"Well, the book he purchased was just what he needed. I hope he will
read it, but I fear he will not."
Three months after, as I was passing through the place, I called again
on the clergyman.
"I have a desire to know," said I, "if you have seen any fruits of my
labor in your parish?"
"Yes," he replied, with a pleased smile, "I have. My congregation has
been larger since, than for years. And," he added, "do you remember Mr.
D., the blacksmith, who treated you so outrageously, but relented, and
bought a little treatise on the Sabbath? What was my astonishment, a
few Sundays after, to see that man and all his family come into church!
They have been regular attendants ever since."
Not long after I was permitted to hear that the blacksmith, reclaimed
from his backslidings, had been restored to membership, and that a
number of his children had professed Christ before the world.