The Mean Man and Conversion
Henry Ward Beecher says of mean men: I have great hope of the wicked man—slender hope of a mean one. A wicked man may be converted and become a prominent saint. A mean man ought to be converted six or seven times, one right after the other, to give him a fair start, and put him on an equality with the bold, wicked man! I have known men who thought the object of conversion was to cleanse them as a garment is cleansed, and that when they are converted they were to be hung up in the Lord’s wardrobe, the door of which was to be shut, so that no dust could get at them. A coat that is not used, the moths eat; and a Christian who is hung up so that he shall not be tempted, the moths eat him. And they have poor food at that!