The revival into which were merged the special meetings at Dr. Guide's
church continued so long that religion became absolutely and
enthrallingly fashionable in Bruceton. Many drinking men ceased to
frequent the bar-room of the town, some old family feuds came to an
end, and several couples who should have been married long before were
joined in the holy bonds of wedlock.
Nevertheless, the oldest inhabitants agreed that never before had life
in Bruceton been so pleasant. Everybody was on good terms with
everybody else, and no one, no matter how poor or common, lacked
pleasant greetings on the street from acquaintances of high degree.
There had been some wonderful conversions during the meetings;
hard-swearing, hard-drinking men had abandoned their evil ways, and
were apparently as willing and anxious as any one else to be informed
as to how to conform their lives to the professions which they had
made. All the other churches sympathized with the efforts which Dr.
Guide's flock had been making, for they themselves had been affected to
their visible benefit.
Dr. Guide himself became one of the humblest of the humble. Always a
man of irreproachable life and warm heart, it never had occurred to him
that anything could be lacking in his church methods. But he also was a
man of quick perceptions: so, as the meetings went on, and he realized
that their impetus was due not at all to anything he had said or done,
but solely to the personal example of Sam Kimper, he fell into deep
thought and retrospection.
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