We all bade him good-bye; but I felt as if I must go and see him once more. Next night, before the train started, I went to the station, and found that, without any concert of action, one and another of the class had come to bid him good-bye. They were all there on the platform. A few gathered around us—the fireman, engineer, brakesman, and conductor of the train, with the passengers. It was a beautiful summer night, and the sun was just going down behind the western prairies as we sang together—
“Here we meet to part again,
But when we meet on Canaan’s shore,
There’ll be no parting there.”
As the train moved out of the station, he stood on the outside platform, and, with his finger pointing heavenward, he said: “I will meet you yonder;” then he disappeared from our view.
What a work was accomplished in those ten days! Some of the members of that class were among the most active Christians we had in the school for years after. Some of them are active workers to-day. I met one of them at work away out on the Pacific Coast, a few years ago. We had a blessed work of grace in the school that summer; it took me out of my business and sent me into the Lord’s work. If it had not been for the work of those ten days, probably I should not have been an evangelist to-day.
Let me again urge on Sunday-school teachers to seek the salvation of your scholars. Make up your mind that within the next ten days you will do all you can to lead your class to Christ. Fathers, mothers, let there be no rest till you see all your family brought into the kingdom of God. Do you say that He will not bless such consecrated effort? What we want to-day is the spirit of consecration and concentration. May God pour out His Spirit upon us, and fill us with a holy enthusiasm.
[CHAPTER VI.]
THE POWER OF LITTLE THINGS.