to consecrate myself to God, but all to no purpose. I did everything,
so far as I could, that others did who professed to be Christians, but
I did not feel any better. I passed through two or three revivals. I
remember, when Mr. Nettleton was preaching in Litchfield, going to
carry a note to him from father; and for a sensitive, bashful boy like
me it was a severe ordeal. I went to the room where he was speaking,
with the note in my trembling hand, and had to lay it on the desk
beside him. Before I got halfway across the floor I was dazed and
everything seemed to swim around me, but I made out to get the note to
him, and he said: 'That's enough; go away, boy,' and I sort of backed
and stumbled toward the door (I was always stumbling and blundering in
company) and sat down. He was preaching in those whispered tones which
always seem louder than thunder to the conscience, although they are
only whispers in the ear. He had not uttered more than three sentences
before my feelings were excited, and the more I listened the more awful
I felt; and I said to myself: 'I will stay to the inquiry meeting.' I
heard Mr. Nettleton talking about souls writhing under conviction, and
I thought my soul was writhing under conviction. I had heard father
say that after a person had writhed under conviction a week or two they
began to come out, and I said: 'Perhaps I will get out'; and that
thought produced in me a sort of half-exhilaration of joy. I stayed to
the inquiry meeting, felt better, and trotted home with the hope that I
was on the way toward conversion. I went through this revival with
that hope strengthened; but it did not last long."

It is evident from this chapter that if we would understand Henry Ward
Beecher and the influences that went to the formation of his character
and to the success of his life, other things than parentage, home,
school, or nature must be taken into the account. The vast things of
the invisible realm have begun to speak to him, and his nature has