could
plainly see and understand the wrong for themselves before they were
beguiled and then bound by Satan's chain of evil habits. In this way he
helped the children to escape many a snare by which they might otherwise
have been caught unawares.

As the weeks sped by into months and John continued to unfold to the
tender questioning minds the hidden mysteries of the Bible, the adult
class became interested; and it was not long until they decided that
they needed him for their class more than the children did for theirs.
While he was teaching the advanced Bible class, his own understanding of
spiritual things was greatly broadened and strengthened, and he became
one on whom the entire congregation could lean and in whom they could
confide.

On one occasion when the lesson was in the epistle of James, John found
by reading the fifth chapter of that book that Jesus is just as able and
ready to heal those who are sick as He was to relieve sufferers in days
gone by and that any who are afflicted may pray expecting to be healed.
He quickly applied the Scripture to himself, and began to pray thus:

"Lord, thou seest how I am afflicted because of the sinful habits that
I formed in my childhood. Thou hast now taken from me the desire for
these things, but the suffering in my back and lungs is so intense.
Lord Jesus, heal me! Make me well, and I will work for Thee all the days
of my life!"

God answered that prayer and made him strong and well; then he could say
with the Psalmist, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his
benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy
diseases." Oh, the goodness of the Lord to John! He felt that he never
could cease praising Him.

The sad and lonely past, the days of his vain struggles to become
the man that his earthly father had desired him to be, could never be
compared to these days of happiness, the days when his desires to attain
to true manhood were being realized. His heart was lonely no longer.
He had a Friend who was dearer than a mother could have been. And he
felt that it is a wonderful privilege to be a member in Christ's body,
the church.

CHAPTER XI

How John Became a Man

As the news of John's wonderful conversion and of his work among the
people spread throughout the country, it reached the ears of Farmer Z,
in whose home John for the first time had attended family worship. The
kind-hearted man had never forgotten the boy who had e