The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-05-04
The Crew Of the Sam Weller.


THE audience would have been rec
ognized anywhere as prayer-meeting
audience--a body which was remarka7
BILE principally for the absence of those
who most needed to be PRAYED for and
those who needed most to pray. Outside
the door and windows lounged several
men, young and old, who had come as es-
cortS to women. but who cared not to
follow their mates within the sanctua-
ry. Among these was old Lugwine,
and he leaned against the frame of a
window which commanded view of
his wife, and particularly of her new
shawl, which he considered about the
finest article of female attire in the
State. The old man occasionally varied
his position to relate to the other
loungers some "reminiscences of the flat
boat trip, and the place and occasion
reminded him to tell, with great glee,
how the deacon had tried to convert
the stranger hand, and how he got
harder knocks than he gave. Through
the open windows came the sound of
both praise and prayer, and both
sounded dismal to the loungers.
Finally, after the usual number of
prayers and hymns, the leader of the
meeting announced that an opportunity
would now be given to any who felt
moved to speak. A voice, strange to
most of the persons present, but famiI-
lar to the deacon, was heard, beginning:
My friends The deacon hurried
ly twisted his neck, and saw, standing
in a back seat, his late fat-boat hand,
Walter Brown. Lugwine espied him at
the same instant, and his surprise caused
him to calculate in a tone loud enough
to be heard throughout the room:
"Well, I'll be durnedr'
"My friends said the strange speak
er, g am unknown to most of YOU, but
| have word to say to those who pro-
fess TO serve God and desire to bring
others unto Him. | have long been a
member of an evangelical church else
where. l accepted religion logically,
and have urged it upon many another
man i'll the same manner. Then fell
from the position | had occupied, or
fancied | did, in the church. left my
home, and believed myself abandoned,
for good cause, by my friends. | learned
what q hypocrite had been, and en-
deavored to preserve my pride by sacri-
ficing my belief in the religion in which
ceeding quite well, in spite of the efforts
which a very good man in your midst
made to lead me back again. After he
had employed all argument-the ablest
rgument-unsuccessf upon me, l
was still abasing myself, and uprooting
my faith in what was good, when | ac-
cidentally discovered that an old woman
who was under no obligations to me
whom had barely seen, in fact-out
of pure sorrow for the condition of mind
| in which she had detected me to be,
was praying for me. This truth | could
not shake off or forget, that some one,
and not a being of high order, but one
of your own Bottomites, cared enough
| for me, stranger, to disquiet her own
heart for my sake. | have had Christ
preached at me in every conceivable
way, my friends, ever since my bov.
bend Him for the first time, through
this low type of humanity, but high form
of human unseltishness. | have come
all the way back from New Orleans
just to look at a being who cared this
much for me, and who has made plain
to me the nature of a greater Being
whom all other teachers have expound-
ed to me in vain. And | beg to impress
upon you the truth which this expert
ence has impressed upon me-that I'M
selfish human lives are the best means
of teaching to men the nature of God,
in whose likeness they are made
Brown seated himself, and Mrs. Lug
wine, of whose presence he was igno-
rant, wept silently and happily to her
self in the extreme corner of back
seat. There was movement near the
door, and then the voice of old Lug
wine was heard eXclaiming:
g weaken; if you've got him, there
aim no chance outside for me-
Some of the brethren left their seats
and gathered around the old sinner,
while Brown pressed close to him, whis-
pered: "Ask your wife," and disap-
peared.-JOhn HabbertOn, IN SundQV
| 4ffernOO71 for MAJ