The son of a gentleman in H— was on the headlong road to ruin. Ashamed of his folly and weakness, he would seek every excuse to get away from home, in order to hide from loving eyes and to indulge unchecked his depraved appetite.
A short time since he went down to New York for this purpose, and one morning, after a carousal, found himself in a most irritable and wretched condition. Being at a hotel, he called for his usual paper before leaving his bed.
Through some mistake, or, as men say, "by accident," the wrong paper was brought to him. In anger he threw it aside; but his eyes caught a sentence of one of Moody's sermons in it which went to his conscience. An irresistible fascination caused him to read every line of the sermon. He read and re-read it.
The fever of his soul impelled him to rise and dress, in order to seek help from Mr. Moody. But here his religious training suggested, "I want God's help, not Mr. Moody's, and that I can have here as well as anywhere. I will not leave this room until I get it.”
The day wore away in anguish, and the next day found him still battling with his pride, his fierce appetite and passions, yet crying with the strength of despair unto God.
The third day he walked the earth a free man. He had accepted Christ as his Savior, the One who had borne his many sins, on Calvary's cross.
He now lifted up his head in the dignity of a son of God, a joint-heir with Jesus Christ, a member of the royal family of heaven. He felt himself to be a conqueror through Him who loved him. Lifted up into a higher plane, how far off and small appeared those things which a few days before had occupied him wholly! He left his room, the room which he had entered as a slave to Satan, and hastened to telegraph home, "Expect me tonight with good news." Good news, indeed! Did the father ever hear any so joyful as that breathed forth in the happy hour of his son's return? And when, the next evening, he heard the former prodigal avow the Lord to be his God, must not this hymn have seemed written just for this occasion?
"Ring the bells of heaven! there is joy today, For the wanderer now is reconciled; Yes, a soul is rescued from his sinful way, And is born anew, a ransomed child!
"Glory, glory! how the angels sing!
Glory, glory! how the loud harps ring!
'Tis the ransomed army, like a mighty sea,
Pealing forth the anthem of the free!”