This discourse stirred the mind of Mr. Hume in a wonderful manner. The story of God's judgments upon wicked men and dissolute cities he had read many a time in his boyhood, but the rapid review of them by Mr. Wilton seemed to bring them up with a lifelike vividness. And that view of the forces of Nature, as allied with the moral laws of God to work out wrath upon evil-doers, was new to him, but his own mind quick as thought suggested many more illustrations than Mr. Wilton had time to give. He remembered that all manner of vices--drunkenness, lust, devotion to gay, sensual pleasures--bring ruin to men. He had noticed that the saddest faces are those of worn-out lovers of pleasure, and he knew that lovers of pleasure are very quickly worn out--that five years of sensuality will waste the powers of life more than fifty years of good work. He knew also that infidels and blasphemers, whatever else they might be, were unhappy men, and died joyless, foreboding deaths. He was not exactly angry, but his heart rebelled against thus being held by the mighty power of God, willing or unwilling, and against the thought that even Nature herself had conspired against him. It seemed to him hard that he was born into such a world, and that there was no escape from it. He did not consider at the moment that God and his works were against him only because he was against God, and that by submitting to God in loving obedience all the forces of God's world and God's providential government would turn in his favor--"that all things work together for good to them that love God." At length better thoughts came to him. "I must know," he said to himself, "whether these things are so. I have never examined the subject to discover the truth, but have tried to find reasons for disbelieving the Bible and denying the gospel. I ought to look at the other side. If Nature and Nature's God have blessings in store for the willing and the obedient, why should not I know this and receive my share?" Under the impulse of thoughts like these he formed the sudden resolution to join Mr. Wilton's Bible class--that is, if he would receive him willingly, of which he had no small doubt. Coming directly forward at the proper time, he said to Mr. Wilton: "I have learned what your class is studying, and should like, I hardly know why, to join your class for a few Sundays, if you are entirely willing."