"Had you ever any convictions during your gay career that you were acting an unwise and a dangerous part?"
"O yes, often, Sir, very often; conviction would sometimes flash over my mind, with the vividness of lightning; but then it would soon go off again; and though I could not forget the impressions which it produced, yet I soon ceased to feel them."
"You informed me just now that while you were sometimes dissatisfied at your own pursuits, you often envied the superior happiness of our pious friends at Fairmount; but why did you envy them their happiness, when you could form no just conception of the nature of it?"
"It is true, Sir, I could form no conception of the nature of their happiness, but I knew they were happy—more happy without our fantastic sources of amusement than we were with them. I never retired from their society without being convinced that there was a Divine reality in true religion; and yet I could not imagine what it could be. The only idea I could form of it was going frequently to church, reading the Bible, praying, and living a virtuous life."
"Yes, my dear, there is a Divine reality in true religion, which, I hope, you will live to feel?"
"I cannot live, Sir, and I am not fit to die. My case is hopeless."
"No, my dear, it is not hopeless. I can repeat to you words which have comforted thousands, and I hope they will comfort you—'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'"
"But, Sir, after living such a vain life, may I venture to rely on his death for salvation, with a hope of obtaining it?"
"Yes, most certainly. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners—those who feel they are sinners—and as soon as we feel our guilt and our degeneracy, we are not only fitted to come unto him for peace, and acceptance, and eternal life, but invited in the most tender and endearing terms. Hence he says, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'"
"O, Sir," she suddenly exclaimed, and her eye sparkled with delight, "these are the very words which gave comfort to dear Amelia Stubbs when she was dying, so she told me."