“I am sorry you are going to leave Santa Rosa.  You understand me, and if anybody can do me any good, you are the man.”

There was a tremor in his voice as he spoke, and he held my hand in a lingering grasp.

Yes, I knew him.  I had seen him at church on more than one occasion with compressed lips struggling to conceal the strong emotion he felt, sometimes hastily wiping away an unbidden tear.  The preacher, when his own soul is aglow and his sympathies all awakened and drawn out toward his hearers, is almost clairvoyant at times in his perception of their inner thoughts.  I understood this man, though no disclosure had been made to me in words.  I read his eye, and marked the wishful and anxious look that came over his face when his conscience was touched and his heart moved.  Yes, I knew him, for my sympathy had made me responsive, and his words, spoken sadly, thrilled me, and rolled upon my spirit the burden of a soul.  His health, which had been broken by hardships and careless living, began to decline more rapidly.  I heard that he had expressed a desire to see me, and made no delay in going to see him.  I found him in bed, and much wasted.

“I am glad you have come.  I have been wanting to see you,” he said, taking my hand.  “I have been thinking of my duty to God for a good while, and have felt more than anybody has suspected.  I want to do what I can and ought to do.  You have made this matter a study, and you ought to understand it.  I want you to help me.”

We had many interviews, and I did what I could to guide a penitent sinner to the sinner’s Friend.  He was indeed a penitent sinner—­shut out from the world and shut in with God, the merciful Father was speaking to his soul, and all its depths were stirred.  The patient, praying wife had a wishful look in her eyes as I came out of his room, and I knew her thought.  God was leading him, and he was receptive of the truth that saves.  He had one difficulty.

“I hate meanness, or any thing that looks like it.  It does look mean for me to turn to religion now that I am sick, after being so neglectful and wicked when I was well.”

“That thought is natural to a manly soul, but there is a snare in it.  You are thinking what others may say, and your pride is touched.  You are dealing with God only.  Ask only what will please him.  The time for a man to do his duty is when he sees it and feels the obligation.  Let the past go—­you cannot undo it, but it may be forgiven.  The present and an eternal future are yours, my friend.

“Do what will please God, and all will be right.”

The still waters were reached, and his soul lay at rest in the arms of God.  O sweet, sweet rest! infinitely sweet to the spirit long tossed upon the stormy sea of sin and remorse.  O peace of God, the inflow into a human heart of the very life of the Lord!  It is the hidden mystery of love divine whispered to the listening ear of faith.  It had come to him by its own law when he was ready to receive it.  The great change had come to him—­it looked out from his eyes and beamed from his face.