well-nigh lost sight of the highway of holiness, in the mistaken view
of neutrality, when there was not an inch of such ground all the way
from years of responsibility to the grave. We are gathering with
Christ or scattering abroad. This earnest discourse so clearly defined
my own condition, that I renewed my many broken vows, and was almost
persuaded to yield the unsubdued will, and hope was indulged that the
Father of unbounded mercy, in his illimitable love, would again reveal
himself in breaking the bread of life.

September, 1829, we removed to Michigan Territory, and settled in
Raisin, Lenawee County, within three miles of my parents, brothers,
and sister, with our two little sons, to share with others the
privations of a new country, as well as advantages of cheap land. As
there were a number of our Society in this vicinity, a Friends'
Meeting was organized, in which we all had an interest, and endeavored
to maintain it in the usual order of our Society. But no true peace
was mine, I was still a wanderer from the true Church militant. I once
knew the good Shepherd's voice, but was now too far away to recognize
it. In these sad remembrances I sought a subterfuge behind which to
hide in a false rest. Eagerly I read a book on that subject, and drank
its plausible arguments without stint. It was a panacea, a temporary
opiate to quiet the vacillating condition of a restless mind; yet my
Bible was not laid aside, and many portions of Scripture were
vigilantly brought to prove this specious error to be a radical truth;
and two years in this dead faith I lived a dying life. But I found my
investigations were not for the whole truth, but was dwelling upon the
love and benevolence of God to the exclusion of justice as an
attribute of the Lord, as well as mercy, and decided to accept the
whole truth, and abide its searchings; and sought for it in the
written Word diligently, as for hidden treasures In reading Paul's