Narrative of a Private Soldier in His Majesty's 92d Regiment of Foot
9781465668264
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
I shall now, according to the best of my ability, attempt to gratify the wish you several years since expressed, that I would arrange into one connected narrative, the various particulars I then communicated to you, of my previous life, and the exercises of my mind; its various workings, and conflicts, until the period when I was brought to the knowledge of Jesus, as the only and all-sufficient Saviour. In drawing up this account of myself, my motive is, to record the loving-kindness of the Lord to me a sinner; and if you deem it proper to be brought before the public in any shape, the only object I would have in view, is the good of my fellow sinners, particularly such as have been, or are, in situations of life, similar to those I have been in, or have experienced similar exercises of mind. Into the minutia of my early life, I do not intend to enter; and I would make this general remark in the outset, that my chief object is, to give a history of the workings of my mind, during the past part of my life, rather than the particulars of my life itself; but I shall narrate as much of these particulars as is necessary to account for, and illustrate, the history of my mind. I will also notice, briefly, such other things as may serve to entertain or inform the reader. I was born in Glasgow, in the year 1779.—When I was very young, the belief of the omniscience of God, was frequently strongly impressed upon my mind, and the thought of his all-seeing eye, often checked my conscience and restrained me during early life, from gratifying my own inclinations, to the extent I otherwise would have done. I pretty early learned to read; and as I grew older I became increasingly fond of it, even indeed to excess. I read whatever came in my way; but the Psalms of David in metre, in use by the church of Scotland, and the Bible, being the first books in which I learned to read, and having the benefit of godly instruction and example at home, religious knowledge was that with which I was most acquainted. When I was about eleven years of age, I went to the Sabbath school, belonging to the Outer High Church parish, Glasgow, then taught by Mr. Begg, (now minister of New Monkland parish,) and superintended by the parish minister, the late Rev. Dr. Balfour. The chief exercises of the school were, reading the Scriptures, and repeating the Assembly's Shorter Catechism. Dr. Balfour frequently visited the school, after the afternoon's service was over, and staid sometimes an hour, and sometimes even to the conclusion at six o'clock. When the Catechism was repeated, he interrogated us on the meaning of the questions, and instructed us in their import. He questioned us upon the sermons we had been hearing, and gave us doctrines to prove from scripture, by collecting all the passages, that we thought contained these doctrines. The doctrines were the fundamental articles of the Christian religion; and as we read the passages, he would tell us when they were in point, and when not. I was an adept at repeating the Catechism; but as I had no margin Bible to point out the references, I had to range through the whole scriptures, and exercise my judgment, which of course was sometimes right, and sometimes wrong.
