The Personal TouchChapman, J. Wilbur (John Wilbur)
Religion
The Personal Touch
Chapman, J. Wilbur (John Wilbur)
Evangelistic work; Salvation -- Christianity
This woman was educated in a young ladies' seminary, and had a fairly
good start in life among some of the leading people in Western New
York. She married a man who became an habitual drunkard. She was sorely
disappointed in him, and, little by little, she started to drink, till
there came the time when she and her husband were possibly two of the
worst drunkards the State had ever known. She had been in prison two
hundred or more times. But now, up in the little town of Canandaigua
where she lives, she is treasurer of the Salvation Army, and has been
for fifteen years. She is respected by all who know her. Not only the
people in the army, but the well-to-do people of the town all love and
respect Mary Law.
Her husband was not converted until recently. She had been praying
fifteen years for him, and one night she prayed specially for him, the
last half hour of the meeting passed, the last twenty minutes, and then
Charlie came.
"I thank God for what He did for me," she said. "Before the Salvation
Army got hold of me, I was one of the worst drunkards in the state of
New York. The first night they came I wanted to know what the Salvation
Army was like. Just like any other old drunken sot, I wanted to know
what the Salvation Army was going to be. So I walked out as far as the
Police Station, and I said, 'Where is the Salvation Army going to be
to-night?' 'Well,' said the police officer, 'it is going to be up at
the Presbyterian Church, but I want to tell you one thing. If you go up
there you will get run in,' I thought to myself for a moment, if I stay
out I will get run in, so I might just as well go up there and get run
in. I went up, and I suppose I was a terrible-looking object. I got
into a corner near the door, so that if anything turned up I could get
out. I had just one quarter in my purse when they came to take up the
collection, and I put that quarter in. I believe if I had been outside
I would have been run in. When I got outside I wanted that quarter for
a bottle of whisky. I then went up to the Police Station. When the
Police Justice saw me coming in he said, 'Where have you been
to-night?' I said, 'Up to the Salvation Army meeting.' 'Well,' he said,
'let me give you a little bit of advice. Keep right on going.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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