He replied, “I knew that there was something wrong about this, but I did not know what.  Thank you! thank you!” Then thoughtfully folding up the paper, he went out of the room.

The bell was rung for dinner, but he did not appear; and then for tea, but he declined taking any.  After we had gone to church, he found his way down and followed us there; and when the service was over he returned again to his room.  I was detained at the schoolroom that night, and until two o’clock in the morning, praying and talking with anxious souls, and returned home very tired.  Going up to bed I saw a light shining under my visitor’s door, and hesitating there a few moments, I heard him pleading earnestly for mercy.  I had a great mind to knock, but was afraid of disturbing him; so I prayed for him, and went to bed.

In the morning he came down smiling.  “Thank God,” he said, “it is all right now; I am saved.”  In his hand he held three letters—­one to his mother, one to his sister, and the other to a cousin, in which he invited them earnestly to come to Jesus.  Within the week all four were in our house, praising God for salvation.

As the vision indicated, we had nothing to do but hold the basket to him.  He accepted it, and the fruit for himself and his relatives.

Amongst other people and characters I met with at this time was a good, respectable man, who had a remarkable dream.  He came to me one day, after I had been speaking about Jacob’s ladder, and said that my sermon had reminded him of his dream.  I begged him to sit down and tell it to me.  He said, “I dreamt that I and nineteen other young men were living in a beautiful house and place, where we had everything provided fer us, and were free to enjoy ourselves as much as we pleased.  We all understood that the premises belonged to Satan and that we were his guests.  As such, we were permitted to take our pleasure upon two conditions—­one was, that we were not to pray; and the other that we were not to go away.  We smiled at this, and said it was not likely we should do the former, for we were not the praying kind; and less likely that we should do the latter, for why should we be such fools as to forego or give up our enjoyments?”

I thought to myself, What a wonderful dream that is and how true to reality!  What numbers of young men there are, and young women too, besides:  many other people, who hold their worldly happiness on this tenure, and of course from the same master.

Well, to continue the story of the dream, he said, “In the course of time we all became heartily tired of the place and its pleasures, and longed to get away, but we could not.  One of us made an attempt to do so, but he was captured and brought back, and made more of a slave than ever.  At last, I and a few others agreed to pray at a stated time in different places, in the hope that if one was caught, yet the rest might escape.  Upon a set day and time we began praying, each in his appointed