Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-04-22
From Darkness to Light.

Instances of men being suddenly
brought from moral darkness into
spiritual light are authenticated. The
case of the celebrated Col. Gardner, an
English soldier, is an Illustration OF
this immediate transformation.
He was an atheis. and rake, whose
ideal of life was sensual pleasure. One
day, while meditating an act of gross sin,
he was, as suddenly and az thoroughly
transformed as WAS Saul of Tarsus. He
became not only a theist, but an, hum
BILE, working Christian, whose subse-
quent life attested to the genuineness
of the Sudden change from darkness to
| light.
The believer in the Fatherhood of
God, and in His being every where pres
emit. will Lave little difficulty in tracing
the source of such moral changes.
One almost as extraordinary as Col.
Gardeners occurred to an American
soldier. 1t is reported in Miss Peabody's
"reminiscences of Dr.. Chamning."
The narrator is lady of culture, we'll
known in Boston, as is also the gentle
One day, in the summer of 1912, a
young man entered Miss Peabody's
bookstore and asked for Kant's works.
His original and ocular remarks at
tracted her attention. He seemed
versed in the history of religious doc
trines, and was evidently philosopher
and theologisn. Conversation led to
confidence, and he told the lady some
thing of his personal history.
A graduate of West Point, he entered
the army at nineteen, and was sent to
fight the Florida Indians. He was fond
of mathematics, of the science OF war,
military biography, aid of Byron's and
Shelley's poetry.
Shelley's "Qaeen Nab" had been
his gospel, and his theology was also
Shelley's; namely that God is merely
complex of the laws of nature.
Events left him in command of a
company of desperadoes. In order to
preserve the prestige of his authority,
he kept himself aloof fromthem, living
alone in his tent.
One day. during long interval be-
tween fightings with the Indians, he
was meditating, in his tent, ON his pow
er over the brutal soldiers under his
command.
"These men, said he to himself,
are governed not by the complex of
my thoughts, nor by the complex of
the laws of nature, of which they know
nothing, but by me-a f-aetermin-
ing force, free spirit, a person."
Then, suddenly this thought came to
him: Aud God is behind the complex
of the laws of rarure-a selgacting,
free, supreme, infinite Person, to WHOM
all finite persons are responsible"
Starting from his seat, he seized
go leen Nab and flung it out of the
door of his tent. Opening his vaIise,
he took out the Bible that his mother
had put into it when he left home.
AS he opened the book his eye fell
on the words quoted by Christ from
Isaiah, the day Hs began His minis
try: The Spirit OF the Lord is upon
me-"
AS he read, he thought he heard the
roar OF artillery. Springias to his tent
door, Ge say. heard nothing. The roar
was within MN cNn s"IF.
Reading tba New I-,tament begot q
desire to leave tue army and become u
minister OF Christ. Honor forbade hiIG
30 resign, he being in an e9eny's coun-
try. SO he prayed that God would ~
lease him from his bonds.
lie WAS stricken down by tlslariaI
fever. The surgeon said he shoali re-
sign and go ha0oe to dl9. Ia iii 10.
sign. came TO Boston. and, instead Of
dying, recovered his health ani began
the study Of theology.
Was It chance ? Was il even his own
thought that directed this Ii,aieuAut
to the personality OF Coz, and t. Tire
woods Of Is4f-L p. Youth Companion.
ID what thou can lucknow; and be
No. vain Of what ousl.t rather 10 b. felt
than scoL.--, William Penn.