“‘Supposing, when you first came here, I had written a letter to you, inviting you to come to my house whenever you liked to do so; telling you that I would have a nice room prepared for you, and, in every respect, would make you as comfortable as possible; and supposing that, instead of reading my invitation, and availing yourself of my kind offers, you had treated my letter with contempt, and refused even to open it, pleading as an excuse that a letter once proved disagreeable to you. If, after you left, I should hear that you spread an evil report about me, and accused me of unkindness, do you not think I could justly charge you with injustice?’ “‘Yes; and I see what you mean. I can’t say I’ve tried to find out much about the Book, either good or bad.’ “‘There is another thing. I think that you have rather confused ideas about the character of God. You confound your earthly with your heavenly Father; and thus you think unjustly of Him, and His works also. Now, as I cannot stay longer to-day, I am going to ask you to reward me for not troubling you with tracts, and what you call “twaddle,” by just reading one little chapter that I will leave turned down for you here.’ “I left him the 15th chapter of Luke to read; and he faithfully read it, and the next day we talked about it. He was too intellectual a man not to appreciate its exceeding beauty; but he did not feel himself to be a prodigal needing the love and forgiveness of the kind Father; so that it was to him little else than a ‘pleasant song.’ “After many observations had passed, I asked if he were in the habit of attending any place of worship. He answered, ‘Oh, no! I have been to the cathedral sometimes, but I didn’t like it.’ “This was Saturday. At the end of our conversation, I told him I thought he had better make one more trial of attending a place of worship; and, as he lived in Blackfriars, I recommended him to go to Surrey Chapel, to hear the Rev. Newman Hall. He promised he would. On Monday, I did not get to the house till it was late. Some of the men had gone away; but this painter was still lingering over his work. ‘Oh, ma’am,’ he said, ‘I am glad you have come. I wanted to see you, to tell you I went yesterday to hear the gentleman you spoke about.’ “‘I am glad to hear it. I hope you will often go.’ “‘I believe I shall, for _he_ is something about a parson. I said to myself, “You ain’t a humbug, anyhow.” I went in the morning, and I went again in the evening.’ “I had no time to talk to him then, nor for some days after. I think the Friday of that week was set apart as a fast-day. On the Thursday I found him painting away very busily. As soon as he saw me, he said, ‘We have just been talking about you, ma’am, and we know you are in a hurry to get this house done; and so, instead of knocking off work, because it is the fast-day to-morrow, we are going to stick to our painting, and have a jolly good day at it.’