k had illustrated and amplified all his
points he had consumed the major portion of an hour and a half of time.
During this time the entire audience was held spellbound by his simple
and earnest eloquence.

All this was strange theology to the members of Mount Olivet Church. It
was a stinging rebuke to their crooked and hypocritical lives.

CHAPTER IX

It was about the fifth night of the big holiness meeting at the arbor on
Post Oak Ridge. The country was stirred for miles around. People from
Dobbinsville and Ridgetown and neighboring villages were in regular
attendance. Scores of people had been converted. Many had been
sanctified. Numbers had been healed. The forces of sin were enraged.
Wicked men, grim with age, had melted like frost at noonday under the
mighty preaching of the Spirit-filled Evangelist. Old women with lying
hearts and gossiping lips had been stricken down in mighty and pungent
conviction for their sins. Young men, roguish and rough and
stout-hearted, had come to the old split-log altar and on penitent knees
had sobbed out before God the awful sins of their hearts and had gone
away happy with the new-found treasure of full salvation. Young ladies,
vain and haughty, had melted under the gospel messages and had come to
the feet of Jesus. Sweet children not yet in their teens had wept their
childish transgressions away and in their simple faith had accepted
Jesus as their Savior. Oh, grand and glorious gospel! How matchless is
its power.

Well, as I said, it was about the fifth night of the meeting. Preacher
Bonds was there, and had been the two nights preceding. He had regarded
all the manifestations of God's power in the meetings with affected
indifference. He said he hated holiness and would hate it as long as he
lived. On being asked what he thought of the miraculous conversions that
had taken place in the meeting, he remarked that he would not believe in
holiness even if Beelzebub himself were converted in the meetings.

Evangelist Blank said he thought this would be a splendid time to have a
testimony-meeting. So they had one, and he conducted it himself. Grandma
Gray was the first to testify. She stood trembling, and balanced herself
against the back of the old willow rocker. Around her saintly face there
seemed to circle a halo of glory. At first she only stood and wept. When
she had gained control of her emotions sufficiently to speak, she said,
"Oh, the love of God is unspeakable.