my way to the
space near the platform. There I saw the apostle to the drunkard and
the outcast--that man of God, Jerry M'Auley. He rose, and amid deep
silence told his experience. There was a sincerity about this man that
carried conviction with it, and I found myself saying, 'I wonder if God
can save me?' I listened to the testimony of twenty-five or thirty
persons, every one of whom had been saved from rum, and I made up my
mind that I would be saved or die right there. When the invitation was
given, I knelt down with a crowd of drunkards. Jerry made the first
prayer. Then Mrs. M'Auley prayed fervently for us. Oh, what a
conflict was going on for my poor soul! A blessed whisper said,
'Come'; the devil said, 'Be careful.' I halted but a moment, and then,
with a breaking heart, I said, 'Dear Jesus, can you help me?' Never
with mortal tongue can I describe that moment. Although up to that
moment my soul had been filled with indescribable gloom, I felt the
glorious brightness of the noonday sun shine into my heart. I felt I
was a free man. Oh, the precious feeling of safety, of freedom, of
resting on Jesus! I felt that Christ with all his brightness and power
had come into my life; that, indeed, old things had passed away and all
things had become new.

"From that moment till now I have never wanted a drink of whiskey, and
I have never seen money enough to make me take one. I promised God
that night that if he would take away the appetite for strong drink, I
would work for him all my life. He has done his part, and I have been
trying to do mine."[104]

[104] I have abridged Mr. Hadley's account. For other conversions of
drunkards, see his pamphlet, Rescue Mission Work, published at the Old
Jerry M'Auley Water Street Mission, New York City. A striking
collection of cases also appears in the appendix to Professor Leuba's
article.

{200} Dr. Leuba rightly remarks that there is little doctrinal theology
in such an experience, which starts with the absolute need of a higher
helper, and ends with the sense that he has helped us. He gives other
cases of drunkards' conversions which are purely ethical, containing,
as recorded, no theological beliefs whatever. John B. Gough's case,
for instance, is practically, says Dr. Leuba, the conversion of an
atheist--neither God nor Jesus being mentioned.[105] But in spite of
the importance of this type of regeneration, with little or no
intellectual readjustmen