"That's true, right enough," said one of them.
"Well, who changed me?"
Various opinions were offered to this question.
"Well, I'll tell you!" he thundered, and that stentorian voice which always
used to dominate every assembly in which he mingled, held them spellbound!
"It was the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for me--yes, and He died for every
one of you. He shed His blood on Calvary's cross to keep every man from
hell who surrenders to Him in true repentance. Then He does another thing!
His Holy Spirit takes away the bad habits of every man who surrenders to
Him. He said once, 'If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free
indeed!' Now you look well at me! You know what a terrible temper I had.
You've tried your best in these past weeks to make me angry but you haven't
succeeded. That's a miracle in itself. You can say what you like to me now
but you won't make me lose my temper. That's not to my credit, let me tell
you! It's God Himself who's done something that I don't yet clearly
understand. The money I earn, I dump it all in the wife's lap, for I know
she can handle it better than I can! Then there's another thing! When I get
up in the morning now, I ask God to help, and He does it. When I go to bed
at night, I pray again. Let me tell you, if I should die I'll go to heaven,
and there I'll meet my dear old mother, for it's not what I've done, it's
what _He's_ done! It isn't that I'm any better than any of you. No! There
isn't one of you as bad as I was," he continued, "but if God was able to
change and pardon a beast like me, He can surely do the same with all of
you. So what I say is, why don't you all do just the same as I've done?
Surrender yourselves into Christ's hands!"
Little by little, seeing it was useless to try to bring the Breton back
into his old ways, his tormentors were silenced at least, and a life of new
activities commenced for the former drunkard.
"You certainly appear to be quite happy," said Paula, as we passed the
Breton's garden one evening where he was whistling merrily at his work.
"I certainly am that," said he, raising his head. "There's just one weight
on my heart yet, however."
"And what's that?" Paula's voice was sympathetic.
"It's that I cannot read."
"But I didn't think that that fact interested you very much."
"Yes, I know, Mademoiselle, but I didn't comprehend what I had lost, but
now I'd give my left hand if I could only read."
"Poor Breton," I said. It seemed to me we were a bit helpless before such a
problem.
"It isn't that I want to become a fine gentleman, and all that"; and the
Breton turned to address me also--"It's simply that I want to be able to
read the Great Book that tells about God and His Son Jesus Christ. Also I
would like to help my children that they might have a better chance than
hitherto I have given them. But there you are! I'm just a poor ignorant
man, and I suppose I always shall be."
"Well," said Paula, "why don't you attend the night school?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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