The Poorhouse Waif and His Divine Teacher: A True StoryByrum, Isabel C. (Isabel Coston)
Religion
The Poorhouse Waif and His Divine Teacher: A True Story
Byrum, Isabel C. (Isabel Coston)
Christian life -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction
"It will take me just a year from the time I start to go to church before I
can become converted, or be able to pray the right kind of prayer," he said
to himself; "and how much longer will it take before I know that I am on
the road to heaven?" for regardless of Mrs. Miller's confident statement
that nobody in this world could know of his future reward, Edwin was still
of the opinion that people could. "It's just because they haven't got that
far along, I guess," he reasoned, and he felt very sure that some of the
people who were at the prayer-meeting must know.
Among the day-laborers who worked for Mr. Miller was a Mr. Kunz, who,
although not a Christian, was a good, intelligent, and friendly fellow, and
who lived only about a mile away. For this young man Edwin soon formed a
great attachment, and as the weeks slipped by he occasionally found time
and opportunity to visit him in his home. During one of these visits Mr.
Kunz said in answer to Edwin's questions on prayer and the other things
that were troubling him:
"I don't know very much about such things, Edwin, but I think that you can
find out all you want to know if you will go to the big camp-meeting that
is soon to be held on the camp-ground yonder," and with his finger Mr. Kunz
pointed to a strip of woods that Edwin had heard spoken of as the
"Camp-Ground."
"Why! what has the camp-meeting to do with such things?" Edwin asked,
greatly surprized; for his idea of the camp-ground had been that it was a
place for worldly amusements to be held, such as picnics, festivals, and
ball-games, and it was hard for him to connect it with anything that he
considered so solemn as prayer and getting an assurance of heaven.
"It has much to do with it, Edwin," Mr. Kunz replied. "The meeting is held
by men and women who are converted and whose business it is to see that
those who come to the meeting get converted. They will know what you need
and will help you to understand how to get it."
"Do you mean," Edwin asked, his eyes opening wide in wonder, "that one can
get converted right there at the meeting?"
"Yes, indeed, I mean it," Mr. Kunz replied, smiling at the eagerness of
Edwin. "Every year many are converted, and it is for that very purpose that
the meeting is held."
Poor Edwin! It was hard for him to make the words of Mrs. Miller and those
of Mr. Kunz harmonize; but as he considered what his friend had said, a
bright star of hope arose in his sky, and he at once decided that the thing
for him to do was to attend that meeting. He asked Mr. Kunz how it was
possible for those people to get any one converted in so short a time. As
Mr. Kunz was not a Christian himself, he could only answer that he did not
know how it was, but that somehow they did it. With this knowledge Edwin
arose to return to the place where he was making his home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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