Page:Teeftallow-1926.djvu/151

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Teeftallow
141

was shouting at the top of his lungs. He picked up the preacher's text, after the manner of an experienced deacon, and prayed that all the men and women in Irontown would not harden their hearts to the sweet impulses of the spirit. "O God," implored the cashier in a loudening voice, "help us not to harden our hearts! Help us to come to your altar like little tender-hearted children and bless us and save us!" [Interruptions of "Amen! Grant it, Lord" from the minister.] "You know we are sinful, Lord, You know we are steeped in wickedness! All of us are, but I pray especially for the young men of Irontown! They are sowing their wild oats, O God, and what a harvest they shall reap! They lie heavy on the hearts of their mothers; and they lie heavy on our hearts, too, O God! Save them from their sins!" ["So be it! Grant it, Father"!] "Keep them from a sinner's hell!" ["Do that, Lord, oh, save them!"] "And God, we have a man in our midst whose heart we pray for you to move. He doesn't believe in you, God! O, it's a pitiful thing for a son not to believe in his Father!" ["Help him believe!"] "It's A. M. Belshue, Lord; Belshue would be such a good man, Lord, if he could only come to you as a little child comes to his father! He's a money-making man, Lord, a moral man, but no man can be saved through his own works, but only by the precious blood of Christ!" ["Amen! Amen!"] "And there is Tobe Sanders, who kain't keep sober, and Caly Stegall, who bootlegs liquor, and my own brother-in-law, who has a secret sin he can't overcome. Help him, Lord! Put your great arms about him till he gains strength to be a man!" ["O, Lord, help Perry Northcutt's brother-in-law."] "And there's the boys in the garage, shooting craps, telling smutty yarns, using your name in vain; help 'em get rid of these dirty, filthy, indecent ways! They're good boys at heart, but their eyes are blinded by their wanton youth!" ["O Lord, what a blindness!"] "Help them; help us all, we need it. We are your feeble children. Do not destroy Irontown; save us, save our nation, save our President, we ask in the name of our blessed