Mr. Willis Brown, field-organizer of the Anti-Cigaret League, tells us in an article in the Ram's Horn that in the seventh and eighth grades of a school in Columbus, O., “out of 41 boys, 36 had used or were smoking cigarets; 5 not. Fifth and sixth grades, out of 35 boys, 26 smokers; 9 non-smokers. In the third and fourth grades, composed of boys from 8 to 12 years of age—out of 53 boys only 11 non-smokers. Of the whole number of 129 boys, over 82 per cent. were cigaret-users, more or less.” This school was among the Jews, Italians, Poles, and colored boys. In another school, “recognized as one of the best,” its pupils coming from the better homes of the community, in the first-eighth and second-eighth grades we found 33 boys; only 2 had not smoked cigarets. In the first and second-seventh grade, 53 boys; only 2 non-smokers. In sixth and fifth grades, 59 boys; 9 non-smokers. In the fourth and second-fifth grades, 53 boys; 19 non-smokers. Of the total number of 198 boys, over 83 per cent. smoked the cigaret.
In Fort Wayne, Ind., in a school in the best residence portion of the city, in grades 3 to 8, out of 117 boys, 84 were smokers, or over 71 per cent.
In the Liberty Grammar School, Pittsburg, Pa., in the highest grade, in the class containing the boys who the following term would enter the High School, only 14 out of 55 were non-smokers. These 14 “were the best students.” Below are the tabulated findings of Prof. Wardis of the Uhrichsville, O., public school, in a prosperous town in a farming community:—
Grade
Boys
Girls
Boys non-smoking
Average age of non-smokers
Boys smoking
Average age of smokers
First Grade
77
75
75
7¾
2
8½
Second Grade
62
62
49
8½
13
9½
Third Grade
54
61
38
10
16
10½
Fourth Grade
46
53
17
11
29
12
Fifth Grade
73
63
37
12
36
13
Sixth Grade
60
74
8
12¾
52
13¾
Seventh Grade
30
58
6
14
24
15½
Eighth Grade
12
27
—
—
12
16½
High School, 1st year
6
30
2
16
4
16½
High School, 2d year
5
10
—
—
5
16½
High School, 3d year
2
15
2
17
—
—
These are appalling statistics, which ought to come home to the heart of every parent. It is generally recognized that no use of tobacco so quickly shatters the nerves as cigaret-smoking. Dr. L. Bremer, late physician at St. Vincent's Institution for the Insane at St. Louis, says:—
Basing my assertion on the experience gained in private practise, and at the St. Vincent's Institution, I will broadly state that the boy who smokes at 7 will drink whisky at 14, take to morphine at 25, and wind up with cocaine and the rest of the narcotics at 30.
The practise is as bad for the mind as the body; as bad for the soul as the mind. Anti-cigaret leagues can do something; God bless them in their work; but parents can and should do more. It may cost the father his cigar or pipe to save his son. If it does, all the better; he has then saved himself also. Let every father, mother, girl, and boy who reads this do all in his or her power to destroy the evil and save the boys,—yes, and many girls.
SOME SOUTHERN SENTIMENT.
WHILE it sometimes appears that the anti-negro sentiment is growing stronger in the South, there are some prominent Southern men who advocate the amelioration of the colored man's condition. The following expression is from Ex-governor Worthen, of Georgia, who is also a prominent Southern Baptist, and it is published approvingly in some Southern journals:—
Negroes have souls to be saved, minds to be developed, and their own spheres of usefulness to be filled. Christian white people should do everything in their power, under the grace of God, to help the black man meet and discharge the conditions that are upon him. He needs material support. Help him to employment as cheerfully as you do any one else. Teach him the best means of support, and we need not be humiliated if we are found engaged in the same employment, and working at the same place. Help him to the fullest education of which he is capable. Build schools, colleges, and universities for him, and prepare him for the highest conditions of usefulness. Preach the Gospel to him in Christian sympathy, tenderness, and love. Help him to build churches, and co-operate with him in every proper effort to advance the kingdom among his own people and throughout the world. It should be our special delight to see him grow in grace and in the knowledge of God, as well as in the knowledge of men and the utilization of things.
Bishop W. A. Chandler, of the M. E. Church South, is reported to have said quite recently:—
The Gospel, enlightenment, and brotherly kindness in the direction of teaching the negroes self-helpfulness, are the main things the white people should give the negroes, and these things they are giving to “the brother in black.”
The Watchman, of Nashville, Tenn., is sponsor for this statement:—9
President A. P. Montague, of Furman University, thinks that the Christian white men should “evince profound and abiding interest” in the spiritual life of the colored people, and that they should do this “by conferences with their preachers,” by “visiting their religious services,” and by encouraging them to send their young men, called to preach, to worthy institutions of learning.
And the Watchman itself vouches for the South in the following very positive manner:—
All these letters confirm the statement made in our issue of October 30, namely, “Do anything you wish for the negro, educate him, teach him trades, make him sober, industrious, cultivated, and the South will bid you God speed.”
REPORT OF INTERNATIONAL PROPHETIC CONFERENCE.
By John D. Bradley
Clouding the Issue.
[From notes taken for the Signs of the Times by Mr. John D. Bradley, editor of the Sentinel of Christian Liberty, New York.]
The much-advertised International Prophetic Conference at Boston has concluded its sessions, with resolutions to continue the conference work and arrange for the holding of similar conferences in other parts of the country. The Boston conference purported to be interdenominational; but the interdenominationalness was limited and provisoed—limited to those denominations who had not hitherto made any specialty of matters prophetic, and provisoed by ruling out of the discussions those who believe God's declaration that the dead know not anything.
Starting out under such a handicap, the conclusions of the conference were bound to be at variance with the truth of God. Clinging to that subtle error planted in Eden by the tongue of Satanic deceit, man can not rightly interpret the prophecies pertaining to the second coming of Christ. Clinging to that error, and continuing to propagate it by denying to those who oppose it the opportunity to speak in such conferences, all such conferences are bound to be propagators of error, disseminators of darkness. All such effort is bound to be, as the work of this conference has been, an entering wedge for greater error, a remover of obstacles from the path of him who would deceive the whole world—as we shall see.
The prophecies dwelt upon by this conference were the prophecies that show the certainty and the nearness of Christ's coming. Now that Christ's coming is near, God is giving more and more power in declaring it, and will increase that power to the end. Satan will not be silent in this crisis. With all the subtlety of six thousand years' experience in sin, he will teach men to misinterpret and misconstrue the plainest prophecy of Christ's return, or teach men to expect it in a way in which it never can come, so that when it does come, they will be taken unawares. Just such interpretation of prophecy and just such explaining of the manner of Christ's coming were indulged in at the prophetic conference recently closed in Boston. As the resolutions adopted provided for a continuation of such work as was done there, the deceiver's policy of “clouding the issue” has been duly inaugurated for the great and final struggle.
That there were men in that conference who stood for truth in reference to the nearness and manner of Christ's coming, is admitted; but the great bulk of the teaching in reference to that event was damp and heavy with the fog of error. Christ has made known the manner in which He would come. It is Satan's purpose to induce men to believe that Christ will come in some other way; then present himself in that manner, and claim to be Christ. For that deception he is now busily preparing the world.
The manner of Christ's coming, as He Himself declared it, has been faithfully set forth from time to time in these columns, and with that most of the readers of this paper are familiar. Such will readily detect the error in the views presented at that conference, and will also see the subtlety with which the great deceiver is planning his master deception. Those who are not thus familiar should take those doctrines and faithfully compare them with the Word.
Perhaps no one thought was made more prominent than that of the return of the Jews to Palestine as a necessary forerunner of Christ's return. In attempting to prove this proposition, the prophetic period of seventy weeks, spoken of in Daniel 9: 24-27 (the beginning of which is anchored in the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus for the restoration and rebuilding of Jerusalem), is made to drag its anchor down to a period still in the future. The rebuilding of Jerusalem, authorized in that ancient decree, is made to apply to the establishment of the New Jerusalem in the new earth, and the “little horn” of Daniel 8: 9-12 is snatched out of its true prophetic and historical connection, and is made to do duty in the period immediately following the restoration of the Jews to nationality; and the cutting off of the Messiah in the midst of the last week of that prophetic period is made to represent the breaking of a hypothetical covenant between Israel restored and the Gentile nations of the earth. The climax of these inconsistencies comes in the application of Rev. 20:9. It is made to represent the armies of the Gentile nations when they come up around the camp of the returned Israelites in Palestine. The immediate connection shows that the verse refers to the doom of the resurrected wicked who (verse 5) have been sleeping for a thousand years while the saints were in heaven.
In the interpretation of this scripture given at the conference, the destruction of the armies of the “powers” makes Christ king of this world and of all the kingdoms in this world; and that interpretation completely banishes Matthew 24 and 2 Peter 3:7-13. But the believer in God's Word must cling to the truth of these scriptures still, and let the “interpretation” topple to its own fall, as it is bound to do in the end.
The second speaker sought to prove that the “man of sin” (2 Thess. 2:3, 4) “who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped,” etc., would not be revealed until the church was “caught up” away from the earth, whereas he has been sitting upon the “throne of St. Peter” some hundreds of years. He would also have literal Babylon restored and become a great commercial center, through railroads and irrigation; and the coming of Christ must wait until such time as that can be accomplished. The burden of this address also was the restoration of the Jews to a place among the nations of the world, which must occur before the second advent. Thus is the world blinded to the nearness of that event, and the servant is made to say, “My Lord delayeth His coming.”
Discourse number three was based entirely on the return of the Jews and their re-establishment as a nation. Literal Israel was to remain on the earth during the thousand years, and Christ was to work through that nation for the salvation of the rest of the world.
In discourse number five, by Rev. Henry Varley, Christ is set forth as a disappointed seeker after an earthly kingdom. The setting up of an earthly kingdom in this world at Christ's first advent was declared to have been the purpose of the Redeemer at that time, whereas He Himself openly declares that no such purpose was His. According to this speaker, Christ's coming was to be followed by the salvation of the world, whereas the teachings of Christ orally and through prophets and apostles show plainly that when He comes the second time, all who are not His are consumed in the fires that purify the sin-sick world. He also asserted that Christ would not have a throne in the earth after His coming; but would move from place to place, appearing now here and now there; whereas the Word declares that “the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it” (the earth). And this was one of the addresses to which the greatest attention was paid, and which seemed to make the greatest impression upon the audience. How subtly do such teachings prepare the world for the appearance of Satan in the name of Christ. Before the end, Satan, “transformed into an angel of light,” will impersonate Christ, and many will believe the Messiah has come. These are the teachings which make such deception possible; and the steadily growing doctrine of the Jews sets the world expecting an event which is not warranted in the Word, in order that they may be blinded to the event of all events, be looking for something that will never occur, and lose sight of God's present truth and present work, and be unprepared to meet Him when He comes.
That event is near, as a few of the speakers at that conference declared; but they who are looking for it to come through the restoration of the Jewish nation are allowing themselves to be made victims of a fatal deception—fatal to themselves and fatal to those to whom they teach it.
At the conclusion of the conference, a large standing committee was appointed, composed of ministers residing in different parts of the country, whose business will be to push the prophetic conference work. In the resolutions adopted, the conference declared that while it believed in the second coming of Christ, it had no sympathy with the doctrine of the unconscious state of the dead (or in other words, did believe that man is immortal), thus declaring, in effect, that Christ's death in man's stead was superfluous and His second coming unnecessary.
One of the great deceiver's weapons against the Gospel and work of God is to make them seem inconsistent to men, out of harmony with themselves, and therefore unreasonable. In this regard he certainly was not disappointed in most of the discussions participated in at that gathering. This should lead the child of God diligently to seek Him, that he be not caught in the great deception in this most important time of all this earth's history.
THE EFFECT OF MODERN EDUCATION UPON CHILDREN.
By W. M. D’Aubigne Cabot
The stress of modern education has enormously taxed the brains of children by the multiplicity of studies. Children can not assimilate the ideas in widely differing departments of knowledge at one and the same time. The effort to do so deranges in many instances the entire nervous system of the child. The so-called nervous child is not only not normal, but may be the victim of the educational methods of the present day. The examination system is often a horror to such a child, as the writer knows from his own experience. The studies required of a growing child should never be allowed to disturb the health or interfere with proper rest and exercise. The modern city child seems to be unable to endure the burdens of civilized life as easily as did the children of the past, who were brought up in the country and spent the greater part of the time in the fresh open air. Whether our fathers were more hardy and robust as children than the progeny of the present generation may be an open question, but certainly the conditions of civilized life have so completely changed that at the present day mental and physical education possess equal importance for the growing child. The mind of the child to-day is too often developed at the expense of its vitality and health.—W. M. D’Aubigne Cabot, M. D.
Railroad Suits and Persian Gulf Rivalry
SUITS have been instituted in the courts of Ohio to revoke the charters of five of the large railroad companies of that State because of violation of the State laws forbidding railroad combinations in restraint of trade and the consolidation of parallel lines of railway. The properties against which suit has been brought are believed to be practically controlled by the great Morgan syndicate. It is charged that they have conspired together to limit the production of coal while increasing the price of shipment and the cost to the consumer; that they have conspired together to fix a common and high standard of freight rates; and that they are paying taxes on a valuation of less than $5,000,000, whereas their property really amounts to more than $45,000,000.
THERE seems to be a prospect of friction between Russia and England over the operation of Russian and British war-ships in the Persian Gulf. An English man-of-war has sustained the sheik of Koweit in his claim of independence from Turkish rule, and Russian naval officers are making friends with the sultan of Muscat. Koweit, at the upper end of the Persian Gulf, is the proposed terminus of a railroad from Bagdad, which England wishes to control; but if Russia controls Muscat, she will control the entrance to the Persian Gulf, and therefore practically control the railroad terminus at Koweit. Thus it can readily be seen how antagonistic are the plans and aspirations of the two nations, and how easily war might be provoked.
GERMANY announces that she has sent no ultimatum to Venezuela, but she is preparing to enforce her demands. It is expected that she will seize one or more of Venezuela’s ports, and collect customs for the satisfaction of her claim. It is feared that other nations which have claims against Venezuela will follow Germany’s example in collecting them. The government at Washington has made it plain that no acquisition of territory in Venezuela would be tolerated. The revolution in Venezuela is reported to be gaining ground.
THERE has been much satisfaction in Italy over the report that Argentina and Chile had agreed to the arbitration of their differences, as Italy would have been bound to support Argentina, and unpleasant international complications might have arisen. Orders had already been issued to prepare a strong squadron for operations in South American waters. But the danger of a conflict in South America still exists because of Argentina’s final refusal to agree to the protocol.
THE first submarine cable to surrender to wireless telegraphy is that lying between Rome and Sardinia. Its use will shortly be discontinued, as the 200 kilometers of sea between Rome and the island has been successfully traversed by wireless messages.
THE city of St. Louis has instituted a court of inquiry into the cause of the recent death of thirteen school-children who had been inoculated for the prevention of diphtheria. The janitor of the Health Department, who had charge of dispensing the serum, has confessed that he gave out the dangerous serum containing the tetanus germs. His excuse was that there was no more of the diphtheria antitoxin on hand, and he did not suppose that the tetanus serum would kill children.
THE news from South Africa indicates that peace is a long way off in that part of the world. There has been a revival of Boer activity. General Botha and General De Wet are both in the field, and small engagements are numerous. At Tafelkop, on December 20, the British lost 32 men killed and 40 wounded. A British camp at Zeefontein was rushed by the Boers on December 24, and the casualties were 61 killed and 54 wounded, and 245 were made prisoners.
STRONG opposition has been manifested in Washington against the application of the Dingley tariff rates between the Philippines and the United States, and it is thought that the bill will be amended when it is taken up in the Senate, and a lower rate established. Much opposition has also been developed against the provision to allow foreign ships to carry passengers and merchandise between the islands and domestic ports.
ASSASSINATION and pillaging of villages and outraging of inhabitants have so increased recently in Macedonia that the consuls have been forced to appeal to their respective embassies for protection for the people. The foreign ministers have made earnest representations to the sultan in regard to the danger of permitting such acts to continue, as their continuance would result in the interference of the nations of Europe.
ITALY is again making representations to the United States to have the Federal statutes so extended as to protect foreigners residing in the various States. As it is now, the Federal Government has no jurisdiction over the cases of foreigners killed in the several States, and foreign governments are not allowed by the Federal Government to exact justice from the individual States.
THE railroad combination of the Northwest, fearing the public sentiment which is rapidly forming against the combination, has decided to make a general and material cut in the freight rates in that section of the country. This action is taken to forestall, if possible, adverse action on the part of the people, which might result in legally tying up the roads.
THE lack of a sufficient number of cars to transport the products of mills along the Allegheny Valley has resulted in the closing down of a number of the largest steel mills, throwing thousands of employees out of employment. It is reported that $3,000,000 worth of the finished products of these mills is piled up in the yards awaiting transportation.
THE Zionist Conference opened in Basel, Switzerland, on December 26, with over 1,000 delegates from the various countries of the world. The president of the conference declared that the sultan looks with approval upon the aims of the Zionist movement, and that he himself has absolute confidence in its ultimate success.
THE great Diamond Match Company is planning to control the world’s trade in matches. It is reported to have secured already a practical control of the match business of the United States, England, and South America. The principal portion of the stock is in the hands of Edwin Gould, who proposes to monopolize the industry.
THE directors of the Panama Canal Company have decided to make a new offer to the American Government for the sale of that canal. The Walker Commission appraised the value of the work done on that waterway at $40,000,000. It is reported that the company will offer their canal to this government at that figure.
THE new ameer of Afghanistan, at a recent meeting of his chiefs, declared his intention of following the policy of his father in guarding the country against foreign aggression, and in preventing the introduction of railroads, telegraphs, European trade, and education by missionaries.
THE new battle-ship Missouri was launched at the yards of the Newport News Shipbuilding Company, on December 28. The Missouri is a sister ship of the Ohio and the Maine, and her contract price is $2,885,000. Her speed is to be 18 knots, and she will carry 551 officers and men.
STORMS and floods have brought disaster to several large salmon-packing firms along the Fraser River in British Columbia. The entire plants of some have been destroyed, and many thousands of dollars’ worth of canned salmon were carried away in the rushing water.
IN the great race for commercial supremacy, English writers and speakers are reported to be voicing the fear that unless something is done soon, England is bound to be relegated to third place as a commercial nation, being outstripped by the United States and Germany.
AT Allentown, Penn., on December 23, an electric car left the track on a sharp curve, killing six persons.
RAILROAD building in the United States during 1901 has been more extensive than for any year since 1890; the amount constructed during the year just closed was 5,057 miles of line. The total railroad mileage of this country is now 199,370 miles.
TWENTY Japanese were drowned at Point Roberts, B. C., on December 28, by the washing away of a boarding-house in which they were staying. Other fatalities are reported along the flooded streams in that part of the dominion.
FOUR hundred men are reported to have been killed in an engagement between insurgents and government troops of Colombia near Honda on December 19. The insurgents attacked the garrison of Honda and were repulsed.
A DESPATCH from China states that a missionary and a number of native converts have been massacred at Ning Sha Fu, in Kan-su province. It is reported that the troops of General Tung Fu Hsiang are responsible for the massacre.
MINOR engagements continue in the Philippines. In one of these engagements Company E, 9th Infantry, lost 7 men killed and a number wounded. The murder of friendly natives continues at the hands of the armed Filipinos.
ARGENTINA has repudiated the action of her minister in signing a protocol with Chile by which it was hoped trouble would be averted. Both republics continue energetically preparing for war, tho both claim to be hoping for peace.
IT has been authoritatively announced at Washington that Governor Leslie M. Shaw, of Iowa, has been appointed Secretary of the Treasury to succeed Lyman J. Gage. The change will be made some time in January.
THE governors and attorneys-general of the Northwestern States met at Helena, Montana, on December 30, to lay plans for bringing legal action to prohibit the consolidation of the northwestern railways.
THE banks of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston will pay out in dividends at the beginning of the new year more than $200,000,000, the largest amount ever disbursed by those institutions for that purpose.
MANUFACTURERS’ statistics show that 1,500,000 gallons of rum are manufactured in the United States each year. Of this amount 600,000 gallons go to Africa to debase and destroy the native races.
THE threatened tariff war between Russia and Germany will probably be averted by Germany’s yielding to the protests of Russia over the grain duties which Germany proposed to establish.
THE civil governor of the Philippines has declared the ratio between American coin and the Mexican silver in use in the islands now to be $2.10 Mexican for $1.00 in American gold.
A REPORT from Michigan states that practically the entire peach crop of Southern Michigan has been destroyed by frost. The loss is said to represent about $1,000,000.
THE Congress of Peru has dissolved without sanctioning the treaty of arbitration with Bolivia over the question of the boundary between those two countries.
A NUMBER of young Catholic priests are coming to America to be tutored by Archbishop Chapelle preparatory to going to the Philippines to take the place of the friars.
THE daily press recorded a large number of murders and suicides on Christmas day, the former generally due to drinking and the latter to despondency.
THE entire creosoting plant of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company located near Houston, Texas, was destroyed by fire on December 24, loss $100,000.
IN spite of the panic in Wall Street last May, the year’s business of the New York Stock Exchange is reported to be nearly double that of last year.
GOVERNOR JOHN R. ROGERS, of Washington, died very suddenly at Olympia, Washington, on December 26, from an attack of pneumonia.
THE severe storm which visited the Puget Sound country Christmas night is reported to have caused damage to the amount of $300,000.
CAPTAIN RICHARD P. LEARY, first American governor of the island of Guam, died of heart failure at Chelsea, Mass., on December 27.
THE municipal authorities of Denver have ordered the summary closing of all the pool-rooms and bucket-shops of that city.
IN a waterspout which burst over Safi, Morocco, on December 29, it is reported that 200 persons lost their lives.
WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?
By G.
ONE of the resolutions of the National Reform Association, adopted at the recent national convention, says:—
We hail with gladness the evidence that the nations of the world, during the progress of the ages, are becoming more and more Christian.
We would be rejoiced to see just a little of that evidence. All of the nations that profess to be Christian at all are increasing their strong-drink bills every year, and increasing their criminal list right along. In all these nations the rich are growing richer, and the poor are growing poorer. The immensely rich class is increasing, and the very poor class is correspondingly on the increase, because of the oppression of the poor by the rich. In all this there is no evidence that the nations “are becoming more and more Christian.”
Then all the nations that even pretend to be Christian are bankrupting themselves in equipping and maintaining vast armies and navies. Now Christianity says, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal,” and the purpose of Christianity is “not to destroy men's lives, but to save them.” So when we see the only nations that claim to be Christian increasing their facilities for war, and spending each year more and more of their substance in preparations to destroy men's lives, we incline to doubt the expression of the resolution in question, and call for the “evidence.”
G.
YE DID IT UNTO ME
Unawares
YE DID IT UNTO ME
And He said, “The sin is pardoned,
But the blessing is lost to thee,
For, failing to comfort the least of Mine,
You have failed to comfort Me.”
Such is the closing verse of one of the two poems found in No. 54 of the Apples of Gold Library under the above title. They are very touching and very good. Price, 50c per 100.
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO.
New York City Oakland, Cal. Kansas City, Mo.
Ungwaree
CONVERSION OF A PROFLIGATE YOUNG MAN.
By B. C.
[B. C., in The Christian Life.]
Mr. King, an aged local preacher from the Tavistock circuit, related to me the extraordinary manner in which it pleased God to bring him to Himself. He, with two or three others, attended a wake; they became intoxicated and remained out through the night. In the morning, somewhat ashamed of their conduct, they all resolved to proceed to the nearest town, where there was a recruiting party, and enlist for soldiers. When they arrived at Five-Lanes, on their way, they were weary, and, night coming on, they sought lodging at the only inn in the village; but the house being under repair, they could not obtain what they sought. At a loss what to do, they looked one upon another in their perplexity, when a person employed on the repairs said: “There is an old Methodist, who lives over yonder on the moor, who takes in everybody. I dare say he will find you lodgings.” This old Methodist was none other than Mr. Digory Isbell, Mr. Wesley’s friend and “pilot over the moor.” They knocked at the door, and were very cordially welcomed as “dear children” by Mrs. Isbell. A plentiful supper was provided by their kind hostess, then, being anxious to get to rest, they were conducted to their sleeping apartment before Mr. I. had returned from his work as stone-mason on the moor. His wife having informed him of the number and condition of his guests, he waited for them in the morning at the foot of the stairs, heartily shook hands with each, and bade them a cheerful welcome to the hospitalities of his cottage. Breakfast was already waiting, and they were conducted to their seats, wondering what manner of people they had fallen among. Mr. I. sat down with them, but had other matters in view besides eating and drinking. He got into familiar conversation with them, ascertained who they were, and where they were going. And now, having his mark before him, he at once assumed the solemn aspect of a preacher of righteousness, and opened to them the Law of God. He showed them their sinfulness and danger. The hell that lay before them he clearly pointed out. Now Christ was introduced, and all the fulness of His grace described. Calvary was exhibited, the constraining influence of redeeming love was brought to bear upon them, and they were urged to hasten with their sins to His feet, whose mercy was such that He forgave His murderers. Long before he had concluded this extraordinary address, King’s heart was broken before God, and his tears mingled with his drink. Such a prospect opened to his view, and such emotions struggled in his breast, that he could not proceed far in partaking of the wholesome repast prepared by his pious host. Breakfast being ended, they asked for their bill. Mr. I. assured them there was no charge for what they had received.11They were the more astonished. But as they were about to leave, Mr. I., stepping before them, locked the door and said, “You are my prisoners; we must not part without prayer.” He now got them on their knees, and pleaded with God for their repentance and salvation. It was an extraordinary scene; angels rejoiced over it: the power of the Lord was present to wound and to heal, to kill and to make alive. The door being now set open, they were dismissed to their own reflections. Not many steps had they proceeded from this house of mercy before King, turning to his companions, said, “You may do as you please, but as for me, I am determined both to go back, and to lead a new life.” This decided the matter, and they all returned to their respective homes. King sought God with his whole heart, joined the Methodist society, was soon made happy in a sense of the forgiveness of sins, and became a burning and shining light.
