It was New Year's Eve. A large number of loafers and drinkers were crowded into the bar-room of The Wilson House to celebrate. Liquor flowed freely and everyone was loud and boisterous.
Among them was Samuel Russell, the local preacher's son and the black sheep of that family. He had drunk considerably but his reason was not yet impaired; it always took a lot to intoxicate him.
During a lull in the bar-room din Joe Allen entered. He was a hardened drinker, with a terrible hatred for all kinds of religious things.
"They're having a watch-night service over at the Gospel Hall," he shouted as he stamped the snow off his boots and called for a drink; "and I don't see why we can't have one here. We can each do something to give the meeting a lift. Brother Eldridge, will you please lead us in prayer?"
"We will now sing a hymn," intoned Allen, in a voice which so exactly impersonated a certain affected young preacher in the town that it brought roars of laughter from the crowd. Then he paraphrased one of the popular hymns of the day with profane variations, while the others joined in uproariously.
"Brother Samuel Russell, will now preach the sermon," announced Joe, "and we trust it will be for the spiritual good of us all."
It was a terribly disagreeable suggestion to young Russell and he tried in every way possible to evade it. But when he attempted to rush to the door, he was caught and stood up at the end of the room behind a table.
"Preach now, or treat all round!" they all shouted. As he had not sufficient money to do the treating he reluctantly consented to "say a few words;" but complained that he had no text.
"Try, 'The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak,' " shouted Joe Allen. So the miserable young man commenced.
He remarked that the spirit seemed very strong that night, and they would find that the flesh would, as a result, gradually grow weaker; that they were all on the broad road to death; and as a New Year was about to begin they had better make a break with the old sinful things and start a new era in their lives.
"Why, I believe the young fool's in earnest!" exclaimed Joe Allen in his usual loud, sneering voice.
If Sam Russell, the preacher's son, was not already in earnest, something in Joe's words and tone went far towards making him speak sincerely. He began to utter thoughts which had lain deep in his heart for years, but had been covered by his wicked careless life.
Things he had heard his old father say; fragments of prayers, which fell from his now dead mother's lips; Bible verses he had learned at Sunday school; all came back to him now with new force and meaning, faster than he could utter them. The other men looked at first resentful, then surprised, then interested. Even the most drunken seemed suddenly sobered, and soon all were listening in tense silence.
As Russell continued his "sermon," strange to say, he began to feel that his own words were having their effect on himself. He knew that they were true. Soon he was asking himself: "If they are true, why do you not get down on your knees and pray to a merciful and offended God for forgiveness?" And there and then in the midst of his impromptu "sermon," that is just what he did.
Among the company present, two were converted to Christ before they left the bar-room. They went home sober, serious and saved. And Joe Allen, though he did not make a public confession, was never again heard to say anything against "religion," or ever suggest another sermon!
"As I turned the corner on my way home," concluded Samuel Russell, the hero of this strange but true story, "I overtook my aged father who was feebly making his way home from the watch-night service. And I never experienced any happiness on this earth equal to that which I felt when I took his arm and told him that his prayers had been answered, and that I had found Christ.
"My father spent the rest of the night on his knees thanking God.
"That was my first sermon. I have preached many since, with varying success. I have served Him who that New Year's Eve snatched me like a brand from the burning, and made me His own forever."