going to Dobbinsville, saw a huge wagon-box turned bottom side up, with the wagon on top, in a ditch by the side of the road.  As he drew near he heard coming from under the box the low muttering tones of a man’s voice.  As he stood near the box and listened he heard a most eloquent prayer.  He took a long pole from a fence near by and pried one edge of the box up, and who should emerge from beneath but Jim Peabody.

When the hour of service arrived, Jake Benton and the evangelistic party did not arrive with it.  Owing to the lateness of the train, Jake had been unable to get around at the appointed hour.  Finally the familiar rattle of Jake’s wagon was heard, and now all was breathless expectancy.  When the party arrived at the arbor, all eyes were fastened upon the Evangelist.  If he had been a ghost moving about in the twilight of that summer evening, he would have been regarded with no more superstition by that rustic people.  There was nothing whatsoever extraordinary in the physical appearance of Evangelist Blank.  He was a man of average height and scant weight.  His rather pallid face was covered with a scanty well-trimmed beard.  His deep-set blue eyes sparkled with a pleasant earnestness.  Any lack of physical attractiveness was amply atoned for by the splendid qualities of the man’s soul.  He was a mighty man of God.  He had an unusual grip on the upper world.  He had large capacities for moving God on his throne.  A heavenly atmosphere pervaded the realm of his personality.

When this man stepped onto the platform of the large brush arbor that summer evening, and took his seat and faced that audience, there was a stillness that was painful.  The awful stillness was broken when the Evangelist arose and said, “Praise God for his matchless salvation.”  He made a few preliminary remarks and the corp of singers began to sing.  And such music seldom issues from human lips.  It was not overwhelming in point of its artistic qualities.  The compositions were of the simplest sort.  But the singers sang from out of the abundance of redeemed souls, and there was a heavenly inspiration accompanying the songs that simply overwhelmed the hearts of sinners and overjoyed the hearts of saints.  One song that especially gripped the audience ran thus: 

“Do you triumph, O my brother, over all this world of sin?  In each storm of tribulation, does your Jesus reign within?”

  Chorus: 

“I am reigning, sweetly reigning, far above this world of strife; In my blessed, loving Savior, I am reigning in this life.”

When this and several other hymns equally inspiring had been sung, Evangelist Blank arose and said, “Let us pray.”  At this the audience began to make arrangements to stand, for it was the custom in Mount Olivet Church in those days to stand while the preacher “made” his prayer, as Deacon Gramps expressed it.  But the Evangelist had the notion that when the heart is humbled before God the