A Knight of the Nineteenth Century | Page 4

that could be said of him was that he
possessed fair abilities, and was still subject to the good and generous
impulses of youth. His traits and tendencies were, in the main, all
wrong; but he had not as yet become confirmed and hardened in them.
Contact with the world, which sooner or later tells a man the truth
about himself, however unwelcome, might dissipate the illusion, gained
from his mother's idolatry, that in some indefinite way he was
remarkable in himself, and that he was destined to great things from a
vague and innate superiority, which it had never occurred to him to
analyze.
But as the young man approached his majority his growing habits of
dissipation became so pronounced that even his willingly blind mother
was compelled to recognize them. Rumor of his fast and foolish
behavior took such definite shape as to penetrate the widow's
aristocratic retirement, and to pass the barriers created by the reserve
which she ever maintained in regard to personal and family matters.
More than once her son came home in a condition so nearly resembling
intoxication that she was compelled to recognize the cause, and she was
greatly shocked and alarmed. Again and again she said to herself:
"I cannot understand how a boy brought up in the careful Christian
manner that he has been can show such unnatural depravity. It is a dark,

mysterious providence, to which I feel I cannot submit."
Though young Haldane was aware of his mother's intolerance of
disreputable vices and follies, he was not prepared for her strong and
even bitter condemnation of his action. Having never been taught to
endure from her nor from any one the language of rebuke, he retorted
as a son never should do in any circumstances, and stormy scenes
followed.
Thus the mother was at last rudely awakened to the fact that her son
was not a model youth, and that something must be done speedily, or
else he might go to destruction, and in the meantime disgrace both
himself and her--an event almost equally to be dreaded.
In her distress and perplexity she summoned her pastor, and took
counsel with him. At her request the venerable man readily agreed to
"talk to" the wayward subject, and thought that his folly and its
consequences could be placed before the young man in such a strong
and logical statement that it would convince him at once that he must
"repent and walk in the ways of righteousness." If Haldane's errors had
been those of doctrine, Dr. Marks would have been an admirable guide;
but the trouble was that, while the good doctor was familiar with all the
readings of obscure Greek and Hebrew texts, and all the shades of
opinions resulting, he was unacquainted with even the alphabet of
human nature. In approaching "a sinner," he had one formal and
unvarying method, and he chose his course not from the bearing of the
subject himself, but from certain general theological truths which he
believed applied to the "unrenewed heart of man as a fallen race." He
rather prided himself upon calling a sinner a sinner, and all things else
by their right names; and thus it is evident that he often had but little of
the Pauline guile, which enabled the great apostle to entangle the
wayward feet of Jew, Greek and Roman, bond and free, in heavenly
snares.
The youth whom he was to convince and convert by a single broadside
of truth, as it were, moved in such an eccentric orbit, that the doctor
could never bring his heavy artillery to bear upon him. Neither coaxing
nor scolding on the part of the mother could bring about the formal

interview. At last, however, it was secured by an accident, and his
mother felt thereafter, with a certain sense of consolation, that "all had
been done that could be done."
Entering the parlor unexpectedly one afternoon, Haldane stumbled
directly upon Dr. Marks, who opened fire at once, by saying:
"My young friend, this is quite providential, as I have long been
wishing for an interview. Please be seated, for I have certain things to
say which relate to your spiritual and temporal well-being, although the
latter is a very secondary matter."
Haldane was too well bred to break rudely and abruptly away, and yet
it must be admitted that he complied with very much the feeling and
grace with which he would take a dentist's chair.
"My young friend, if you ever wish to be a saint you must first have a
profound conviction that you are a sinner. I hope that you realize that
you are a sinner."
"I am quite content to be a gentleman," was the brusque reply.
"But as long as you remain an impenitent sinner you can