Little Abe | Page 9

which ran
gurgling and rippling along, moistening the great roots of this tree; it
was here, under its spreading boughs and gnarled trunk, Abe found a
place for prayer. Down on his knees he cast himself, and his first
utterance consecrated that spot as a closet, "God be merciful to me a
sinner!" He only needed to utter the first cry, others followed in rapid
and earnest succession, till all the restraints upon his soul were broken
asunder, and in an agony he wrestled for salvation. Hour after hour fled
by; twilight gave place to darkness; lights shone from the cottage
windows away on the hill-sides; distant watch-dogs answered each
other's unwearying bark; neighbours in the village yonder, stood
chatting by their open doors in the quiet night, and in many a cottage
home hard by, children and grown-up men sat quietly eating their last
meal before retiring to bed: but none of them knew that out on
Almondbury common, at the foot of a great rude tree, a man, one of
their neighbours, a sinner like themselves, was praying. No, no, they
didn't know: there is many a thing goes on of vital interest to us, which
even our nearest friends know nothing about; but there are other eyes,
invisible, which look down upon us from their starry heights seeing all
our ways. So they looked, while Abe wrestled for liberty. His chief
snare at this time was, that he was too bad for Christ to save; it was a

terrible thought to him, and had so much of seeming truth in it, that he
at times almost despaired; then again he remembered that he could not
be too bad for Christ to save; no, HE could save to the very uttermost
all that came unto Him; Abe tried to believe that with all his heart, and
as he struggled against his doubts and fears, faith grew stronger and
bolder, then in a moment the snare broke, the dark cloud over his soul
burst, and out from the cleft there came a voice, which thrilled his
whole being. "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the
Lord is risen upon thee." "Glory! Glory!! Glory!!!" burst from his
enraptured lips; his "light was come,"--what a light! a soul full, full of
the light of Divine smiles. No wonder Abe forgot everything else, in
the joys of that ecstatic moment. He leaped, laughed, wept shouted the
praises of God till his voice might have been heard far away over the
waste, as he turned his steps towards home that night. "Why, he's made
a bron new man o' me. I hardly know mysen. Hallelujah!"
He was not long in reaching home, nor long in letting them know,
when he got there, what a change had come over him. In he went, with
a face shining in all the brightness of his new-found joy. "He's made a
bron new man o' me! He's made a bron new man o' me. Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!"
The change in his whole manner and appearance was so great, that his
poor old father was at first alarmed lest he had gone wrong in his mind;
but Abe assured him he had just got right, and by God's help he meant
to keep so.
Oh, if Abe had just got right by the wonderful change which God had
wrought in him, (and who can doubt it?) how many there are in the
world who are all wrong, living the wrong life, striving for the wrong
things, going the wrong way, and running towards the wrong goal! Oh,
how many are spending this short life in the pursuit of things which are
worthless and worse; sacrificing their souls' best interests for the brief
indulgence of sinful tastes, or spending the rapidly accumulating years
of their life in dark indifference to eternal things!
The escape of one such sinner as Abe from the captivity in which the
ungodly are all held, may for a brief hour excite remark, perhaps a

desire for liberty, too, in the minds of some others; but these good
desires are often only of short duration, they die where they were born,
and almost as soon, and the soul returns to its former state; the sleeper
slumbers on; the drunkard drinks harder; the swearer blasphemes more
fiercely; the libertine indulges in greater excesses; and all these hordes
of ungodly men push on again down the broad and easy incline to the
pit of Hell. Do people know that the end of a sinful life is Hell? Do
people believe? Why, then, do they press their way down to such a
place?
CHAPTER IV.
Abe a New Character in the Village.
"Hast ta yeard th' news?" said one neighbour to another, on the morning
following