“I do sometimes feel very much discouraged, but I am not ready to give up my interest in religion.”
“Have you no more enjoyment in reading the Scriptures and in your prayer in secret than you had a week ago?”
“I think that I am trying to do right in doing these things, and I enjoy them better than I should if I felt that I was doing something wrong, but I do not feel as I think a Christian ought to feel.”
“Are your thoughts and feelings and opinions about Christ and salvation the same as they were six weeks ago?”
“I think they are very different.”
“I am glad to hear that; but can you tell how they are different?”
“At that time I felt that I was a sinner, but was fighting against that feeling. I wished that Christ would let me alone, and that the Holy Spirit would not trouble me. But now I very much wish that I may feel my sins, and that Christ may come to me and save me. I wish to follow the Spirit.”
“Did you expect a month ago that at this time you would be feeling and acting as you now feel and act?”
“No, sir; I meant then to fight it through, and not let anybody know how I felt.”
“Do you wish now that you had fought it through, as you proposed, and kept all your feelings to yourself?”