One of the brightest memories of my boyhood is of the jolliest man I ever met. He was the center of attraction in every circle of society he ever visited. Let him go into a room full of strangers and soon everybody was at home with him and he was the center of the entire circle always. I loved him. I delighted in his company. There was no man or boy that I so loved to have around. Whenever he was present I knew there was to be merriment. He was the first man that ever took me to the theater. He took my brother next older than I and myself and his own son, but he was more fun than the whole show. It was merriment all the way to the theater; it was merriment all the way back from the theater.
Though more than forty years have passed I can remember the details of that evening yet. I think he was the brightest, cheeriest man I ever saw.
But I grew older and he grew older. When I had attained to manhood and was a preacher of the Gospel, one night he dropped into the house where I was staying. It was the dinner hour. After dinner I was to preach in New York, and I invited him to go along with me. He had become somewhat religious but not an out and out Christian. I felt confident he was not a saved man and hoped that if he went to the meeting that night I might succeed in leading him to Christ; for I was sure he loved me as I did him; so I invited him to go. He went with me.
After the meeting was over and we were on our way home, I approached him directly and personally on the point of accepting Christ. He opened his heart to me and let me see what was there, and I found that the merriest of all men I had ever known, underneath all this gaiety was one of the saddest of men. He had not found the true secret of joy, the joy that goes down to the deepest depths of the heart and that never fails, the joy of the Holy Ghost, which Jesus alone can give.