At the close of a gospel meeting one evening, a timid old lady felt that she ought to speak to a
couple of young men about their souls, but it was some time before she could find courage to do
it. She had been a believer from her childhood, but she was so reserved and naturally quiet, that
she shrank from doing anything that would bring her into the slightest prominence.

Finally, however, she made the effort, and trembling, she went to the young men and begged them
to turn to the Lord. Her nervousness made her talk to them in such an odd and hesitating way that
both of them laughed in her face and made no reply. This so humiliated her that she began to cry,
and returned to her seat, telling herself that she would never again attempt to speak with people
about their souls. She would leave that work to preachers and others who were gifted that way!

Now it happened that the two young men to whom she had spoken shared the same bedroom in
the house where they boarded. During that night one of them was awakened by hearing his friend
groaning, as if in great pain.

"What is the matter?" he asked.

"Oh," replied the other, "I am disgusted with myself for the way in which I treated that good old
lady. It was a hard thing for her to come and speak to us, and I hate myself for laughing in her
face as I did. I wouldn’t like anyone to act that way to my mother. She wanted to do me good, and
I should at least have been polite to her."

The other young man agreed with all of this, and seemed to feel it as much as the first. In a little
while they were both under deep conviction of sin. They knelt down by their beds and began to
pray. Before morning they were both soundly converted.

One of the two became a preacher. The other is today a successful business man in the town where
he was converted, and is an earnest, devoted Christian.

All this came about through God’s blessing as the result of a feeble effort of a timid woman, who
was laughed at in her first attempt to follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit and say a word for
Christ.

FRAGMENT
Speak just a word for Jesus,
Why should you doubt or fear?
Surely His love will bless it;
Someone will gladly hear.
K.O.B.