a regular communicant, and exemplary in his life; but with all
this, he was unconverted. I often warned him of his danger; and one day
it came to my mind to tell him of the man who went in to the marriage
supper without the wedding garment. I said, no doubt he thought himself
as good as others, but when the King came in to see the guests, he was
speechless; and because he was so, and had not on the wedding garment,
the King commanded that he should be bound hand and foot, and put into
outer darkness. Now, I continued, the King has often come in to see us,
and we have rejoiced before Him; but you have never spoken to Him, or
asked for mercy. It is a very hardening thing to hear so much as you do
and remain unsaved; and a very deadening thing to come to the Lord's
table as you do, going through the form without any real meaning. You
receive the bread and wine in remembrance that Christ died for you, and
yet you do not believe enough to thank Him. I was led to say, "I must
forbid your coming to the Lord's table till you have given your heart to
God. You know it is right to do it, and that you ought to be converted.
I will not have you come here again till you are."

The man looked at me as if to see whether I meant it, and then appeared
so sorrowful that I nearly relented. All through the service he was low
and dejected, and went away at the time of the administration of the
ordinance, and sat at the other end of the church. My heart ached for
him, for I had never seen him so touched about anything. Afterwards,
when he came into the vestry, I could see that he had been crying. "Ah,
friend," I said, "it is bad to be left out from the Lord's table here;
what will it be to be left out of heaven?"

In the evening he was more miserable than ever, and at the close of the
service came into the school-room, where he broke down, and asked the
people to pray for him, for he was a hard-hearted, miserable sinner.
"Pray the Lord to melt my heart." We did so: and soon the poor
broken-hearted man sobbed and cried aloud for mercy; and it was not long
before, to our great joy, he found peace. He afterwards told us that he
had been getting hardened by forms ever since he had been clerk, reading
solemn words without any meaning, which at first he trembled at doing.
He was right; it is good to hear the Gospel, good to attend the means of
grace, good to assemble in the company of God's people; but to rest in
the habit of doing these good thing