At the morning service the doctor announced that a sinful man would confess his sin before them all that night. There was great excitement. Other men might be prevailed upon to make so humiliating a confession, the folk said, but not this one—not this rich man, whom they hated and feared, because he had so long pitilessly oppressed them. So they were not surprised when at the evening service the sinful man did not show his face.
“Will you please to keep your seats,” said the doctor, “while I go fetch that man.”
He found the man in a neighbour’s house, on his knees in prayer, with his friends. They were praying fervently, it is said; but whether or not that the heart of the doctor might be softened I do not know.
“Prayer,” said the doctor, “is a good thing in its place, but it doesn’t ‘go’ here. Come with me.”
The man meekly went with the doctor; he was led up the aisle of the church, was placed where all the people could see him; and then he was asked many questions, after the doctor had described the great sin of which he was guilty.
“Did you do this thing?”
“I did.”
“You are an evil man, of whom the people should beware?”
“I am.”
“You deserve the punishment of man and God?”