“Deacon Mayhew got up and says, ‘There’s full liberty for any body to git up and speak or pray.’ And I felt as though I must git up and say somethin’ or pray, I was so distressed; but then I was a black man, and was afeard I couldn’t pray nice enough, and so I set still, but I felt like death. A number of young converts, prayed and made good prayers, and there was a despod feelin’ there I tell ye.
“Arter meetin’ a good many folks spoke to me, but I couldn’t answer ’em for tears; and so I started for home, when I was goin’ cross the lots a cryin’ I come to a large flat rock, and looked round to see if any body was near by, and then I kneeled down and ’twas the first time I ever raly prayed.
“I begun, but I was so full I couldn’t only say these words and I recollect ’em well.
“‘Oh! Lord, here I be a poor wretch; do with me just as you please; for I have sinned with an out stretched arm, and I feel unworthy of the least mercy, but I beg for blood, the blood of him that died Calvary! Oh! help me, keep up my detarmination to do my duty, and submit to let you dispose on me jist as you please, for time and eternity; oh! Lord hear this first prayer of a hell-desarving sinner.’”
“Well, I got up, and felt what I never felt afore; I felt willing to do God’s will, and that I was reconciled to God; afore this, I had felt as though God was opposed to me, and I’d got to shift round afore he’d meet me, and feel reconciled to me. I looked up to heaven, and I couldn’t help sayin’, ‘My Father:’ never before nor sence, have I felt so much joy and peace as I felt then, I was glad to be in God’s hands, and let him reign, for I knew he would do right, and I felt sich a love for him, as I can’t describe.
“I got up from the rock, and the world did look beautiful round me; the moon shone clear, and the stars, and then I thought about David, when he tells about his feelin’s when he looked at the same moon and stars; you see I was changed and that made the world look so new; and this beautiful world was God’s world, and God was my Father, and that made me happy, and that is ’bout all I can say ’bout it.
“I went home, and found my wife and mother-in-law abed and ‘sleep, and I lit up the candle and wakes ’em up, and says,
“I’ve found the pearl of great price.”
“I gits down the New Testament, for I had no Bible, and never owned one till this time, and says, “I’ll read a chapter and then make a prayer, (for you see my wife had larnt me to read arter a fashion,) and they say ‘That’s right Peter, I’m glad you feel as though you could pray,’ I opened the Testament to the 14th chapter of John, ‘Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me,’ &c. Then I made a prayer and set up my family altar, and I have prayed in my family every day, and mean to keep it up, for I believe all christians ought to pray mornin’ and evenin’ in their families.
“Well, I went to bed and talked to my wife ’bout religion, till I fairly talked her asleep, and then I lay awake and thought, and prayed, and wept for joy, and it will be a good while afore I forgit that night.