Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 December 1876 — The Blasphemer. [ARTICLE]

The Blasphemer.

One rainy evening, while the doors of the Tabernacle were closed, during the reading of the Scriptures, a man and his wife came to one of the doors and sought admittance. Kinding it locked, the man rapped loudly and disturbed the meeting; and one of the janitors stepped to the door, opened it and, supposing that there was a crowd and that their entrance would drown Mr. Moody’s voice, opened the door far enough to address the man, and informed him that the doors could not be opened until the conclusion of the reading. This so incensed the man that he began to curse and swear at an appalling rate. The janitor, on opening the door a little wider, and seeing that only two were waiting and that it was raining quite hard, told them to step inside and wait until Mr. Moody finished reading, when they would be shown to a seat.’ No sooner did the man enter than he turned on the janitor and began to heap upon him curses and abuse, and taking a seat near the door with his wife, refused, after the reading, to be shown a better one. The janitor, who is a Christian, thought that he would watch the effect of the sermon upon the blasphemer. At first he seemed to be utterly indifferent, but gradually he began to look at the speaker for a moment at a time, and before the discourse was finished was leaning eagerly forward in wrapt attention. At the close of the sermon, during Mr. Moody’s prayer, he bowed his head on the chair in front of him. When Mr. Moody, in his prayer, said, “ O God, hear the prayers of that wife for her unsaved husband,” the wife laid her handupon his shoulder, and he sobbed aloud; and at the close of the prayer, when the invitation was given for all who were anxious to retire to the inquiry-room, he was the first to rise and enter, followed by his wife and the prayers of the janitor. What was the result we cannot tell; but we are well-nigh positive that there is now a family altar in that home, and he who less than a week ago was a bold blasphemer' is now an humble worshipper. — watchman (Chicago).