Something (an inner voice hitherto unrecognized) suggested that I ask
what he thought of it, even though it might be but a dream. He admitted
that it was wonderful and beautiful. (Afterwards he told me that he
would not have paid so much attention to my recital had it not been for
the unusual light on my countenance. "You can't think how you looked,"
he said. "Your face shone like satin!")

THE AFTERMATH.

Immediately following this God-given experience came the desire to
"search the Scriptures" (John 5:39). I regret having to tell you that
my Bible lay very near the bottom of a trunk and that the blessed
volume had not been opened for a shamefully long time.

It took me, in my spare time, something like three months to read the
book carefully from cover to cover. Not one word escaped me. I found it
to be so interesting--at first as a matter of history--that I began it
all over again. Thus it has been ever since; for to the Spirit-born
child nothing will, nothing can, take the place of the Bible. It is
always new, always refreshing. It is the voice of the tenderest, most
loving of parents, ever ready to answer our questions, comforting when
sorrowful, healing when sick, warning when in danger, ever directing,
admonishing, and encouraging under any and all circumstances. "Oh!" but
you say, "the chastening! You forget that." No, dear one, I do not. All
wise parents chasten their offspring. Would to God they would lovingly,
wisely administer more corrections than they do. The outcome, I verily
believe, would be a wonderful foretaste of heaven on earth. But I find
I am digressing.

Immediately following my conversion came the desire to impart the