"No," I said, "I know you don't. But I came to talk to you so that you will
never want to swear again as long as you live."
I began to tell him about Christ in the heart; how he would take the
temptation to swear out of a man.
"Well," he said, "how am I to get Christ?"
"Get right down here and tell him what you want."
"But," he said, "I was never on my knees in my life. I have been cursing
all the day, and I don't know how to pray, or what to pray for."
"Well," I said, "it is mortifying to call on God for mercy when you have
never used his name except in oaths, but he will not turn you away. Ask God
to forgive you, if you want to be forgiven."
He knelt down and prayed, only a few sentences. After he prayed, he rose
and said, "What shall I do now?"
I said, "Go down to the church, and tell the people there that you want to
be an out-and-out Christian."
"I cannot do that," he said; "I never go to church except to some funeral."
"Then it is high time for you to go for something else," I said.
At the next church meeting the man was there, and I sat right in front of
him. He stood up and put his hands on the seat, and he trembled so much
that I could feel the seat shake. He said:--
"My friends, you know all about me; if God can save a wretch like me, I
want to have you pray for my salvation."
That was thirty years ago. Some time since I was back in that town, but did
not see him. But when I was in California, a man asked me to have dinner
with him. I told him I could not do so. Then he asked me if I remembered
him, and told me his name.
"O!" I exclaimed. "Tell me, have you ever sworn since that night you knelt
in your drawing-room, and asked God to help you?"
"No," he replied, "I have never had a desire to swear since then."--_D.L.
Moody, in "Weighed in the Balances," Published by Morgan & Scott._