a height, that neither Sermons, books, nor prayers
could satisfy me. This, my distress, continued till Jesus him-
self drew near to me and gave me the assurance of the forgiveness
of my Sins through faith in his most precious blood and atone-
ment, by means of that text of Scripture, "The Lord our
                                                                          Righteousness."