d on him, saying, If
thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering, rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of
our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto
Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus
said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in
paradise.'"

"Do you think, Betty," asked Johnson very earnestly, "I should go to be
with Jesus, if I were to die now? Oh, if this pain's so bad, what must
hell-fire be?"

"Fayther," replied his daughter quietly, "the Lord's spared you for
summat. I prayed him to spare you, and he'll not cast you off now as
he's heard my prayer. If you take him at his word, he'll not tell you
as you're mistaken--he'll not say he hasn't pardon in his heart for
you."

"I believe it, I will believe it," said the poor man, the tears running
down his cheeks. "O God, be merciful to me a sinner, for Jesus Christ's
sake,"--there was a pause; then, after a while, he added, "I think as
he'll hear me, Betty."

"I am sure he will," she answered; "but you must lie still, fayther, or
maybe you'll do yourself harm. The doctor'll be here just now."

It was a night of darkness and terror, yet even on that sad night there
was glorious light which man's eye could not see, for there was joy in
the presence of the angels of God over at least one penitent sinner in
Langhurst. But how full of gloom to most! Many had been cut off in the
midst of their sins, and those who mourned their loss sorrowed as those
who have no hope. Two of poor Johnson's persecutors were suddenly
snatched away in their impenitence and hardness of heart, a third was
crippled for life. Yet the drink kept firm hold of its victims--the
very night of the explosion the "George" gathered a golden harvest.
Death in its ghastliest forms only seemed to whet the thirst for the
drink. At one house, while the blackened corpse lay in its clothes on
the outside of the bed, preparatory to its being laid out, the dead
man's widow and her female helpers sat refreshing themselves, and
driving away care, with large potations of tea, made palatable with rum,
and that so near the corpse that any one of the party could have touched
it without rising from her seat.

The shock caused by the explosion was a terrible one, but its stunning
effects passed away, only t