ir_, and not till then, will I think of reform."

I was stirred by her words as I had never been stirred before. But for
them I might, perhaps, not have been writing this book to-day. At this I
know many may sneer and say that I have myself done more than most men
towards the furtherance of the evil I so strongly condemn.

I bow my acknowledgements. I own it all.

"I lived for self, I thought for self,
For self and none beside,
Just as if Christ had never lived.
As though he had never died."

I sinned against heaven and in the sight of God and man, and was in no
wise worthy to become a child of him to whom I came ten months ago, and
he received me just as I was, all stained with many, many sins, and in
his boundless love and mercy he forgave them all.

I feel I cannot close this book without just a word to any of my old
companions who may chance to read it, and to others who are leading the
life I once led. I want you to forsake that old life I once shared with
you and, as I have done, give yourselves into the hands of the Master,
Jesus Christ.

You don't know what you are missing of happiness in this world and what
you may miss in the world to come. I do not ask you to take my life for
an example. That would be a poor example, indeed. We do not have to take
any human life for a copy. The life of Christ is the one true example
for us all, and I believe that when we stand before, the great Judge of
all, the question will not be,_ if we have lived as well as this
professing Christian or that church member_, but if we have lived our
life as nearly like the life of Christ as we could.

And right here let me say a few words to professing Christians and
church members who dance. I say "professing" Christians because I
believe there is a vast difference between a _Christian_ and a
"professing" Christian and church member who dances.

To be a _Christian is to be Christlike_, and I believe there is nothing
_Christlike_ in partaking of such pleasures as have been described in
the foregoing pages, even though you indulge no further than the license
of the waltz. And even granting (if this were possible) that you only
engage in the indecent and suggestive position and motions, without a
single sinful thought or feeling, do you believe that your Heavenly
Father could say to you, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
Thou hast spent the evening to my honor and glory. Thou art in the
world and not of it.