He dwelt at great length on the effects of salvation in the heart. He
said that if a man's religion did not have any effect on him, it was
worthless. A man's religion must make him a new creature, he argued. He
declared that salvation makes a man love even his enemies. He said
salvation cleanses a man from inward and outward filth.

By the time Evangelist Blank had illustrated and amplified all his
points he had consumed the major portion of an hour and a half of time.
During this time the entire audience was held spellbound by his simple
and earnest eloquence.

All this was strange theology to the members of Mount Olivet Church. It
was a stinging rebuke to their crooked and hypocritical lives.




CHAPTER IX


It was about the fifth night of the big holiness meeting at the arbor on
Post Oak Ridge. The country was stirred for miles around. People from
Dobbinsville and Ridgetown and neighboring villages were in regular
attendance. Scores of people had been converted. Many had been
sanctified. Numbers had been healed. The forces of sin were enraged.
Wicked men, grim with age, had melted like frost at noonday under the
mighty preaching of the Spirit-filled Evangelist. Old women with lying
hearts and gossiping lips had been stricken down in mighty and pungent
conviction for their sins. Young men, roguish and rough and