A sob was heard. It came from the long-suffering Mrs. Keith. Then another stood, asking for prayers; then another, then another. Last of all, David Bright rose, and after speaking a few fatherly encouraging words, he dismissed them with the benediction. He was soon surrounded by men waiting for a word, a hand grasp. They asked for personal conferences with him. "Let us go down to the timber," suggested Jack Harding. So together these men strolled down to the river bank. "Thou art troubled about the unpardonable sin, thou sayest?" the preacher said to a young man walking by his side. "Yes," replied the youth addressed. "I've been a bad one, but now I really want to be a Christian. I fear I have committed the unpardonable sin. Do you suppose--" he asked in a voice that choked a little, "that God could pardon such a sinner as I am?" "With God all things are possible," reverently replied the other, laying a kindly hand on the young man's shoulder. "The only sin that seems to me to be unpardonable is that unrighteous obstinacy that forever refuses the _offer_ of salvation." And into the old man's face came an expression of sorrow. "But if the offer of salvation is forever _passed by_, what then?" asked another. "I believe the soul is lost." "You mean the soul is in a place of fire and torment, literal hell fire?" asked the first speaker. "I said I believe the soul is lost." "Then you don't believe in hell?" asked another. "No," answered David Bright; "not as some believe in it,--literal fire. Spirit or soul is, I believe, immortal. It lives on. To know God, and Jesus Christ, His Son, is eternal life; not to know them is death. To obey the laws of God here on earth means a foretaste of heaven; to disobey them, means a foretaste of hell." "And you think there can be hell on earth?" asked one. "Yes: a man's own evil mind and life make for him a constant hell." "And you believe heaven may begin on earth?" "I do. Heaven is the rightful heritage of the soul. Heaven is accord with the Divine. It is the natural environment of the soul. It is more natural to do right than wrong. It is evil environment that perverts the soul." They seated themselves on a dead tree trunk. "Here," said David Bright, laying his hand on the fallen tree, "you see an illustration of what happens to many a life. Its environment has brought a parasite that lays hold upon the life of the tree, saps its strength, and decay follows. Destructive agencies in a sinful environment lay hold of human life, sap its strength, and moral decay follows. Many a strong man has fallen as has this magnificent tree. Nothing can revitalize the tree once fallen into decay; but, thanks be to God, there _is_ a force that can revitalize the human being long after he seems dead and lost to the world, and that is the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."