AN eminent legal gentleman, who had been a skeptic until middle life, one evening surprised his wife by saying, “I have found Christ, and I must set up my family altar. Let us go into the drawing room and pray together.” Luke 9:2626For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels. (Luke 9:26).
His wife was a Christian woman, and night have been expected to assent at nice; but it happened that the drawing room was occupied, and the guests not being Christians, she felt that their presence might interfere with devotion.
“There are four lawyers in there,” she said; “hadn’t we better go and have prayers in the kitchen?”
He went directly to the drawing room, greeted the lawyers, and said to them: “My friends, I have just been convinced of the truth of Christianity. I have found out that Jesus Christ died for me on the cross. I have given myself to Him, and now I am going to invite Him to my house. While I offer my first family prayer, you can remain, if you will. I leave it to your choice.”
The lawyers all declared they would be glad to remain: and they did so.
Noble was the example he set them there and then, and his act contains a lesson for everyone. Whoever or whatever you have with you, give Christ the first place.
The man of whom this story is told was Judge McLeon, of Ohio, afterward Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.