"Why, Sam," said his master, "don't you like it?"
"No, sir," he said; "that man ain't converted at all!"
"Well, that is strange," said the rector; "I saw his interest went off just at the very point where you took exception to the sermon. You and Sam under stand something that I do not know." Thus our sermon-reading concluded, and, besides this, my witness had given his testimony.
I had stayed already two hours longer than I intended, and was tired of talking. The rector asked me to remain, and dine with him, and promised that he would send me to church in the evening in time for the service. I agreed to this; so he kindly took me upstairs to wash and rest. Coming into the room with me, he shut the door, and said in confidence,
"I know you are right; my mother taught me all this when I was young!"
"Then," I said, "we had better kneel down and pray about it."
We did so. In his prayer he entreated very earnestly that the scales might fall from his eyes, and that these truths which he loved when he was young might be brought to him again.
He was only praying for truth, and not for pardon and salvation; so I pointed this out to him.
"Yes—yes," he said; "Lord, save me! Lord, save me! Pardon me!"
I believe he found peace before he came down; but it is more difficult to pronounce in the case of educated, than in that of uneducated people. In the latter, the transition from darkness to light and life is often very manifest; whereas in the case of the educated, the effect is not so clear.