d
unscrupulous politician in that part of the State. He simply accepted
this as one of his crosses, bore it bravely, and went on perfecting his
remarkably perfect methods for excluding all voters who did not vote
for his candidate. He would confide in William sundry temptations he
had, enlisted his sympathy and admiration because of the struggle he
professed to have in regard to strong drink, although he never actually
touched intoxicants, but never once did he mention or admit his real
besetting sin. He was willing to repent of everything else, but not of
his politics. And St. Paul himself could not have dragged him across
the Democratic party line in that county, not even if he had showed him
the open doors of Heaven.

I do not know what is to become of such Christians. The country is
full of them, and if they cause as many panics and slumps and anxieties
in the next world as they do in this one we shall have a lot more
trouble there than we have been led to believe from reading Revelations.

CHAPTER XIII

WILLIAM WRESTLING WITH TRAVELING ANGELS

I have had little to say about the joy of William, although he was one
of the most joyful men I have ever known. The reason is I never
understood it. His joy was not natural like mine (in so far as I had
any)--it was supernatural, and not at all dependent upon the actual
visible circumstance about him. It used to frighten me sometimes to
face the last month before quarterly conference with only two dollars,
half a sack of flour and the hock end of a ham. But then it was that
William rose to the heights of a strange and almost exasperating
cheerfulness. He could see where he was going plainer. Our extremity
gave him an opportunity to trust more in the miracles of providence,
and that afforded him the greatest pleasure. He was never weary of
putting his faith to the test. He was like a strong wrestling Jacob,
going about looking for new angels to conquer. And I am bound to
confess that his Lord never really failed him, although he sometimes
came within five minutes of doing so.

One Sabbath, I remember, he had an appointment at a church ten miles
distant where he was to begin a protracted meeting. At the last moment
his horse went lame. It so happened that some weeks previous William
had overreached himself in a horse trade. He had swapped an irritable
crop-eared mare for a very handsome animal who proved to have a gravel
in one of his fore feet. T