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18 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES.

seen, by the important end to which it pointed, and was designed to conduct me. The effect was no other than the excitement of a strong and almost irresistible desire to return home immediately, in order to enter upon a serious and attentive perusal of the neglected volume, which I had left behind me. And such was the powerful impulse of this desire, that although I had intended to remain with my friend a week or a fortnight longer, yet I made some excuse for quitting his house the next day, and hastened back to Manchester rather with the impetuosity of a lover than with the sedateness of a man who had no other object of pursuit but to consult the pages of an unknown and heretofore slighted book."

A sudden change in Mr. Clowes' feeling toward the neglected volume, was wrought by this circumstance. He immediately felt an uncontrollable desire to read the book. He did read it — and his interest and delight in its teachings increased with every page he read. To cite his own words: —

" It is impossible for any language to express the full effect wrought in my mind by the perusal of this wonderful book. Suffice it, therefore, to observe that in proceeding from the chapter on the Creator and on Creation to the succeeding chapters on the Redeemer

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