Page:They're a multitoode (1900).djvu/65

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he listened to the wonderful story. The stranger noticed him. At the close of his address he approached father. "Your name, honorable sir?" he asked. "My unworthy name is Lee," was the response. Quietly and earnestly the stranger looked into father's face. "Sir," he said, "I noticed you listening intently just now; may I respectfully ask you, Is there peace in your heart? Do you yet know the grace of God in forgiving sin?" Forgiving sin—that was what my new parents had sought for so long; and the missionary's words went home. My father made a confused answer, but bought a book the stranger recommended him, and hurried home lest it should be known that he had talked with the foreigner, and was in danger of eating the foreign doctrine.

That meeting was the turning-point in my father's life. The book he had bought pointed out a new and living way of obtaining release from sin. Many visits were paid to the chapel; and once the missionary came to our village and stayed at our house. Little by little my father's prejudices were overcome, and the new doctrine entered his heart. At first mother was bitterly opposed to it. To draw her away from her gods and win her to this persecuted faith was no easy task; but gradually the light dawned for her, too.

The neighbors got to hear of the visits to the chapel, and much petty annoyance was the result; but father's patience and sincerity disarmed suspicion, and his happiness was so manifest as to be a constant witness to the truth. They were happy days for me, and my new life was such a change from the old that it all