When some notorious Canadian robbers were arrested, Chiniquy was chosen by several as their confessor, and he constantly attended the prison, instructing them, and trying to teach them how to die.
But, after all his efforts, a terrible fear that they were not converted would come over his mind, and doubts of the real efficacy of Popish ceremonies to prepare a sinner to meet God troubled him so much, that he made a final attempt to rescue the doomed men after sentence of death was passed upon some of them. His tears and prayers were successful, and the Governor of Canada changed the death-doom to life-long exile in Botany Bay. They, with a number of other prisoners, were therefore transported to the penal settlement, and good Father Chiniquy gave each penitent he visited a New Testament when he took leave of them.
Forty years passed away, and Mr. Chiniquy, the Presbyterian minister, was lecturing on "Romanism," in Australia, when he saw an elegant carriage driven up to the house at which he was staying, and a venerable gentleman, alighting from it, knocked at the door. He went himself to open it, to save trouble, and the stranger asked, was Father Chiniquy there, and might he see him privately?
"As I am Father Chiniquy," was the reply, "I can at once answer that I shall feel much pleasure in granting your request."
He led the way upstairs, and, when alone, the stranger asked—
"Do you remember the thieves who were sentenced to death in Quebec, in 1837? Well, dear Father Chiniquy, I was one of those criminals.... My name was A——. God has blessed me in many ways, but it is to you, under Him, that I owe my life, and all the privileges of my present existence.... I come to bless and thank you for what you have done for me;" and, with tears of joy and gratitude, he threw himself into his benefactor's arms.
They knelt together to thank God for His mercy, and then the visitor continued his wonderful story.
He said, "After you had given us your last benediction, when on board the ship that was to take us to Botany Bay, the first thing I did was, to open the New Testament you had given me.... It was the first time I had had that Book in my hands. You were the only priest in Canada who would put it in the hands of the common people....
"The only good I derived from the first reading was, that I clearly saw why the priests of Rome fear and hate that Book. In vain I looked for Mass, indulgences, purgatory, confession, the worship of Mary, &c., ... and for some weeks I became more of a sceptic than anything else.
"But, if my first reading did me little or no good, I cannot say the same of the second. I remembered, when handing us the Book, you told us to read it with prayer to God for light to understand it. I was tired of my former wicked life. I felt the need of a change.