One winter, several years ago, there was a great deal of religious interest in a certain town, and among those who joined the church was Allie Forsyth, a little fellow twelve years of age. His mother was a widow, and had removed, four years before, from their home in Vermont to this town in Wisconsin.
On the evening of the day when he joined the church, Allie was sitting in the twilight with his mother, and presently she said to him: ―
“Allie, tell me what led you to want to be a Christian. Was it your home teachings, your lessons in Sabbath-school, the regular preaching of the pastor or has it all come through the influence of the revival meetings?”
Looking up into his mother’s face, he replied: — “Mamma, it was none of these. But do you remember, when we were coming from St. Albans to live here, that I wanted to go on the engine and ride with the engineer? You were afraid to let me, till the conductor, whom you knew well, told you that the engineer was a remarkable man, and that I would be just as safe on the engine with him as in the parlor car with you.”
His mother assured him that she remembered the circumstance very well.
“Then,” continued Allie, “you allowed me to ride on the engine, where I was to stay till you or the conductor came to me. When about ready to start from the station where I first got on the engine, the engineer knelt down for just a little bit, and then got up and started his locomotive.
“I asked him many questions about its different parts, and about the places and things which we passed by, and he was very patient in answering. Soon we stopped at another station, and he knelt down again just for a moment before we started. As he did this often, I tried to see what he was doing, and finally, after we had passed a good many stations, I made up my mind to ask him. He looked at me very earnestly and said: — “My little lad, do you pray?
“I replied, Oh yes, sir! I pray every morning and evening.”
“Well, my dear boy,” said he, God has allowed me to hold a very responsible place here. There are, perhaps, two hundred lives now on this train entrusted to my care. A little mistake on my part, a little failure to do all my duty, a little neglect, a little inattention to signals, might send all or many of these two hundred souls into eternity. So at every station I kneel just a short while, and ask the Master to help me, and to keep from all harm until I reach the next station the many lives He has put into my hands. All the years I have been on this engine He has helped me, and not a single human being of the thousands that have ridden on my train have been harmed. I have never had an accident.’
“I have never before mentioned what he said, but almost daily I have thought about him, and resolved that I would become a Christian too.”
For four years the life and words of this praying engineer had been constantly present with this lad, and became at length the means of leading him into a Christian life.