Saul, had had his journey to Damascus. A turning point had come to them,
and the outcast sons had become excellent and pious men.

Paula, as she listened, had drawn closer to the speaker, and her eyes
beamed with joy; but the elder woman shook her head, and her gaze grew
more devout and rapt, as she went on with deep solemnity:

"But then, my child, in all of these Grace had done its perfect work; the
miracle was accomplished which we term regeneration. They were still the
same men in the flesh and in the elements of their sensible nature, but
their relation to the world and to life was altogether new. All that
they had formerly thought desirable they could now hate; what they had
deemed important was now worthless, and the worthless precious in their
eyes; whereas they once referred everything to their own desires, they
now referred all to God and His will. Their impulses were the same as of
old, but they kept them within bounds by a never-sleeping consciousness
that they led, not to joys, but to everlasting punishment. These
regenerate souls learned to contemn the world, and instead of gazing down
at the dust their eyes were fixed upwards on Heaven. If either of them
tottered, his whole 'new man' prompted him to recover his balance before
he fell to the ground.--But Orion! Your lover? His guilt seems to have
passed over him; he hopes for reunion with God from a more meritorious
life in the world. Not only is his nature unaltered, but his attitude
with regard to life and to the joys it offers to the children of this
world. Earthly love is spurring him on to strive for what is noble and
great and he earnestly seeks to attain it; but he will fall over every
stone that the devil casts in his path, and find it hard to pick himself
up again, for misfortune has not led him to the new birth or the new life
in God. Just such men have I seen, numbers of times, relapsing into the
sins they had escaped from. Before we can entirely trust a man who has