But the worst state any one can be in is a state of bondage in sin, with no desire, no wish or feeling of any kind, to get out of it.  This spirit of indifference stamps the seal of darkness deeper and deeper, until the soul loses all desire for anything better.  I am just now reminded of what I read not long since.  A family of the name of Slocum, living in the State of Pennsylvania, if I mistake not, many years ago, was visited by Indians for the purpose of plunder.  With other things they carried off one of the children of the family, a girl several years old.  The family was sorely distressed, and every possible effort was made to rescue the child.  But all in vain.  Many years after, when the poor little girl’s father and mother were both dead, her surviving brother and sister heard of her.  They felt satisfied they had been correctly informed, and resolved to go to see her, and if possible try to get her back to live with them once more.  They went on horseback, and found her a long way off in what was then an unsettled part of Ohio.  I may be mistaken even here, as to the part of the country they found her in.  But they did find their sister living among the Indians, and in fact the wife of one of the chiefs.  She still remembered some English words.  They got her to understand who they were, and they wished her to go back with them to their home.  But she would not go.  She gave them to understand that she was satisfied to remain with the Indians, destitute and comfortless as they were.  The last trace of home feeling had left her heart, and with it had departed every vestige of religious concern and love for social life.  Sad and sorrowing did her brother and sister return to their homes; and to the time of their death they never ceased to mourn for their lost sister.  I have told you a true story; and if it causes the eye of some tender-hearted mother to grow dim with a tear I say, It is well.  God’s children are exhorted to be tender-hearted, compassionate one for another, and to weep with the sorrowing.

But there is something that should touch our sympathies and bring our tears from fountains far deeper than those opened by such stories as the one I just related.  And that is the condition which so many are in with respect to the things of salvation.  Like the poor woman I told you about, they are deaf to all that is told them about a better life, and dead to all that God and man are willing to do for them.  It is sometimes said of the sick that as long as there is life there is hope.  So let it be with us in behalf of such.  If the lost sister could have been made sensible of the great benefit it might have been to her to go back and live in a civilized and religious way, at last she might have consented to go.  So let us hope that many, who are still in the bondage of sin and the darkness of this world, may see the truth that will set them free and give them light to repent and live.

SATURDAY, July 2.  Cross the Cheat mountain to John Riley’s in Pocahontas County, Virginia.