There has been a spiritual darkness over me . `` Friends and neighbors , I have always been held by you as an honest man . It was the shame of having you know I was not which has kept me back from open confession and testimony . Just afore these meetings commenced I come home from town one night and found that somebody had passed a counterfeit ten-dollar bill on me . Then Satan entered into me and possessed me . When Mrs. Rachel Lynde come next day , collecting for foreign missions , I give her that ten dollar bill . She never knowed the difference , and sent it away with the rest . But I knew I 'd done a mean and sinful thing . I could n't drive it out of my thoughts . A few days afterwards I went down to Mrs. Rachel 's and give her ten good dollars for the fund . I told her I had come to the conclusion I ought to give more than ten dollars , out of my abundance , to the Lord . That was a lie . Mrs. Lynde thought I was a generous man , and I felt ashamed to look her in the face . But I 'd done what I could to right the wrong , and I thought it would be all right . But it was n't . I 've never known a minute 's peace of mind or conscience since . I tried to cheat the Lord , and then tried to patch it up by doing something that redounded to my worldly credit . When these meetings begun , and everybody expected me to testify , I could n't do it . It would have seemed like blasphemy . And I could n't endure the thought of telling what I 'd done , either .
I argued it all out a thousand times XXXXX I had n't done any real harm after all , but it was no use .
for from in of on over since than that to