That verse comprehended and lived has power enough to carry a soul
through all besetments into the very presence of God.
THE CASE OF MR. ABBOTT
During the winter of 1910, there came into the Gospel Mission a man,
ragged, soiled, blear-eyed, doped and utterly down and out; he came only
for the coffee and rolls given Sunday night. Before coming up the steps
he had said to a friend, “I don't want to hear any of their blank
sermons, but I am starving.” He heard no sermon, instead he received a
warm hand-shake, he heard bright singing, but, best of all, he heard
redeemed men tell how God had saved them from the alcohol habit, till he
cried out, “If God has power to save me from the sin of drink, I want
God!” He kneeled and poured out his soul in prayer. As soon as he began
to pray aloud, we saw he was an educated man. The Spirit came upon him
in great power, he really had the searchlight of God on his soul, and he
saw himself for a short time as God saw him. Then God forgave him, he
rose justified, strong, happy, a new man in Christ Jesus. The Mission
gave him a bed for the night, and the next morning this man, who had not
worked or desired work for two years, begged that we should find a place
for him to earn his way. He obtained a situation to solicit business for
a laundry, about as hard work as one can imagine, but he made good, and
in six months he was made foreman of the laundry in which he was
employed. He modernized its methods and doubled its business by the end
of the year, and the company made him a present of five hundred shares
of stock and elected him president of the company. Then he received
$3000 a year salary, besides his percentage of all gains made by the
house. His friends claim his income is now about $5000 a year. In the
meantime, after he had been redeemed, probably four months, his wife, a
most beautiful and accomplished Philadelphia woman, brought their lovely
son, aged about eight, and they began housekeeping again. The home has
given needed physical comfort, the companionship has given the mental
and the spiritual help needed to make this former tramp into a
first-class citizen. At night, during the last winter, he has been
studying law in one of the university law schools, and on Sunday he acts
as usher and vestryman in one of the largest Protestant Episcopal
churches. As a child he had been a choir boy in a church in
Philadelphia. Doubtless the knowledge gained there as a child made him
able to understand his duty to God and man after his conversion better
far than an ignorant, uninstructed person could have done after months
of instruction.
[Illustration: CHILDREN OF ALL NATIONS]
[Illustration: SETTLEMENT HOUSE]
THE PSYCHOLOGY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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