Part 9 (1/2)
I confess I was much disappointed at his abrupt departure froer, till the worst of the storm was over
After the lapse of nearly a quarter of an hour, Billy crept back to the door, and lifting the latch quietly, whispered to his wife, ”Is the passon gone?”
”No, Billy,” I said, ”here I alad you have come back”
”What d'yer ith me?” he inquired ”I want to talk to you about your soul I have been thinking much about you lately, Billy They call you a 'lost soul'”
”What's that to you?”
”Ah, a great deal,” I said, ”because I have a e for lost people I am not a doctor for the body; my business is about the soul”
”I ain't so bad as all that yet,” he replied
”But you are bad enough, Billy--bad enough”
”Yes, indeed,” interposed his wife
”You hold yer tongue; you're no better”
I beckoned to her to be still, and went on to say, ”You are bad enough, Billy, for an old man How old are you?”
”Up seventy years”
”Seventy years!” I repeated ”Well, now, that's a great age--that's the age ofyou notice to give up the keys of the old tabernacle I wonder why God spares your life? I around all this tiood Lord has spared you for so long?”
”I can't tell,” he said, getting more and more impatient
”Well, do you know, I think I can tell you He is such a loving and merciful God, He wants to have reater proof of it, could you? You set a horribly bad exa but drink, and smoke, and swear You have asked God to daain, and yet here you are still Why is this?”
He did not answer, but seemed interested; so I went on to speak of the forbearance of God towards him I said, ”Billy, do you know that I think the Lord wants to have mercy on you? He wants to save you!” As he listened, I went on to tell hiave His Son to die for him Then I proceeded to speak of the wonderful patience and long-suffering of God--a kind of crown upon His love; and what a shaainst such love as this
Poor Billy looked at me with tears in his eyes, and said, ”You are a dear man!”
”Dear man!” I answered ”What, then, is God, if I a you of His love? Ah, Billy, take and give your heart to God at once He is waiting for you It is a shaan to pray for him He soon fell on his knees too, and sobbed aloud; then he co, so when he rose from his knees I said to him, ”Now, Billy, I have been to see you; it is your turn to some and see me next
When will you coood; come this afternoon” And he did
More than that, this poor ”lost soul” found peace in reat joy; and he was not ashae it openly, nor afraid to praise God for His great goodness
The sa, and told the people what the Lord had done for his soul There was great exciteht be, for every one knehat a daring and wicked man he had been One man said that ”if a corpse had come out of the churchyard and spoken, he could not have been htened”