Teacher I want to tell you how I got my first impulse to work only for the conversion of sinners. For a long time after my conversion I didn't accomplish anything. I hadn't thought enough about this personal work.
The change came in 1860. One of the teachers in the Sunday School was a pale, delicate, young man. I knew his deep devotion to God and gave him the worst class in the school. They were all girls, and they kept fooling around in the school-room and disrupting the lessons, yet this young man had better success than anyone else.
One Sunday he was absent and I tried to teach the class. I couldn't do anything with them—they were completely unconcerned about their souls. Well, early the following morning the young man came to the store where I worked and, pale faced, threw himself down on some boxes.
"What's the matter?" I asked.
"I have been bleeding at the lungs, and they have said that I will die," he said.
"But you are not afraid to die?" I questioned. "No," said he, "I am not afraid to die, but I
have got to stand before God and give an account of my stewardship, and not one of my Sunday-School pupils have been brought to Jesus. I have failed to bring one, and haven't any strength to do it now"
He was so anxious that I got a carriage and we called at the homes of every one of his scholars. To each one he said as best as his faint voice would let him, "I have come to just ask you to come to the Savior," and then he prayed as I had never heard before.
For ten days he labored in that way, sometimes walking to the nearest houses, and at the end of that ten days every one of that large class had come to Christ.
The night before he went away (for the doctors had said that he must hurry to the South). We met together to sing and pray for him.
It was a beautiful night in June when he left and I went down to the train to help him. Every one of the Sunday school girls was gathered there and the station was a joyful, yet tearful place as we said farewell. At last the gong sounded and, supported on the platform, the dying man shook hands with each one, and whispered, "I will meet you in heaven."