while
professing to believe their Bibles were yet content to live just as they
would if there were no such book, had been one of the strongest
arguments of my sceptical companions; and I frequently felt at that
time, and said, that if I pretended to believe the Bible I would at any
rate attempt to live by it, putting it fairly to the test, and if it
failed to prove true and reliable, would throw it overboard altogether.
These views I retained when the LORD was pleased to bring me to
Himself; and I think I may say that since then I _have_ put GOD'S Word
to the test. Certainly it has never failed me. I have never had reason
to regret the confidence I have placed in its promises, or to deplore
following the guidance I have found in its directions.

Let me tell you how GOD answered the prayers of my dear mother and of my
beloved sister, now Mrs. Broomhall, for my conversion. On a day which I
shall never forget, when I was about fifteen years of age, my dear
mother being absent from home, I had a holiday, and in the afternoon
looked through my father's library to find some book with which to while
away the unoccupied hours. Nothing attracting me, I turned over a little
basket of pamphlets, and selected from amongst them a Gospel tract which
looked interesting, saying to myself, "There will be a story at the
commencement, and a sermon or moral at the close: I will take the former
and leave the latter for those who like it."

I sat down to read the little book in an utterly unconcerned state of
mind, believing indeed at the time that if there were any salvation it
was not for me, and with a distinct intention to put away the tract as
soon as it should seem prosy. I may say that it was not uncommon in
those days to call conversion "becoming serious"; and judging by the
faces of some of its professors, it appeared to be a very serious matter
indeed. Would it not be well if the people of GOD had always tell-tale
faces, evincing the blessings and gladness of salvation so clearly that
unconverted people might have to call conversion "becoming joyful"
instead of "becoming serious"?

Little did I know at the time what was going on in the heart of my dear
mother, seventy or eighty miles away. She rose from the dinner-table
that afternoon with an intense yearning for the conversion of her boy,
and feeling that--absent from home, and having more leisure than she
could otherwise secure--a special opportunity was afforded her of
pleadi