A Wine-drinking Bishop Converted.
The Bishop of Newcastle lately related how he became a total abstainer. We give the narrative in his own words: "There was a drunkard in my parish in Lancashire, and I used to do all I could to get that man to give up drink, and he turned upon me and said, 'Mr. Wilberforce, do you think I am going to give up my beer if you are not going to give up your wine?' There was no argument or logic in that, but somehow or other it stuck to me, and when I was saying my prayers, time after time it came upon me, 'cannot I do something for that man's soul.' There is something far more powerful, and far better worth than any argument or logic. I care for the bond of sympathy. I care for the hand being locked in the hand of another man. I care to stoop down if you like, into the mud if you like, careless of being bespattered by the mud, if I may lift up a man; and when I went down to that man and said, 'I have given it up,' the man said, 'And so will I.' That man brought in many others."