"Come in, Paul," said his father. "Our brother here is seeking the Lord while He may be found and you can help us both. Sit down a minute, will you."
Paul watched, while his father endeavoured to penetrate the other's bewildered intelligence. The boy saw at once that the fellow was maudlin with drink, but he did not estimate the extent to which "A few more years shall roll," and the hot air of the crowded hall, were also entering into the process of conversion.
"My brother," said his father again, earnestly, "it has all been done for you. You have only to accept. Don't take my word for it; let us see what God says. Listen. (He turned the pages of his Bible impressively as though he did not know the texts by heart; but he was wholly unconscious of posing.) 'Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as wool.... Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.... The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.' And what then? The Apostle sums it up: 'Therefore, being justified by faith, we HAVE PEACE with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.' That is all. Claim God's free, perfect salvation, and you HAVE PEACE with God."
"Aye, aye, mister, but I bain't be no scholard. I've not bin so bad as some blokes I knows on. A glass o' beer now and agin, Gawd Almighty 'E carn't send a bloke to 'ell for that. Can 'E now, mister? I want ter be saved, that's wot hi want. Ter be saved. An' Gawd's truth, I don't know wot'll do fur a doss ternight, Gawd's struth, mister...."
"Let us pray," said the clergyman suddenly.
The tears stood in Paul's eyes, as, his face hidden in his hands against the rough wooden bars of his chair, he heard his father wrestle with his God for the man's soul. He never heard his father pray thus without seeing a mental picture from an old Bible of his childhood, wherein Jacob, an ill-drawn figure in a white robe girt up about his waist, twisted back with his shrunken sinew from an angel with an odd distorted face like the one that a crack in the ceiling made with the wall in the candle-light above his bed. Even now, he saw it again. "Lord, we will not let Thee go except Thou bless us. Have mercy upon this poor storm-tossed soul. Give him joy and peace in believing. Let there be joy in the presence of the angels of God this night over one sinner returning."
Out in the sharp air, he took his father's arm. "Daddy, he was half-drunk. Do you think he understood?"
"Nothing is impossible with God, Paul, always remember that. If the Master could save the dying thief, He can save him."
A dozen silent paces, and then: "But, father, suppose he were run over and killed on his way to the lodging house, this night, as he is, do you think he would go straight to heaven?"
"Yes, Paul, I do—by the infinite grace of God. Drunk as he was, I believe he knew what he said when he repeated: 'Just as I am—I come,' after me."