St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-01-03
[Continued from last week.

lContinued from last week
kept It'll / was drunk inside of
week. I've been drinking ever sine
but I've never forgotten you or 70
prayer. Do you remember, the mornil
after | came to your house and aft
breakfast, you had prayers and ask
me to come in and sit with the res
That got me. But my mother used
pray. | can see her now kneeing dow
by my bed when | was a lad. Fatht
came in one night drunk and kicke
her while she was kneeling there b
me, but | never forgot that prayer q
yours that morning You prayed 70
me just as mother used to, and you die
not seem to take count If the fact thai
was ragged and tough looking anC
more than half drunk when | rung youl
doorbell. Ny God, what a life I've
lived The saloon has housed me and
homed me and made hell on earth for
me. But that prayer stuck to me all the
time. My promise not to drink was
broken in a thousand pieces inside of
two Sundays, and | lost the Job you
found for me and landed in a police sta
ton two days afterward but | never
forgot you or your prayer. | don
know what good it's done me- but l
never forgot it, and | won't do any
harm to you nor let any one else. SO
you're free to 60 That's why"
The bishop did not stir Somewhere
a church clock struck l. The man had
put on his hat and gone back to his seat
on the stone The bishop was thinking
hard
''How long is it since you had work?
he asked, and the man standing up
answered for the other
'MOre'n six months since either of
us did anything to tell Of unless you
count holding up work | call it pretty
wearing kind of job myself, especially
when we put in a night like this one
and don't make nothing
Suppose | found good jobs for both
of you. Would You quit this and begin
all overY'
whats the use2' The man on the
stone spoke sullenly. eve reformed a
hundred times. Every time go down
deeper. The devils begun to forcelose
on me already. It's too late -
"NoP' said the bishop and never be-
fore the most entranced audience had
he felt the desire for souls burn up in
him so strongly All the time he sat
there during the remarkable scene he
prayed: 80 Lord Jesus, give me the
souls of these two for thee | am hun
CRY for them Give them to mel"
MOI the bishop repeated. "What
does God want of you two men? 1t
doesn' t 80 much matter what | want,
but he wants just what | do in this
case. You two men are of infinite value
20 him. And then the bishops won
derful memory came to his aid in an 1
appeal such as no one else on earth '
among men could make under such cir {
He had remembered the
man S name in spite Of the wonderfully
busy years that lay between his coming |
to the house and the present moment s
Burns, he said, and he yearned t
over the men with an unspeakable long j
ing for them both, eff you and your s
friend here will go home with me to- t
night | will find you both places of t
honorable employment | will believe a
n you and trust you. You are both ]
young men. Why should I
fod lose your 1t is a great thing to t
win the love of the great Father 1t is e
small thing that | should love you, C
1ut if you ed to feel again that there t
s love In the world You will believe t
ne when | say, my brothers, that | love a
you, and IN the name Of him who was b
;rucltied for Our sins | cannot bear to
zee you miss the glory of the human s
life. Come Be menl Make another try e
or it, God helping you No one but a
sod and you and myself need ever s
Know anything of this tonight. He has b
orgiven it. The minute you ask him to "
you will find that true. Come! Wen Il
lght 1t out together, you two and l. a
It's worth fighting for Everlasting life "
Is. 1t was the sinner that Christ came "
20 help. I'll do what can for you. O
Tod, give me the souls of these two 8
nenP' y
The bishop broke into a prayer to D
tod that was a continuation of his an s
peal to the men. His pent up feeling v
mad no other outlet Before he had &
prayed many moments Burns was sit Ii
ting with his face buried in his hands. f
'obbing. Where were his mothers I
prayers nowY They were adding to the s.
power of the bishops. And the other ?
man, harder, less moved, without 0
knowledge of the bishop, leaned o
back against the fence, stolid at first. v
but as the prayer went on he was moved 4
by it. What force of the Holy Spirit a
swept over his dulled, brutal, coarsened v
life nothing but the eternal records of
the recording angel can ever disclose, g
out that samesupernatural presence that f
smote Paul on the road to Damascus S
and poured through Henry Maxwells b
church the morning he asked disciples r
to follow in Jesus steps and had again b
broken irresistibly over the Nazareth I
Avenue congregation now manifested i
himself in this foul corner Of the mighty
city and over the natures of these two h
sinful sun&en men, apparently lost to I
all the pleadings of conscience and c
memory of God The bishops PRAYER S
seemed to break open the crust that had /
Tor years surrounded these two men and {