" He felt sure this time that it was the prayers of his
mother, but he said calmly and deliberately, "No, I will first get
wealthy." He said he went on and did not go into a church for a few
months, but the first place of worship he went into he heard a third
minister preaching a sermon from the same text. He tried to drown--to
stifle his feelings; tried to get the sermon out of his mind, and
resolved that he would keep away from church altogether, and for a few
years did keep out of God's house. "My mother died," he said, "and the
text kept coming up in my mind, and I said I will try and become a
Christian." The tears rolled down his checks as he said, "I could not;
no sermon ever touches me; my heart is as hard as that stone," pointing
to one in the field. I couldn't understand what it was all about--it was
fresh to me then. I went to Boston and got converted, and the first
thought that came to me was about this man. When I got back I asked my
mother, "Is Mr. L-- living in such a place?" "Didn't I write to you
about him?" she asked. "They have taken him to an insane asylum, and to
everyone who goes there he points with his finger up there and tells him
to "seek first the Kingdom of God." There was that man with his eyes
dull with the loss of reason, but the text had sunk into his soul--it
had burned down deep.
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