home after his day s work and seeing in him a native of the district he addressed himself to him and begged my father to point out the road to my father answered i am going thither thou not do better than follow me so the two on together talking of a lodging for the night my father fearing that no house would be open to a stranger which was the truth they knocked at many but received only threats that the dogs would be turned upon them if they did not hasten away my father said never shall it be in that a stranger was turned away and had to sleep in the streets thou shalt have my son s bed and taking by the hand my father him and forced him into our house thou shalt sleep in my house my father said and shook me out of my sleep saying thy bed is wanted for a stranger and to this day i remember standing in my before my eyes dazed with sleep next day was teaching me and it pleasing him to see in me the making of a good and my father being willing that i should go a good carpenter he did not see in me he took me away with him through into and we struck across the desert descending the hills into the plain of and crossed the after a year s i was admitted into the order of the and was given choice of a trade and it was put forth that i should follow the trade of my father or work amid the fig trees along our but my imagination being stirred by the sight of the among the brook the hills i said let me be one and for fifteen years i led my flock content to see it prosper under my care until one day two wolves scratching where i knew there was a cave an empty one i thought the having been taken by wolves not long before i my spear and went forward at sight of me and my dogs the wolves fled as i expected they would and the that had come to the cave came out and after thanking me for driving off the wolves asked me if i could guide him to a spring of pure water thou rt not far from one i said for the cave he had come to live in was situated in the valley of the s den which is but half a mile from our brook i will go thither with thee this evening but first drink from my water bottle i said for i could see he needed water and i spoke to him of the number of we had lost lately from wild animals but he did not heed me and as soon as he had soothed his tongue with i my water bottle he began to tell me that he had come from the shores of the dead sea and was about to begin to preach the of repentance for the of sins and that we must not indulge in hope of salvation because we have for our father his words seemed to be true words and i pondered on them and along the everybody was asking whether he was the promised christ i walked miles to hear him leaving my flock in another s charge or waited for him to return to his cave and often spent the night watching over him lest a wild beast should break in upon him while he slept i had known none but my brethren nor any city and john had travelled through all and it was from him i learnt that the world was its end and that if man did not repent at once god would raise another race out of the stones by the so needful was the love of man to god and though it had always seemed to me god was than he seemed to be in john s the brook yet his teaching suddenly seemed to be right to me i got from him in and went into the wilderness to read the book of daniel in which he y j h a an read at advice i bade farewell to the brethren and and remember my departure you regretted it and tried to me but i answered you saying that god had called me to preach in my own country that has two coats should give one to the poor for it is the poor that will for us on the last day and carrying john s doctrine further i declared that it were easier for a sword to pass through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven which may be true but such judgments should be left to god and carrying it still further i said it was as hard for a rich man to go to heaven as for cow to in a s nest in my teaching i wandered beyond our doctrines and taught that this world is but a mock a shame a disgrace and that naught was of avail but repentance john s t teaching took possession of me but i would not have you think here that i am about to lay my sins at john s door for sin it is for a man to desire that which god has not given and i should have remained an shepherd following my flocks in the hills whereas john did well to come out of his desert and preach that the end of the world was approaching and that men must repent for god willed him to preach these things his teaching was true when he was the teacher but when i became his his teaching became false it turned me from my natural self and into such great of mind that in when my mother came with my 