The One Woman | Page 3

dirty saloon on the
East Side. I was dead--dead to shame, dead to honour, dead to love,
dead to the memory of life. I was so low I found scant welcome in
hell's own port, the saloon. They knew me and dreaded to see me. I had
served time in prison, and when I drank I was an ugly customer for the
bravest policeman to meet alone.
"Ragged, dirty, blear-eyed, besotted, I was seated on a whisky barrel
wondering how I could beat the barkeeper out of a drink, when a
sweet-faced boy came up and handed me a card of this church's
services.

"I don't know how it happened, but all of a sudden it came over
me--where I was, and what I was, and what I once had been--a boy
with a face like that, with a Christian father and mother who loved me
as their own life, and then how I had gone down, down in drink from
ditch to ditch and gutter to gutter to the bottomless pit.
"I jumped down off that whisky barrel and washed my face. That night
I found this church, and the Spirit of God, here in one of these
after-meetings, led my soul to the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ. I
looked up into His beautiful face--the fairest among ten thousand--the
one altogether lovable, and I heard Him say, as to the thief of old, 'This
day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.'
"From that day, hour and minute I've been a living man, a miracle of
grace and love. I have not touched a drop of liquor since, and these
hands, which had not earned an honest cent for years, have handled
thousands of dollars of other people's money and not one penny has
ever stuck to them. I am the living witness that God's spirit can raise
man from the dead, and Jesus Christ keep him unto life!"
He sat down, crying.
Gordon lifted his hand and said, "Let us bow our heads a moment in
silent prayer while every heart opens the door to the Spirit."
At the close of the service he passed the man who had spoken and
pressed his hand.
"Ah, Edwards, old boy, you knew I needed that to-night. God bless
you!"
Jerry Edwards smiled and nodded.
"A lady wishes to speak to you in the study, sir," the sexton said to him.
He looked around for his wife to tell her to wait, but she had gone.
His study opened immediately into the auditorium at the foot of the

pulpit stairs. As he entered, a young woman of extraordinary beauty,
elegantly and quietly dressed, advanced to meet him and shook his
hand in a friendly, earnest way.
"Doctor, I've waited patiently to-night to see you," she said. "I've been
coming to hear you for six months, and yet I have never told you how
much good you have done me; and I specially wish to tell you how
sorry I am that my stupid weakness to-night interrupted you. I think I
came near fainting. It was so close and hot--and, pardon me if I say it--I
suddenly got the insane idea that you were about to faint in the pulpit."
"Well, that is strange," interrupted Gordon, looking at her with
deepening interest. "You have the gift of the sympathetic listener. I
noticed no disturbance, but I did come near fainting. I have had a hard
day--one of fierce nerve-strain."
She looked at him curiously.
"Then I don't feel so badly, now that I know my idea was not incipient
insanity," she said, smiling. "I've quite made up my mind to send back
to Kentucky for my forgotten church-letter. I've seen all fashionable
society in New York can offer and I am weary of its vacuity. I've been
disillusioned of a girl's silly dreams, but there are some beautiful ones
in my heart I've held. I can't tell you how your church and work have
thrilled and interested me. I have never heard such sermons and prayers
as yours. You give to the old faiths new and beautiful meaning. Every
word you have spoken has seemed to me a divine call."
"And you cannot know how cheering such a message is to me
to-night," he thoughtfully replied, studying her carefully.
"I never could summon courage to come up and speak to you before,
but your sermon this morning swept me off my feet. It was so simple,
so heartfelt, so sincere, and yet so close in its touch of life, I felt that
you had opened your very soul for me to see my own in its experiences.
It will be a turning point in my life."
She spoke with a quiet seriousness, and Gordon felt that he had never

seen a face