To David Bell it seemed to possess the awe of final
judgment.
Twice he opened his lips, and tried vainly to speak. The third
time he succeeded; but his voice sounded strangely in his own
ears. He gripped the back of the pew before him with his knotty
hands, and fixed his eyes unseeingly on the Christian Endeavor
pledge that hung over the heads of the choir.
"Brethren and sisters," he said hoarsely, "before I can say a
word of Christian testimony here to-night I've got something to
confess. It's been lying hard and heavy on my conscience ever
since these meetings begun. As long as I kept silence about it I
couldn't get up and bear witness for Christ. Many of you have
expected me to do it. Maybe I've been a stumbling block to some
of you. This season of revival has brought no blessing to me
because of my sin, which I repented of, but tried to conceal.
There has been a spiritual darkness over me.
"Friends and neighbors, I have always been held by you as an
honest man. It was the shame of having you know I was not which
has kept me back from open confession and testimony. Just afore
these meetings commenced I come home from town one night and
found that somebody had passed a counterfeit ten-dollar bill on
me. Then Satan entered into me and possessed me. When Mrs.
Rachel Lynde come next day, collecting for foreign missions, I
give her that ten dollar bill. She never knowed the difference,
and sent it away with the rest.
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