The weekly examiner., 1901-07-20


 forgotten for awhile. The new men sent over the road by the owners of the upper ranges would not pass through Champion anyway until the morrow. Groups of miners began to go off in companies toward their homes. Stuart saw that the danger for the evening was passed. The Sal vation Army had marched off to its hall, and a large crowd had gone in after it. The square was now rapidly being cleared. He felt completely ex- hausted, now that the strain was over.
 "You will spend the night with me, MT. Burke" he asked as the two walk ed out of the square over to where the horse had been left.
 "No, MT. Duncan. believe will re- main down here, now am so near my hotel quarters. Just as much under ob- legations to you. This has been great day of experience for you. I hope you will not be the worse for 1t. The dan ger from the men seems over for to- night"
 "Yes, I think so. Sorry you are, not going out with me. 1t has been a day of experiences. I can't forget my in- debtedness to you. We shall know each other better, am sure. need to know all the good men possible these days"
 ''I'm at your service, MT. Duncan. Good nightw
 Good night" Stuart shook hands strongly and drove up the street tin gling again. from the pressure of that grasp. Andrew Burke's handshake sug- gested as much as some mems orations-
 Stuart was so tired and ready for rest when he reached home that, after see. ing Eric and being assured that he would get through the night with the watching of the nurse sent for by the doctor, he went up to his room.
 He slept hard, but wakened early and could not go to sleep again. He had dreamed of his experience in the mine and awolze at the point where he had heard Burke's voice. He went over the whole adventure again, and then ire sistib1y was drawn in thought down to the town square and in memory stood on the church steps a little above the kneeling figure that prayed. He found himself saying over the words of the prayer. To his surprise he could re- member almost every sentence. Then he began to analyZe his feelings, pro- voked by the expressions of the prayer. But his mind soon refused to criticise anything and, without any special req son for it, he began to ask if the saving of men was any more the Salvation Army's business than his own. He be- gan to dwell on the word saved" as it was used so often in the prayer. Then, by a logical step which he did not at tempt to argue about as he might once have done, he was confronted with his own condition, and although he thought he tried to avoid answering the ques tion, it persisted in being put: "Am I saved? What is Jesus to mew
 The whole matter was foreign to his moral code. Besides, how could man in his present position, with all this la- Dor trouble confronting him, attend to religious questions? Nevertheless he was forced to come back to the simple question: "Am I saved? What is Jesus to me?' All through the strange de- bate now going on within him he seem | ed to feel that he was being driven ir- resiStibly to a point where he must l answer or decide the matter of his own personal salvation.
 He dressed and in a growing excite l ment walked the room in the twilight. | How are men converted? Was Saul of l Tarsus expecting to be met by the vii sion on the road to Damascus? Was it l not as sudden and astonishing to him as lightning Solt out of a cloudless evening? Does the Lord have any fee ble limitations in his way of reaching | mems souls or in the time he chooses? l 4,so 4o the persistent question that rose re- peatedly to his lips, but to no purpose. l He said, II will go down and inquire about Eric" But he turned in his | walk every time he faced his door and | again paced back to the windows l which opened on the front of the house. Gradually as the light of the world | grew stronger outside another and an inward light grew in Stuart's soul. He watched it grow in awe of it's strange revealing power. He saw himself as a child of God, with opportunities, pow CTS, values, all of them hitherto used selfshly, and in and through all the rest he saw illum:ned a radiant cross. What was Jesus to him?' The Ques- tion grew with meaning. Why was the Jesus of history figure to be re- spected simply?, Of what value and meaning was the cross unless 1t be- came a personal redemption?
 The sunrise of the outer world was reckoning the pines out on the hills. In little while the sun would be look ing out over the ranges, and q new day would be born. But new man was being born in the room of the Cham pion iron mine owner. The sun of righteousness was rising in him, and soon it would be daylight. Stuart trembled. He was alone. No man had spoken to hin. of salvation or of Chris tianity. But the divine presence had come at an unexpected moment, at irrI,k nncf in l