“Oh how happy are they
Who their Saviour obey,
And have laid up their treasure above!
Tongue can never express
The sweet comfort and peace
Of a soul in its earliest love.”
These words found a response in many hearts.
High up upon the river bank were gathered a little knot of mocking unbelievers. One among them, seven years before, had publicly professed his faith in Christ. For a little time he seemed to be treading in the Lord’s ways, but falling among evil associates, he not only neglected Christian duties, but became a professed unbeliever. He read infidel books and loaned them to others. He sought to sow the seeds of unbelief wherever he went. Upon this Lord’s Day he stood with others profanely mocking at the sacred service. With shivering, tremulous accents he exclaimed, “Poor Harry Gill is very cold; I would not go into the water to please any Christ for five hundred dollars.” That young man went home with deep conviction of sin upon him. Two days after, Mr. Wilton was called at ten o’clock at night to visit him. He was trembling like an aspen leaf with his deep anguish of conscience, and for two days and nights his body shook under his fear. Then little by little faith took the place of fear, and hope smiled upon him. He was the next person whom Mr. Wilton baptized.
Look in upon the Christian band assembled that Lord’s Day evening. Upon the faces of those who had been baptized there was no sign that the service of that day had been painful; if they had done the duty as a cross, the cross must have been quickly followed by a crown of joy, for every face was radiant with light. Among them was one little girl twelve years of age whose face, as she rose from the water, shone like the face of an angel, and the transfiguration of that moment had hardly begun to fade away. Ansel was peacefully happy, and from the face of Mr. Hume the old look of dissatisfaction was all gone; his soul had entered into rest, and he felt at home. Every one of them testified that it had been the happiest day of his life. They declared themselves willing for Christ’s sake to be baptized a hundred times if he commanded. They had already found that “in keeping his commandments there is great reward.”
I should be glad, kind reader, to trace with you the Christian course of these disciples through the years that follow. But we must leave them. I am sure, however, that their course will be upward. Their experience was not the mere effervescence of fickle feeling. The word of God germinated in their hearts; they had root in themselves. They believed, they believed the truths of the gospel, and therefore they felt, and therefore they acted. “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world,” and believing that they were truly born of the Spirit, we are confident that “he which hath begun a good work in them will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”