when it came
right down to plain looking into another man's soul and telling what he
was thinking about, and what he was going to do next, Pat was all there.
That was what made him such an excellent football-player. When he met
his opponent he could always size him up and tell just about what kind
of plays he was going to make, and know how to prepare for them. Pat was
no fool.

That was a most unusual service. The minister read the story of the
martyr Stephen, and the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, taken from the
sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth chapters of Acts. It was brief and
dramatic in the reading. Even Tennelly was caught and held as Burns read
in his clear, direct way that made Scripture seem to live again in
modern times.

"I have asked my friend Mr. Courtland to tell you the story of how he
met Jesus one day on the Damascus road," said Burns, as he closed the
Bible and turned to Courtland, sitting still with bowed head just behind
him.

Courtland had made many speeches during his college days. He had been
the prince among his class for debate. He had been proud of his ability
as a speaker, and had delighted in being able to hold and sway an
audience. He had never known stage fright, nor dreaded appearing before
people. But ever since Burns had asked him if he would be willing to
tell the story of the Presence to his people in the church before he
left for his theological studies, Courtland had been just plain
frightened. He had consented. Somehow he couldn't do anything else, it
was so obviously to his mind a "call"; but if had been a coward in any
sense he would have run away that Saturday afternoon and got out of it
all. Only his horror of being "yellow" had kept him to his promise.

Since ascending to the platform he had been overcome by the audacity of
the idea that he, a mere babe in knowledge, a recent scorner, should
attempt to get up and tell a roomful of people, who knew far more about
the Bible than he did, how he found Christ. There were no words in which
to tell anything! They had all fled from his mind and it was a blank!

He dropped his head upon his hand in his weakness to pray for strength,
and a great calm came to his soul. The prayer and Bible-reading had
steadied him, and he had been able to get hold of what he had to say as
the story of the young man Saul progressed. But when he heard himself
being introduced so simply, and knew his time had come, he seemed to
hear the words he had