In my first pastorate there was a revival of religion. It was sweeping through the town and people of all classes were being converted. Some of the infidels were greatly disturbed and sent off for an infidel lecturer with the hope of stopping the work, but his coming helped the work rather than hindered it. Many who did not dare to come out to hear the preachers had courage to go to hear the infidel lecturer and were so disgusted by his manner of presenting his position that they looked into the claims of Christ and were led to accept Him.
One lady said to her husband the night of his first lecture, “Let us go and hear Professor J. tonight at the hall.” Her husband replied, “What do you want to hear him for? You don’t believe as he does.” “I don’t know what I believe,” she replied. The husband consented to take her. As they came down the stairs of the hall after listening to the professor’s coarse ridicule of the Bible, the lady turned to her husband and said, “Well, I have found out one thing tonight anyway.” “What is that?” “I have found out that I believe the Bible.” She came to me and asked to be taken into my church. It was evident she really had accepted Christ and she entered the church and became one of the most active members in it.
But there was another lady in the community, who a few years before in a revival meeting in an adjoining town had started for the front and her husband had laid his hand upon her shoulder and forced her back into her seat. She never afterward made any attempt to become a Christian but drifted, as so many others do who resist the Holy Spirit, into rampant infidelity. When she heard that the infidels of the town had sent for this infidel lecturer she remarked to a friend, “I can hardly wait until Professor J. gets here.” She did not wait. One Saturday evening she was at the house of a friend at a card party. Ten o’clock came and they were still playing cards. Eleven o’clock came and they were still playing cards. Twelve o’clock came and they were still playing cards. The Sabbath began but they were still playing cards—Sabbath breaking and card—playing go hand in hand. In the early hours of the Sabbath morning, she sprang suddenly from the card table, clapped her hand upon her head and cried, “Oh,” and dropped dead beside the table. I would rather die somewhere else.
I shall never forget my first meeting with that woman’s husband after this awful tragedy. He had never spoken to me before, but as I entered the post office through one door, he came in through another. As soon as he saw me, he hurried across the post office towards me, held out his hand and I held out mine in deepest sympathy for the unfortunate man. I shall never forget the grasp he gave my hand. He knew his wife had gone out into a hopeless eternity and that he was to blame. O! you men, who are standing between your wives and their acceptance of Jesus Christ, there is an awful day coming for you, a day when you will look upon the white faces of your wives as they lie in the casket and will be face to face with the thought that your wives are lost forever and that you are to blame.