he fact
remains, however, that clouds and storms--but I need not trace the
figure further; you all know about it. So, almost before the young man
was aware, he was under a cloud. It happened on this wise:

For many weeks he had been drinking freely and both smoking and chewing
tobacco to excess. The first thing he did, after his hopeful
conversion, was to quit all these stimulants at once. His intense
religious zeal held him up for a few days, but at the end of that time
his strongly formed appetites assorted themselves. He could scarcely
sleep, so hungry was he for a chew, or a smoke, or a drink! These were
the weaknesses that had driven him to seek for help through the
consolations of religion. He had been promised this help, and in no
equivocal terms either. He had been told, even from the pulpit, that
if he would put his trust in the Lord all these temptations would
depart from him. He had done this as well as he knew how to. He had
at least made an honest effort in that direction. His lips were
parched for liquor, and his tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth
with a longing for a quid of fine-cut.

And so the clouds overspread "Dodd's" sky--clouds of doubt and
distrust, out of whose lurid depths leap lightnings that blast like
death!

He doubted, first of all, the honesty of the men who had promised him
more than he found himself the possessor of. We always begin by
doubting some fellow-mortal. As the process progresses, it leads us,
ultimately, to doubt God.

But these men had meant to be honest--there is no doubt about that.
They had told the young sinner of that which they believed would help
him. They knew, of course, that he would have trouble with his old
habits, after a while. Perhaps they hoped that he would get over them
somehow. Perhaps they did not think very much about it. In either
case, they said nothing. The patient was suffering. They gave him
medicine that would afford him the quickest relief, without regard to
the permanency of the apparent cure. What an amount of such doctoring
has been done through the ages. Stand up in your graves, you armies of
dead men that have thus been dealt with, and nod a "yes" with your
grinning skulls!

The clouds grew thicker. "Dodd" went to his newly formed friends and
told them frankly of his condition. The minister advised him to be
much alone and in prayer. The young man told him that there was no
need of his suffering from such ap