04. Paysons Early Developments.

Paysons Early Developments

Payson early manifested a remarkable inquisitive-ness of mind, which his mother cherished by answering his almost endless inquiries. In the first developments of his moral powers, his infant mind grasped the fact that he was a sinner. He was often known to weep under the preaching of the Gospel when only three years old! He would frequently call his mother to his bedside to answer questions respecting his relation to God and a future world. It was the judgment of his mother that he was converted in childhood. It is believed that he never neglected private prayer while living under the parental roof. His early mental developments indicated that he would be a man of decision, enterprise, and perseverance. His taste for the sublime was remarkable in childhood. During a tempest he might be seen on the top of a fence, or some other eminence, while the lightings played and the thunders rolled around him, sitting in composure and enjoying the sublimity of the scene.

He was a very good reader at four years of age, and could transfer the contents of a book to his own mind with remarkable facility. All the books in his father’s collection and in the town library, suitable to his age and attainments, were read before he left the paternal home, and made available in his ministry by the tenacity of his memory.