"Many people, both religious and irreligious, are apt to think that
they are more unfavourably constituted than their comrades and
neighbours, and that their circumstances and surroundings are
peculiarly unfriendly to the discharge of the duties they owe to
God and man.

"I have been no exception in this matter. Many a time I have been
tempted to say to myself, 'There is no one fixed so awkwardly for
holy living and faithful fighting as I am.' But I have been
encouraged to resist the delusion by remembering the words of the
Apostle Paul: 'There hath no temptation taken you but such as is
common to man.'

"I am not pretending to say that I have worked harder, or practised
more self-denial, or endured more hardships at any particular time
of my life than have those around me; but I do want those who feel
any interest in me to understand that faithfulness to God in the
discharge of duty and the maintenance of a good conscience have
cost me as severe a struggle as they can cost any Salvation Soldier
in London, Berlin, Paris, New York, or Tokio to-day.

"One reason for the victory I daily gained from the moment of my
conversion was, no doubt, my complete and immediate separation from
the godless world. I turned my back on it. I gave it up, having
made up my mind beforehand that if I did go in for God I would do
so with all my might. Rather than yearning for the world's
pleasures, books, gains, or recreations, I found my new nature
leading me to come away from it all. It had lost all charm for me.
What were all the novels, even those of Sir Walter Scott or
Fenimore Cooper, compared with the story of my Saviour? What were