are led to Christ, many of them will be dragged into the
dens of vice; and instead of being a blessing they will be a curse to
society.

What is the trouble throughout Christendom to-day, in connection with
the Sabbath-school? It is that so many when they grow up to the age of
sixteen or so, drop through the Sabbath-school net, and that is the
last we see of them. There are many young men now in our prisons who
have been Sabbath scholars. The cause of that is that so few teachers
believe the children can be converted when they are young. They do not
labor to bring them to a knowledge of Christ, but are content to go on
sowing the seed. Let a teacher resolve that, God helping him, he will
not rest until he sees his whole class brought into the kingdom of
God; if he thus resolves he will see signs and wonders inside of
thirty days.

I well remember how I got waked up on this point. I had a large
Sunday-school with a thousand children. I was very much pleased with
the numbers. If they only kept up or exceeded that number I was
delighted; if the attendance fell below a thousand I was very much
troubled. I was all the time aiming simply at numbers. There was one
class held in a corner of the large hall. It was made up of young
women, and it was more trouble than any other in the school. There was
but one man who could ever manage it and keep it in order. If he could
manage to keep the class quiet I thought it was about as much as we
could hope for. The idea of any of them being converted never entered
my mind.

One Sabbath this teacher was missing, and it was with difficulty that
his substitute could keep order in the class. During the week the
teacher came to my place of business. I noticed that he looked very
pale, and I asked what was the trouble. "I have been bleeding at the
lungs," he said, "and the doctor tells me I cannot live. I must give
up my class and go back to my widowed mother in New York State." He
fully believed he was going home to die. As he spoke to me his chin
quivered, and the tears began to flow. I noticed this and said: "You
are not afraid of death, are you?" "Oh, no, I am not afraid to die,
but I will meet God, and not one of my Sabbath-school scholars is
converted. What shall I say?" Ah, how different things looked when he
felt he was going to render an account of his stewardship.

I was speechless. It was something new to me to hear any one speak in
that way. I said: "Suppose we go and see the