All He Knew | Page 8

him;
then he tried to look around, but there was so much hard curiosity in
each face upon which his eyes fell that he speedily looked down again
and leaned heavily upon the back of the bench upon which his hands
rested. Finally he cleared his throat and said,--
"Ladies an' gentlemen, I've been in State prison nearly two years. I
deserved it. Lots of folks talked kind to me before I went; some of 'em's
here to-night, an' I thank 'em for what they done. A good many of 'em
talked religion to me, but the more they talked the less I understood 'em.

I guess 'twas my fault; I never had much head-piece, while some of
them had. But when I was in the prison a man come along that talked to
me about Jesus like I never was talked to before. Somehow I could
understand what he was drivin' at. He made me feel that I had a friend
that I could foller, even if I didn't keep up with him all the time, owin'
to things in the road that I hadn't knowed about. He told me if I'd
b'lieve in Jesus as I b'lieved in Andrew Jackson, I'd pull through in the
course of time. I've been tryin' to do it, an' while I was in the jail I got
lots of new idees of how I ort to behave myself, all from a little book
that man left me, that didn't have nothin' in it but Jesus' own words. I'm
a-goin' to keep on at it, an' if I can't live that way I'm goin' to die
a-tryin'. I b'lieve that's all I've got to say, ladies and gentlemen."
There was an awkward silence for a moment after Sam sat down. The
minister in charge of the meeting said afterwards that the remarks were
not exactly what he had expected, and he did not know, at such short
notice, how to answer them. Suddenly a hymn was started by a voice
which every one knew, though they seldom heard it in prayer-meeting.
It belonged to Judge Prency's wife, who for years had been the
mainstay of every musical entertainment which had been dependent
upon local talent. The hymn began,--
Am I a soldier of the cross,
and the assemblage sang it with great force and spirit. The meeting was
closed soon afterwards; and as Sam, in spite of an occasional kind
greeting, was endeavoring to escape from the hard stare of curious eyes,
Mrs. Judge Prency, who was the handsomest and most distinguished
woman in the village, stopped him, grasped his hand, and said,--
"Mr. Kimper, you gave the most sensible speech I ever heard in an
experience meeting. I'm going to believe in you thoroughly."
Deacon Quickset, who was closely following his new charge, listened
with fixed countenance to the lady's remark. He followed Sam from the
church, snatched him away from the wife who had joined him, and
said,--

"Samuel, that experience of yours rather disappointed me. It wasn't all
there. There was something left out,--a good deal left out."
"I guess not, deacon. I said all I knowed."
"Then you ought to know a good deal more. You've only got at the
beginning of things. No church'll take you into membership if you don't
believe more than that."
"Maybe I'll know it in the course of time, deacon, if I keep on
a-learnin'."
"Maybe you will,--if you do keep on. But you didn't say anything about
your hope of salvation, nor the atonement, nor your being nothing
through your own strength."
"I couldn't say it if I didn't know about it," Sam replied. "All my
troubles an' wrong doin's have come of not livin' right: so right livin' is
all I've had time to think about an' study up."
"You need to think about dying as well as living," said the deacon.
"Him that took care of another thief that was dyin' 'll take care of me if
I get in that fix, I guess, if I hang on to Him tight."
"Not unless you hang on in the right way," said the deacon. "You must
believe what all Christians believe, if you want to be saved. You don't
feel that you're prepared to die, do you?"
"I felt it a good many times, deacon, when I was in that jail; an'
sometimes I half wished I could die right away."
"Pshaw!" muttered the deacon. "You don't understand. You're groping
in darkness. You don't understand."
"That's so, deacon, if you mean I don't understand what you're drivin'
at."
"Don't you feel Christ in you the hope of glory?"

"I don't know what you mean, deacon?"
"Don't you feel that a sacrifice has been made to atone for your sins?"
"I can't follow you, deacon."