And the apprehension
of there being less steadiness and firmness among people of this age,
than in past ages, often troubled me while I was a child." An anxious
desire to do away, as far as himself was concerned, this merited
reproach, operated as one among other causes to induce him to be
particularly watchful over his thoughts and actions, and to endeavour to
attain that purity of heart, without which he conceived there could be
no perfection of the Christian character. Accordingly, in the
twenty-second year of his age, he had given such proof of the integrity
of his life, and of his religious qualifications, that he became an
acknowledged minister of the Gospel in his own society.
[Footnote A: This short sketch of the life and labours of John Woolman,
is made up from his Journal.]
At a time prior to his entering upon the ministry, being in low
circumstances, he agreed for wages to "attend shop for a person at Mount
Holly, and to keep his books." In this situation we discover, by an
occurrence that happened, that he had thought seriously on the subject,
and that he had conceived proper views of the Christian unlawfulness of
slavery. "My employer," says he, "having a Negro woman, sold her, and
desired me to write a bill of sale, the man being waiting who bought
her.
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