me his name, and it was a man
I had heard of before. "Why," said I, "I can't go and see your husband.
He is a booked infidel. I can't argue with him. He is a good deal older
than I am, and it would be out of place. Then I am not much for infidel
argument." "Well, Mr. Moody," she says, "that ain't what he wants. He's
got enough of that. Just ask him to come to the Saviour." She urged me
so hard and so strong, that I consented to go. I went to the office
where the judge was doing business, and told him what I had come for. He
laughed at me. "You are very foolish," he said, and began to argue with
me. I said, "I don't think it will be profitable for me to hold an
argument with you. I have just one favor I want to ask of you, and that
is, that when you are converted you will let me know." "Yes," said he,
"I will do that. When I am converted I will let you know"--with a good
deal of sarcasm.

I went off, and requests for prayer were sent here and to Fulton street,
New York, and I thought the prayers there and of that wife would be
answered if mine were not. A year and a half after, I was in that city,
and a servant came to the door and said: "There is a man in the front
parlor who wishes to see you." I found the Judge there; he said: "I
promised I would let you know when I was converted." "Well," said I,
"tell me all about it." I had heard it from other lips, but I wanted to
hear it from his own. He said his wife had gone out to a meeting one
night and he was home alone, and while he was sitting there by the fire
he thought: "Supposing my wife is right, and my children are right;
suppose there is a heaven and a hell, and I shall be separated from
them." His first thought was, "I don't believe a word of it." The second
thought came, "You believe in the God that created you, and that the God
that created you is able to teach you. You believe that God can give you
life." "Yes, the God that created me can give me life. I was too proud
to get down on my knees by the fire, and said, 'O God, teach me.' And as
I prayed, I don't understand it, but it began to get very dark, and my
heart got very heavy. I was afraid to tell my wife, and I pretended to
be asleep. She kneeled down beside that bed, and I knew she was praying
for me. I kept crying, 'O God, teach me.' I had to change my prayer, 'O
God save me; O God, take away this burden.' But it grew darker and
darker, and the load grew heavier and heavier. All the way to my office
I ke