"What on earth do you mean?" inquired the swearer.
"Just this: there are possessions of present value, and a heavenly inheritance covenanted and held direct from the king, but the profane and corrupt will never be able to prove their legal claim to them."
"It was a slip of the tongue, sir, as I don't swear," said the young man, with some confusion.
"Then be careful," was the reply, "not to contract a habit so vile."
As they had to wait an hour, the reprover produced his pocket Bible, and to interest them in the truth, compared the Old Testament to a court of law—stern law, in which no sinner living can be justified; and the New Testament to a court of equity, in which the highest legal Authority in the universe has pronounced sinners, who believe on Jesus, "Justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses." After this, he impressively read the words: "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." As the train approached the station, the young men thanked their reprover, and there was hearty hand-shaking.
The second instance occurred under exceptional circumstances, for the conversation took place at the top of an omnibus. Late one fine summer evening a Christian man was seated at that pleasant elevation, when, as they passed a club in Pall Mall, a gentleman came out, ascended to the top, and lit his cigar. As they passed along, he made a most improper remark concerning some low people who were quarrelling at the corner of a street.
"Your sympathies," observed the man addressed, "are evidently with those persons: as we say in chemistry, there is attraction, an affinity between you."—
"Thanks for the high estimate you have formed of me," said the gentleman in an angry tone.
"A very right way to estimate a stranger," was the reply, "as to judge a man out of his own mouth is a very proper judgment. There are only two orders of men—the natural or corrupt, and those who have been made pure in heart. Had you belonged to the latter, those bad people would have caused a revulsion of feeling within you; instead of that you spoke with sympathy, and I therefore as a moralist come to the conclusion that impurity attracts you instead of holiness."
This remark was followed by a long silence, when the gentleman turned suddenly toward his reprover and inquired,—