My unknown visitor remained silent for a little time, and I could see that he was in tears.  At last he burst out and said, “I am sure you are right.  I came to try you upon the three great “R’s”—­’Ruin,’ ‘Redemption,’ and ‘Regeneration,’ and to see if you really meant what you preached.  Now I feel more confirmed in the truth and reality of the Scriptures.”  I thought I had been contending with an unbeliever all along, but instead of this I found that he was a man who scarcely ventured to think out what he believed to its ultimate result—­he believed God’s Word, but, like too many, alas! held it loosely.

This gentleman had experienced the truth of the three “R’s”—­that is to say, he had been awakened to know himself to be lost and ruined by the fall, redeemed by the blood of Christ, and regenerated by the Holy Ghost.  In other words, he had been converted, and he knew it.

I found out that at the time of his conversion he was a beneficed clergyman, and that, as such, not being responsible to any rector or vicar, he began to preach boldly the things he had seen.  His changed preaching produced a manifest result, and the people were awakened, even startled, and it would appear he was startled too.  Instead of thanking God and taking courage, he became alarmed at the disturbance amongst his congregation, and finding that his preaching made him very unpopular, he was weak enough to change his tone, and speak smooth things.  Thus he made peace with his congregation, and gained their treacherous good will; but as a living soul he could not be satisfied with this state of things.  He knew that he was not faithful to God or to his people; so being a man of competent means, he resigned his living, and retired into private life—­“beloved and respected,” as they said, for being a good and peaceable man.

At this distance of time I continue to thank God for his visit to me; it helped to fix the truth more firmly in my own soul, and to confirm me in the course in which I was working, and even contending, in the face of much opposition.  I must say that I have had no reason to waver in my conviction, and still feel that I would not, for ten times that man’s wealth, and twenty times the amount of good-will which he enjoyed (if he did enjoy it), stand in his place.

After long observation, I perceive that it is not the sword of the Word which offends congregations, for preachers are commended and promoted for declaring the whole truth, so long as it is judiciously put, and with “much discretion,” so as not to wound the prejudices of the people.  The majority of congregations rather like to see the sword drawn out to its full length and flashed with dexterity, and they do not always object to being hit with it, and even hit hard, so long as it is done with the flat of the sword; but they very quickly resent a touch with its edge, and more a thrust with its point.  They admire sheet lightning, which is beautiful, as