St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-04-27
Incidents in the Moody Meetings
GEN. JOHN L. SWIFT.

Among the prominent political speak
ers and orators of New England, many
will recognize the name of Gen. Swift,
while not a few of our readers have
heard his eloquent words upon the
stump and platform. In the noon meet
ing at fremont Temple the 18th, he
spoke as follows-as reported in the
Journal:
Whatever can do in speaking will
be by telling my story as briefly and as
plainly as | can. | never doubted the
existence of God. Since came to OBJ
serve things, the rising and the setting
sun, and the sea and the sky and all the
marvel of the seasons, have been proof
to me that there must be Supreme
Being that was the cause of all life and
the source of all truth, but as for any
dependence upon that Being, any COM
muniOn with him, and trusting him, |
was as absolutely Indifferent as savage
or a pagan. But while living in this
world many years and living like the
world, my father and my mother and
my wife and my sisters and many
friends were pouring their prayers into
heaven and pleading there for me, and
their prayers were heard and | became
intellectually convinced that there was
nothing to ii human being of such con-
Germ to him as the welfare of his own
soul. knew well enough that | had
had evil and good put before me, and
that had deliberately chosen the evil,
and that there stood against me sum
of sin. There it stood; the fact could
not be denied no shoddy metaphysics,
no fancy logic, no trick of reason could
delude me with the idea that | could
forgive my own sin. | was too sensible
for that, and anxiously looked into the
bible for help, aud found that if that
book didn't understand anything else
in the world it understood the nature
and the condition and the wants of my
soul with an unerring accuracy. | saw
| wanted Il new nature if any man did,
and found that | and all other men
could accept the plan of salvation pro-
vided by the wisdom and the love of
God, and obtain Il new heart and live
in him and for him, or and all other
men could reject that plan and we could
have our old natures and live without
him here and for hereafter. chose de
liberately to give myself up to that
had given himself to death for me.
chose, say, to do this, but determin-
ed at first to do it all alone 10y myself,
very quietly in the silence of my own
chamber, with no one but Almighty
God as my cOnfidant. One Sunday
evening, altogether beyond any ar
Iangement of mine, without the slight
est intention of so doing, and now it
seems to me guided by the hand of the
Power above me, | was led into the
Tabernacle. | don't know how Mr.
Moody knew | was there, but he did
| never spoke to him in my life till this
noon, and yet he evidently got up that
sermon expressly for me, because every
sentence in it, like rifle shot, went to
my heart it was that sermon upon the
precious WILL" and the main scene
was whatsoever will confess me before
men, him will | confess before my
Father in Heaven" All, those words
Confess before men" rang in my ears,
they seemed like Il bolt coming from
the skies with the light of the throne
upon them, and | did confess before
men. told nv story with the weakest
knees | ever had in my life, but there
came to me that consciousness, which
that pardon and help from God had
come to me; and | stand here these
few minutes in the centre of this city as
one of the later witnesses, and my tes-
timOny like all the martys and all the
believers that in song and prayer have
told of the unspeakable worth of saliva
ton, is but one more witness. There
are men here, many of them, that know
mo TbaU know what | SaV now tn ho |
true, that | have shared in this city | |
love as many social and as many public |
occasions as any man in it. On land
and on sea l have mingled in scenes of
festivities and Boston has no pleasure, |
not pleasure, untasted by me. | know
it through and through. | have sam
pied this worlds goods in all their va
riety, and | have sampled the promises
of my Father in Heaven. | tell you,
with the sOlemnity of this hour upon
me, that Il crowded life of what is called !
enjoyment, cOmpacted into one glowing
whole, does not compare with two
weeks of that peace which comes with |
prayer and with certainty that my feet !
are on the Rock of Ages.
Oh, may God help me to touch some
heart here to-day. In very few years,
very few years, my friends, we shall |
be standing upon the border of the |
shOreless sea, and then with the chill of
death upon our faces we must either
hear the condemnation, "He that is I'M
just, let him be unjust still, or, having
touched the hem of his garment, we
shall look beyond and see the beckoning
hand and the shining face and hear the |
beloved voice welcoming us with these |
Is NTna 1 81
my Father, inherit the kingdom pre-
pared for you from the foundations of
the world"
General Swift's address was delivered
with great solemnity and earnestness,
and hundreds of wet eyes showed how |
deeply the audience had been touched. |