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IT

Chapter XVIII

THE QUITTER

In which a Moral is drawn from an Inci-
dent in the Life of another young Man

T was a sultry April night in Jerusalem. A young man had thrown himself upon his bed, and, tossing to and fro in the border-land between sleep and waking, heard the sound of hurrying footsteps and shouting in the narrow street. In the midst of the confused noise he distinguished a name, the name of Jesus; and then he heard the clash of weapons. Now Jesus was a friend of his; one whom he had learned to love and revere; and he suspected that the mob was bent upon molesting Him. He leapt from his couch, therefore, and, without standing on ceremony, ran out with nothing on but his sindon, or dressingrobe. On reaching the street, he followed the distant voices and overtook the rabble just as it was passing through the Eastern gate. A detachment of soldiers led the way, followed by a motley crowd of hangerson. From their excited cries he gathered that their purpose was to arrest Jesus. On they surged by the road leading downward from the city gate, over the ford of the Kedron and up the slope of Olivet to the Garden of Gethsemane. By the light of lanterns and torches they began searching for their victim among the olive-trees. A voice from the shadows asked, "Whom seek ye?" They answered, "Jesus of Nazareth." The voice said, "I am he. Yonder He stood

with His disciples grouped about Him; and as He
spoke a singular light seemed to radiate from His
face; whereat the leaders of the mob fell backward.
Again He asked, "Whom seek ye?" They said,
"Jesus of Nazareth." At this moment Judas, one of
the disciples, drew near and saluted his Master with
a kiss. It was the appointed signal. O treachery
most foul! And they seized upon Jesus, bound Him
with cords, and led Him away. But stranger than
the treachery of Judas was the cowardice of the other
disciples; for in sudden panic "they all forsook him
and fled!" The youth in the sindon, still unrecog-
nized by any in the excited throng, said bravely to
himself, "Yet will not I forsake him!" And while
thinking thus, he heard his name called. He was rec-
ognized by some of his associates who knew of his
attachment to Jesus. They gathered about him. They
laid hold upon him. Then struck with sudden fear,
leaving his sindon in their hands, he took to his heels!
Here the story ends; and here the moral begins.
The case of the nameless young man who played the
coward nineteen hundred years ago is not a matter of
consuming interest to us. We have to do with an-
other, who may be reading these lines just now. Let
us for convenience call him Lochinvar; for the city
is full of such as he, young men full of hope and
promise and ambition:

Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the West,
Through all the wide border his steed is the best;
And save his good broadsword he weapon has none,
He rides all unarmed and he rides all alone!

This story may be told in four chapters.

1

Chapter I.

Conversion. For be it remembered this is the story of a Christian youth. The day of Lochinvar's conversion was a red-letter day. How did the great change come to him?

I can not speak for this youth in particular, but for another youth I can. On an ever-memorable day in October, 1856, he knelt in a haymow with a young friend, who has been in heaven now these forty years. This friend, after praying, said, "Now, you pray"; and he tried; and as the stammering accents fell from his lips, all heaven dawned upon him. O happy day! That night he went to prayer-meeting and made his first confession. The meeting closed with the hymn, "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me"; and when it was over he walked alone through the village street singing quietly to himself, "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee!" It was a glorious night; never had the stars shone so brightly. At the next communion he joined the church, in company with others who were gathered in as the first-fruits of the great revival of '57. There were thirteen of them. Fortunate number! More than half have passed on to the Heavenly City, and all the others are faced that way.

But as to yourself, young man, the Lochinvar of our story, how were you converted? Did the light come suddenly like a sunburst as it did upon Saul of Tarsus while riding along the highway? Or did it come in some quiet moment when you were all alone, like the slow breaking of a summer day? Or perhaps it was as when one crosses the line of the tropics; so that you can not say just when or where it came

to pass. The how or when or where is indeed a matter of little moment, so long as one can say: "Tis done; the great transaction's done. I am my Lord's and he is mine!"

Chapter II. Temptation. But the time came when you found yourself "cabin'd, cribbed, confined" in the village home and resolved to seek the city. How much more was involved in that decision than you dreamed of!

You found yourself a solitary stranger in the hurrying throng. Alone and lonely in a very wilderness of souls! In your little hall bedroom, nostalgia seized upon you. You must have friends! And there your troubles began.

One of these friends was a frivolous youth, who on occasion made sport of spiritual things. Not being a Christian, he saw no harm in this; but little by little, the fine edge of your religion was worn away by it.

It has always seemed to me that the lamentable sin of Peter was due most largely to evil association. When Christ was led away from the Garden it is said that Peter "followed afar off"; and when they brought him into the Judgment Hall, Peter "was standing at the door without," and when at length he was admitted, he ventured only so far as the open court, where the servants and officers had made a fire of coals. As he was warming himself there, among the foes of Jesus, they began to make sport of him. A maid-servant pointed her finger at him, saying, "Surely thou art one of them"; Peter replied, "I do not understand thee." Another said, "Of a truth thou art of his disciples; thy speech betrayeth thee";

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