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The following thoughts on religious experience were, for the most part, published in successive numbers in the “Watchman of the South,” and thence transferred to several other papers belonging to different denominations; so that they have been pretty widely circulated through the religious community. They were commenced without any view to their being collected into a volume, and, indeed, without any plan or purpose in regard to the extent to which the subject would be pursued. They were generally written hastily, in such fragments of time as could be spared from the daily duties of an arduous profession, and in a state of health far from being perfect. This is the only apology which the author has to offer for the imperfections which will doubtless be found in them. For although he has cursorily revised them since the call was made for their republication in this form, yet he has made no alteration of any consequence. He is thankful to God that they have been made useful to a single soul; and that they may be rendered still more so is his humble prayer. He would, however, inform the reader that one-third or one-fourth of this volume, principally the latter part, has never before been published.

Religious Experience.