"Since I began to try to pray I have felt, faintly at first, like the whisper of a suggestion, but becoming clearer and stronger, like a voice from heaven, that I must in this congregation confess my former state and the feelings which I have had. It seemed to me that I could not do this. It seemed easier to die than to stand up here and confess that my belief, which I had pressed upon others and had boasted of as better than the gospel, had given me no peace. To-day I have been made to understand that the Spirit of God has set me face to face with this confession. I have seen what it means to be saved--that my self-will must die or I must bid adieu to Christ and hope. I cannot live and die hopeless. I cannot rest my head upon unbelief. I confess to you that all my thoughts have been wrong. My beliefs and my unbelief have done me no good. My whole life has been enmity and opposition to the Holy Spirit. I will try to oppose the Spirit no more. I know not what the Spirit may lay upon me, I know not how soon I may break my resolution, but I now feel that I want to be saved from sin, and cannot do otherwise than follow the Spirit though I dwell in darkness for ever. If Christ reject me I cannot complain, but if you think there is hope for one who has so despised the grace of God, I entreat you to pray for me." It is needless to say that from scores of family altars and closets supplications went up to God that night for the salvation of Mr. Hume and Ansel and Peter, and men prayed especially that Mr. Hume, who for years had been such a tower of strength to the ungodly and the dread of Christians, might be saved for the glory of Christ and the confounding of unbelievers. Those prayers were heard. When the report of that meeting and that confession went out through the community, unbelievers were silent. It was as if the God of battles had emptied his quiver into the hearts of his enemies. CHAPTER XII. TRANSFER OF HEAT IN SPACE. "We now turn our attention," said Mr. Wilton, "to a new theme. In the vicissitudes of day and night and of summer and winter heat is transferred _in time_. We now are to look at the arrangements by which heat is transferred _in space_. But since the transfer of heat in space requires more or less of time, the means employed are such as suffice to accomplish both objects. Heat is treasured up and carried away to distant regions, and delivered up for use as occasion demands. "In a previous lesson the inclination of the earth's axis was spoken of. By this means the northern hemisphere of the earth is turned somewhat toward the sun during one half of the year, and receives a correspondingly larger portion of heat, while during the other half of the year the southern hemisphere is turned toward the sun and is warmed. This inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit gives us the change of seasons.