The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-28

afrection. Henry Gaunt opened the
 conversation by demanding proof Of Sir
 Richards Identity. This was at once
 forthcoming and then Henry, to do him
 justice, tried to show some genuine
 pleasure at hts brothers return to the
 land of the living. But It was clear
 that his mind was occupied with his own position, and that he considered himself cruelty injured man. He soon came to the point He made . cash offer of forty thousand pounds for the Gaunt Royal estate, and the offer was accepted. Sir Richard Gaurt repaid thirty thousand pounds of this money to the society that had inheri- ted the estate of the late George craw- shay. and the remainder he placed on deposit at a Dank, to be used for the common good of the Cause.
 l The receipt of this money was the | only satisfactory result that followed | on the disclosure of the preachers real ] name. old friends of a most unde- sirable character began to come for ward and claim acquaintance; men l and women. whom six years of evil living had dragged down still deeper into sin. wrote to him and even called upon him.
 Then he began to be haunted by an overwhelming fear of these people. who appeared like ghosts from the past. He refused to see them or an- swer their letters. But they contin- ued to cross his path.
 The man, weighed down by Mrs. Lampirthy' & malicious persecution and
 haunted by the loathsome spectres of his old life, was only sustained by
 that burning enthusiasm, which exalts | the mind at the expense of bodily strength and mental stability. His religious fervour acted like some drug i a fae f<xr 4 &A<>r r..4 which gradually wears out the nerves and tissues of the human frame. Never before had he risen to such heights of eloquence: never before had he displayed such power of endurance.
 such glowing vitality. such skill in moving his audience to fear and re- pentance.
 For six months he fought with al-
 most superhuman skill and energy, and at the end of that time 1t seemed as though he were destined to achieve victory. His personal fervour and | eloQuence had risen superior to all the forces of the world that had been | gathered to destroy him. He had lost the support of the more intellectual portion of his followers, but tn e lower | classes fiocked in their thousands to hear him.
 | Many of his disciples had been
 forced to leave him and return to their
 former ways of earning livelihood. He no longer had the money to provide | so many men with their daily bread.
 But those who remained with him re-
 doubled their energy and worked with l out teasing.
 Give me strength. o God: give me l strength to conquer"
 | That was his daily, almost his hour | ly prayer. All he needed was strength, | both bodily and mental, to carry on | the warfare. He had survived the on- slaught of the press, and the bitter hostility of the woman who had so much wealth that her enmity was | thing of real force. He was still great name In the land. and he still had power to move the multitudes with | his words. On every side of him he I saw the practical results of his preach l ing. Men and women were leading
 simpler lives. and were realizing that | the mind and the soul can find happi- ness apart from anything that money can purchase.
 Yet he realized that everything de- pended on his own bodily strength, on | the clearness of his thoughts, on the .aloquence of his tongue. There were | many earnest workers for the Cause, | but so far he had found no disciple of 1 sufficient intellect to take his place. l He was the moving spirit in the whole l crusade, the central force which moved | all the machinery. He knew that, if | he ceased from his labors everything would be thrown Into confusion. He l could not rest. During MT. Lampir- l thy's lifetime he could have rested for II Q while and gone to the south of Il France; but now, when aII~the forces 1 of the press were set against him, he 1 could not rest. He could not leave the battlefield even for a day. So ] much depended on his own personality. l While the millionaire was alive, the I work of organization was left to the man of business. But now Father
 Francis was alone. at time when he needed something more than piety or 1 eloquence in his battle with the world. | Yet the man was 50 stimulated by 1 his religious fervor that for six months he contrived to carry pn the
 fight with fair chance of success.
 But when each days work was over. and he needed rest, his whole physical and mental strength collapsed. and
 more than once he felt desire to take his own life. and put an end to the
 misery of the sleepless hours of dark
 ness. Only a strong and genuine piety
 restrained him at these times of de- pression and despair. The desire to
 kill himself frightened him. It was
 yet another ghost from the past which
 had been so cruelty dragged to light
 again. He tried to attribute 1t to the
 revival of old associations, and fought
 against 1t like a brave man.
 So long as this mental and bodily