The audience had begun to leave the hall, when a man pressed towards the speaker and exclaimed: "Well! Well! Blake. I am surprised to find a man of your culture carried away by anything so archaic as the Bible. When at some tiny cottage window behind the geraniums we see an old lady reading her Old Testament, there the old Book finds a place to which by nature it belongs. As for me, I have long since abandoned all belief in it."
"What if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar."
"Do you mean... Do you mean to call me a...?"
"No, sir," interrupted Blake, "I mean that God speaking through His Apostle, calls you a liar."
"But I do not believe your Apostle or your holy Scriptures. What is more, I do not believe there is a God."
" 'The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God!' You are a fool twice over, for you have not only said, in your heart, 'There is no God,' but you have said it in the hearing of these people. The eternal and omnipotent God says here in His Word that you are a fool."
At this point the now exasperated man hastily withdrew.
As he walked to his apartment, however, it seemed as though every step, echoed the words:
"A liar — a fool — a liar — a fool."
He went to bed, but could not sleep. He could not read. The Tower clock struck three. Hastily dressing he set out for a brisk walk in the moonlight. As he stood on the cliff at the back of the Parliamentary Library viewing the magnificent moonlit panorama, his conscience whispered:
"Has not the old Book rung true?"
In the hours that followed the angels beheld him prostrate before God on the floor of his room, under the deep conviction of sin.
Nine o'clock the next morning found him knocking at the door of the apartment occupied by Mr. Blake.
"Hello!" said Blake in his usual cheery voice. "Have you laid down the weapons of your warfare at the feet of Jesus Christ? Have you capitulated?"
That's what I've come for," said the unhappy man. "What a wretched night I've had!"
"Good!" said Blake, "I prayed that you might—and that it might be followed by an eternity of happy, happy days." What happened when they knelt side by side the—Vice Chancellor with his arm around the Honorable Member of Parliament—as together they entered into the presence of God, is too sacred for words. It will suffice to say that the man was saved that morning.