CHAPTER II.
PROGRESS IN CALVINISM--HUNT GHOSTS--SEE LA FAYETTE .-- AGE, 6-9.
My parents were members of the Covenanter Congregation, of which Dr.
John Black was pastor for forty-five years.

He was a man of power, a profound logician, with great facility in conveying ideas.

To his pulpit ministrations I am largely indebted for whatever ability I have to discriminate between truth and falsehood; but the church was in Pittsburg, and our home seven miles away, so we seldom went to meeting.
The rules of the denomination forbade "occasional hearing." Father and mother had once been "sessioned" for stopping on their way home to hear the conclusion of a communion service in Dr.Brace's church, which was Seceder.

So our Sabbaths were usually spent in religious services at home.

These I enjoyed, as it aided my life-work of loving and thinking about God, who seemed, to my mind, to have some special need of my attention.