"
"Have you seen anything out of the ordinary course of nature?"
"No."
"Then, Satan, I fear, has been busy with you, tempting you in no
ordinary degree at this momentous crisis of your life?"
My mind turned on my associate for the day, and the idea that he
might be an agent of the Devil had such an effect on me that I
could make no answer.
"I see how it is," said he; "you are troubled in spirit, and I have no
doubt that the enemy of our salvation has been busy with you.
Tell me this, has he overcome you, or has he not?"
"He has not, my dear father," said I. "in the strength of the Lord, I
hope I have withstood him. But indeed, if he has been busy with
me, I knew it not. I have been conversant this day with one
stranger only, whom I took rather for an angel of light."
"It is one of the Devil's most profound wiles to appear like one,"
said my mother.
"Woman, hold thy peace!" said my reverend father. "Thou
pretendest to teach what thou knowest not. Tell me this, boy: did
this stranger, with whom you met, adhere to the religious
principles in which I have educated you?"
"Yes, to every one of them in their fullest latitude," said I.
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