eternity, but that the Lord had mercy upon

him.

66

My poor old mother soon found a change in me," he says, " "and when she knew her boy was beginning to lie and swear, I thought it would have broken her heart. At night, when I went to rest, she watched, and seeing I got into bed without praying she came and fell down on her knees by the bedside, and pleaded with God to have mercy on her boy. I remember that I used to leave my work and go into the fields, and she has followed me for hours in a day, entreating me, with tears, to be a good boy; but all to no purpose, my heart was steeled against her counsel."

Having thus begun to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, the next step was quickly taken, and he stood in the way of sinners. As he grew up he increased in wickedness. While yet a youth he took to drinking and fighting with other lads, began to frequent balls and dances, and often spent his nights in drunken revelry with others more wicked than himself.

About this time God saved him from a fearful death. He was standing at the mouth of a pit; his foot slipped, and he fell over.

But He that watched Joseph in the pit took care of Richard Weaver. As he slipped down he instinctively clutched the rails of the tramway over the pit, and there he hung with a hundred yards of empty air beneath him. He truly says, "if I had fallen, I must have been dashed to pieces, and my soul to hell." But his cries brought a

rescue, and his life was saved.

man to his

Yet though

he had cried out in terror for fear of the double death of body and soul, this merciful escape produced no lasting impression.

He was fast becoming a diligent servant of Satan; spending night after night at the ale-house among men many years his seniors, who encouraged him in lying and swearing, and applauded him with " Well done, young Weaver!" when he had sung a song; for the singing which has now been consecrated to God's glory was first exercised in such unhallowed scenes as these. We find him, in his preaching, frequently alluding to those days in some such way as this:

"The ransomed of the Lord are a singing people, and the way to Zion is a singing way-They shall return to Zion with songs.' I was always fond of singing; I believe I was born singing. But the songs I used to

I re

sing are not the songs I love now. member when 'Old dog Tray' and 'Britons never shall be slaves' used to be my songs. O, my dear men, you sing,

"Britons never, never shall be slaves,'

what slaves you are to your own lusts, to the devil, to the landlord! I used to sing

"We wont go home till morning.'

The landlady loves to hear that. I've sung that five nights together, and spent fourteen pounds on one spree, and got turned out at the end, and she wouldn't trust me for a sixpence. But I've learned better songs than those. I'll tell you some I love now. Here's one:

"O happy day that fixed my choice

On Thee, my Saviour and my God:
Well may this glowing heart rejoice,
And tell its raptures all abroad.'

And here's another

"There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins ;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.

I do believe, I will believe,

That Jesus died for me,

That on the cross he shed his blood,
From sin to set me free.'"

With

One scene has enduringly fixed itself upon Richard's remembrance, causing him poig nant remorse whenever it recurs to his mind. He had been spending the night in noisy revelry at one of the hell-houses (as he now calls the beer-shops and gin-palaces,) and there had had a quarrel with a companion, which ended as usual in a fight. bruised and bleeding face he reached home as the day was breaking; and the first sound that fell upon his ears was the faithful mother praying God to save her son. This hurt him more, he says, than the blows he had received in the fight; it came home to his heart. As soon as his knock was heard, the poor old woman ran to the door, and the eyes that had been weeping in prayer for him were greeted by his disfigured and drunken face. When she had given him a chair, and washed away the dirt and blood, and ministered to him as he needed, she knelt down and prayed again that God, for the sake of Christ, would save her boy; and pleaded with the lad himself that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." But while she prayed the lad cursed,

swearing that he would murder her if she did not leave off praying and preaching to him. He went up to bed, but the mother's love constrained her to follow him; and kneeling down by his bedside, again she poured out the abundance of her complaint and grief before her heavenly Father. But no comforting human voice said to her, "Go in peace; and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him." Far otherwise; her reprobate son in a rage sprang out of bed, and grasping her gray hair, shook her while on her knees. She took hold of his arm with her trembling hands, and said, "This is hard work, Lord, to nurse and watch our children till they begin to be men, and then to hear them say. that they will murder us for asking thee to save them. But though thou slay me, yet will I trust in thee." And then turning to her son, she said, "I will never give thee up."

"Can a mother forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, she may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." Blessed be the loving Father, for a mother's