temperance lecture in the streets of Gershom for a long while, as Squire
Holt and Jacob and all the folks here know.

"But I want to say a word to every young man here because there isn't a
young man in this Grove, I don't care who he is, whose feelings as to
liquor I don't know all about. I know, and I remember this minute, just
how it feels never to have tasted a drop. I remember how the first
temptation to drink came to me, and I know how it feels after the first
glass, and the second, and the third. I know just how strong and
scornful a young man feels when folks begin to warn him, and how
impossible it looks to him that danger should be near. I know every
step of the dark way that leads down to the gates of death--to the very
gates--for I have been there.

"I don't know just how far down that road any of you young men may have
got by this time, but I know that some of you are on it somewhere. I
know where you used to be, Tim Cuzner, and you haven't been standing
still since then. No. Come now, don't get mad and go away. If my life
would help you to set your feet on solid ground in any other road, you
should have it and welcome. But it wouldn't; no, nor ten such lives.

"But I'll tell you what will help you, and what every young man here who
feels the curse of strong drink needs as much as you do, and what we all
need to keep us safe from the temptations that are everywhere. There is
only one thing in the earth beneath or the heaven above that will touch
the spot, and that's the grace of God!

"That doesn't seem much, does it? The grace of God! You've heard old
Mr Hollister tell about it time and again, and you've heard Mr
Maxwell, and the folks in conference meeting talk of it, and it has got
to seem to you just like a word, a name, and that's all. But I tell
you, Tim and boys, it is a power. I know it, for it has dealt with me
and broken me to pieces, and made me over new."

Mark was no orator, though he had the clear, firm, penetrating voice of
one; but his words, because of the surprise of his presence, and the
change which had been wrought in him, and because of his earnestness and
simplicity, had on his audience all the effect of the loftiest
eloquence. He had a great deal more to tell them of the darkness and
misery and sin through which he was passing, when the minister found him
and laid hands on him, and followed him day in and day out, and never
got tired of him, nor discouraged about h