y
invitation.

"Brethren and sisters," he said, "we have had a gracious meeting and a
mighty outpouring of the Spirit. It is meet and proper for those who
have been helped, who feel that their sins are forgiven, who aim to
live a new life, to get up and say so, and thus burn the bridges behind
them. Come out on the Lord's side so everybody can see where you
stand! I leave the meeting open to you."

"Brother Thompson," said a gray old man with meal on his coat, "I feel
that I have been blessed durin' this meetin', and I ask the prayers of
all Christian people that I may continue faithful to the end!"

"Amen!" said William, and there were general grunts of approval, for
the miller was known to be a wonderfully good man.

"Brother Thompson," said a strange, shaggy young Adam, "I feel that my
sins are forgiven me and that I am a child of God. I ask the prayers
of all Christian people that I may continue faithful." He was a
moonshiner who had destroyed his whisky and cut up his own copper worm
and vats during the meeting. As he resumed his seat a little thin
woman in a blue cotton dress sprang to her feet, hopped with the
belligerent air of a fighting jaybird across the intervening space and
lost herself in the arms of the regenerated moonshiner. She was his
wife, the good woman who stayed at home and prayed for him of nights.
Now she shouted and beat a tender tattoo with her little brown hands
upon his bowed head.

"I jest can't help shoutin'," she cried. "I'm so glad he done it!"

He had "done it" three times before--reformed, only to fall again so
soon as the corn was gathered in the fall. No one had confidence in
him save this little blue-winged heart who loved him. It is no wonder
women believe in God easier than anyone else does! They can believe
with so little reason in men.

After this followed several triumphant testimonies. Sister Glory White
began to shout sweetly and quietly in the amen corner, slapping her fat
hands together and whispering softly:

"Bless the Lord, O my soul! Bless the Lord, O my soul! And all that
is within me, praise His holy name!"

Presently there was an interruption. William had made the mistake of
confiding one of the torches to Brother Billy Fleming, a "holiness
man." Suddenly he leaped into the air, shouting and brandishing his
blaze in every direction. The paroxysm of joy was short, however, and
when quiet was restored, in the deeper darkness--for Brother Fle