And still he kept his own counsel.  The great gulf fixed between himself and his parents grew wider and wider.  It was through this gap that the devils entered in and took possession of his soul.

The Book has it that wicked men wax worse and worse.  It was so with “Dodd.”  His love of liquor grew upon him with wonderful rapidity.  He began drinking to excess, his eyes became bloodshot, his hand became unsteady, and his step halted.

But the better part of the young man rebelled at this retrogression.  He passed many an agonizing night alone, pledging himself to stop; hoping, longing for his true life of a few months before, and cursing his present condition.  The “Other Fellow” was faithful to him, too, calling loudly to him to turn about, to go the other way, to “be converted.”

But as is usual in such cases, after a night of such agony he would take one drink in the morning, just to steady his nerves down, and one being taken, the rest followed in course through the day, as they had done the day before, and the day before that.  He was drunk a good share of the time.

It happened one night as he was going home, or rather as he was trying to go home, being in a very mellow condition, that is, he “stackered whiles”—­that he was accosted by a polite and pleasant voiced, young gentleman, who took his arm kindly and walked with him several blocks.  As they walked he told “Dodd” that he was on his way to attend a revival meeting, and asked him to go along.  Just then “Dodd” “took a bicker,” and in the lurch, he knocked a book out from under the arm of his companion.  It was a Bagster Bible!

But the two went on together to the meeting.  They went well to the front of the congregation, the guide steadying the wavering steps of the man he was leading.  “Dodd” sat down, and after a brief rest began to come to himself, and to realize where he was.  He hung his head for shame, and wept as the service progressed.  He was weak, unnerved, a wreck.  He looked at his shattered self, and groaned in spirit over the ruin that he saw.  He longed to break away from the terrible bondage that held him in its thrall.  He cried out in spirit, in an agony, for help in this time of his great need.

The sermon came on.  The minister seemed to “Dodd” to be talking straight at him. (Indeed, the gentleman had observed his entrance to the church, and frequently had him in mind as he made this point or that, in his remarks.) Under the enthusiastic eloquence of this man “Dodd’s” anguish increased till he was almost in a frenzy.  It was when he had reached this point that the speaker uttered the following words: